Around the Year in 52 Books discussion
This topic is about
The Hidden Oracle
The Hidden Oracle, by Rick Riordan
date
newest »
newest »
What?! I loved Apollo! I loved reading from his POV. It was so funny and cracked me up. I really appreciate that Apollo is very accepting of his son and that he's openly bisexual himself. I think it's even more awesome that this is in a middle grade book.
Sophie wrote: "What?! I loved Apollo! I loved reading from his POV. It was so funny and cracked me up. I really appreciate that Apollo is very accepting of his son and that he's openly bisexual himself. I think..."
Oh yeah, I'm definitely on board with the message. I just wish it hadn't been so blatantly spelled out and shoved in my face, you know? Again, I get it, it's a middle grade book, and middle schoolers sometimes need things to be spelled out for them, but I just feel like it undermines the meaning a bit.
One of my friends is gay, and while he knows he's lucky that his parents have accepted him, he can't help but wish they weren't always like, "We're so proud of our GAY son." and "How's your GAY relationship going? When will you introduce us to your GAY boyfriend?" and like, on a weekly basis, they're tell him, "You know we're totally cool with you being gay. We will always love you." Again, this is way better than them NOT being accepting, but he wishes that they didn't qualify everything he did as "gay"; he's studying to be a doctor, but if you talk to his parents, you'd think he was studying to be a gay doctor haha
Anyways, this just reminded me of that. Just a small quibble, and it was really just the one passage. I'm sure they're much more low-key about it for the rest of the book. It's still a great message =)
omg when Apollo said "As you wish,I said."Lets find Percy Jackson."I screamed with joy honestly i was wishing so much that Percy would make an appearance in this book and when he did I screamed with joy
Around the Year in 52 Books
Books mentioned in this topic
The Sword of Summer (other topics)The Blood of Olympus (other topics)
By making him human.
After angering his father Zeus, the god Apollo is cast down from Olympus. Weak and disorientated, he lands in New York City as a regular teenage boy. Now, without his godly powers, the four-thousand-year-old deity must learn to survive in the modern world until he can somehow find a way to regain Zeus's favour.
But Apollo has many enemies - gods, monsters and mortals who would love to see the former Olympian permanently destroyed. Apollo needs help, and he can think of only one place to go . . . an enclave of modern demigods known as Camp Half-Blood.
I am reading this for week 52 A book published in 2016. I hadn't originally planned on doing this book for that week, nor doing that week this week, but I've fallen behind, and that's one of the books I have on hand from the library, and it just happens to fit one of the weeks, so there we go.
I'm about halfway through. I do like the book better overall than The Sword of Summer, which I read earlier this year, and which is happening concurrently with this book, but that's probably because I'm way more into Greek mythology than Norse mythology. But I really really really hate Apollo. I'm guessing that's kinda supposed to be the point, and that part of his character journey will to become more likeable and less self-centred, but ughhh...
SPOILERS FOR The Blood of Olympus
(view spoiler)[Okay, so we learn that Nico is gay. That is totes cool and amazing. We see him and Will in this one, and so far they're a cute bickering couple. Again, no problems there. But then there's like, an entire page about how "Oh yay, my son found someone to love. Love love love." with nothing of it being gay love, only to immediately be like, "Oh, you're surprised that I haven't made a big deal out of it being gay love? That's because being gay is no big deal." to be followed up with, "Yep, love the gays. Gays are great. Being gay is no different than not being gay. This is totes not a big deal at all."
Which I suppose is an important message to kids, but I feel like the message gets undercut by how IN YOUR FACE it is. Like, they make it a point not to mention that Will and Nico are gay (just saying, "Oh yeah, here's my boyfriend," says male character), only to point out "LOOK WE'RE NOT MAKING A BIG DEAL OUT OF THE GAY", only to then follow up with "BECAUSE BEING GAY IS NORMAL. SEE. WE'RE BEING TOTALLY NORMAL AND LOW-KEY ABOUT THIS." It's like... well, no, if you have to point it out, you're not being low-key about it at all. It's like how, the more someone feels the need to point out they're cool, the less cool they seem?
Anyways, I just liked it better in The Blood of Olympus, where they mention that Nico was actually into Percy this whole time, but then leave it at that. They DON'T make a big deal out of it. And then later Nico meets Will, and they have a moment, and it's like, you know they're going to become a couple, but there's no, "I have feelings. Gay feelings. Gay feelings for this boy. We shall be gay boyfriends together." in your face drilling it in, you know? (hide spoiler)]