New York Times bestselling author Rick Riordan just released his newest book, the Wrath of the Triple Goddess, on September 24, 2024. As another installation to the famous Percy Jackson series, this book’s release is highly anticipated as a new addition to the “Percy Jackson Universe”, including the return of the original trio from the first installation of the collection, Percy Jackson and the Olympians. However, it has been 19 years since the first book, so how does it compare to the original series? 

The Percy Jackson books take place in a modern universe where Greek gods and monsters still exist, attacking their half mortal children, like the main character, Percy Jackson.  The Wrath of the Triple Goddess is a Halloween themed second addition to the three planned books detailing Percy gets his letters of recommendation for college in New Rome. Taking place after the Blood of Olympus but before the Trials of Apollo, this mini series details him and his friends doing a favor for Hecate, (Greek goddess of magic and necromancy) babysitting her pets and house over halloween in order to get him their letters of recommendation for college. In the end, he does succeed in getting his letter, with the help of old and new friends.  

While the book is very similar, there are some clear differences in characters and focus. For example, the way the three main characters act is unusual and contrasting to the previous books. While Percy’s friends used to act very seriously about their quests, they now seem overly relaxed and unbothered by the imminent danger they are in. Usually, Percy would be the less stressed one, but his friends are talking about throwing a party in the enchanted house of a goddess and trying to hide it from her. Even though the characters have grown up a lot, this personality swap is out of character and a little questionable in my opinion. The characters that are literally fighting for their lives don’t even seem that stressed anymore. 

Additionally, the book seems much more emotionally centered compared to the others. Characters experience and confront more complicated emotions, and while this is expected with character development, it is strange to see the book focus more on the emotions of the characters. While this isn’t a bad thing, it is definitely a noticeable difference between books. This progression is steady through all of the books that include these characters, as they do definitely grow up emotionally and physically. However, the change does warrant a few questions, as it feels more like their quests are becoming less of the focus. While some long-time fans might appreciate more character focus, I also feel like the new books don’t have the same sense of adventure as the original series. Part of the reason I love these books so much is because of the high adventure and excitement of their quests, so to see them dulled down for more focus on the characters feels like the new books are more of a closing tour for the characters instead of new adventures as their lives continue. By doing this deep emotional dive, it feels like the author brought back these characters to ensure that the fans still remembered they were friends and used to go on quests together. 

While I definitely appreciate the new releases, my general consensus is that these books seem like fillers for the characters to satisfy the fandom. Don’t get me wrong, the books still are really good and fit for a YA audience, but they do feel different. As the author’s writing style and characters have advanced, the books are changing, which is expected. The focus of the books seems to have shifted to framing the characters more than anything else, which is strange to see as someone who was hooked by the adventure and fast pace of the books. As new fans of the TV show join the fanbase, this change could shift the way they see the characters, which would majorly conflict with the perceptions of older fans. Many people who have been following these characters from the beginning might see this as a misinterpretation of beloved characters, while new fans could see the books as more emotional than anything else. While they do focus on friendship and comradery a lot, newer fans seem hyper fixated on relationships, so this new addition could be harmful to other themes of the story.  With the TV show, new fans have already been making waves with their opinions, so this could lead to conflict over the personalities of characters and themes of the series. However, I would still recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a book about adventure and friendship, and existing or new fans will appreciate their favorite characters in the spotlight, but, as a long-time fan of Percy Jackson books, I have noticed the books have definitely evolved a lot.