Percy Jackson & the Olympians and Heroes of the Olympus

Percy Jackson & the Olympians by Rick Riordan
Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan

Age: Middle Grade
Category: Fantasy; romance
Rating: 5 stars

Ali Thinks: Now that the last book of the Heroes of Olympus series is out, nine years after the first Percy Jackson book was published, I can finally talk about my favorite book series (while I mourn the loss of the next-book excitement). It all started off with Percy Jackson, an 11-year old boy who’s wrongly accused of stealing the Greek god of gods’ lightning bolt because apparently he’s not only half god himself, but the son of Poseidon.

On a quest to prove his innocence, he realizes there’s a lot more that meets the eye, and the Titans want to rise again. And, to his chagrin there he is right smack dab in the middle of some great prophecy to save or end the world on his sixteenth birthday. Fast-forward five years, and the world doesn’t end on Percy’s 16th, he thinks he’s got the rest of his life— the summer, at least— to hang out with his friends, his brother, and his girlfriend. What actually happens, however, is the start of Heroes of Olympus where Percy Jackson has gone missing, and three new characters are introduced, one of them knowing nothing but his name. It’s soon realized that the next Great Prophecy is already in motion and that seven half-bloods from a mix of Greek and Roman descent must (again) save the world from Mother Earth, Gaea.

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Haunted

Haunted by Chuck Palahnuik

Age: Adult
Category: Contemporary
Rating: 5 stars

“Some stories, you use up. Others use you up.”

Ali Thinks: “Abandon Your Life for Three Months” is the title of an advertisement for a writer’s retreat. It sounds appealing, to leave behind all responsibility and spend a quarter of the year writing that novel that should have been finished years ago. After reading Chuck Palahniuk’s Haunted, it’s clear that it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

I’m just going to put this out there: Haunted can be gross. Shockingly gross. At readings of ‘Guts,’ one of the 23 short stories in this novel, people fainted. I’m going to ask you to get past the discomfort this book will definitely cause, because Palahniuk has created a brilliant, disturbing story that just begs to be equally loved and feared by its readers.

A lot of people tend to write of Palahniuk’s books as being ‘the same’ or ‘not nearly as good as Fight Club.’ Neither of these, I assure you, is the truth. It’s true that his books have the same style, but as he wrote them all that shouldn’t be too shocking. While it’s true that there are commonalities between each of his books that I’ve read, but it never comes off as reading the same book over and over because each are so drastic in different, unorthodox ways. And this book happens to have 23 very distinct, very drastic short stories that each of the characters have written (as, this is a writer’s retreat, after all) in the midst of their extreme conditions.

I wouldn’t recommend this book to the easily disgusted or the easily offended, and I would say the same to those who take everything at face value. I would however, suggest that anyone who wants to read a life-changing book, a great book, to look no further than Haunted. Not only is it transgressive fiction and satire at its best, it’s also Palahniuk at his best.

Just a tip: if you get the glow-in-the-dark cover, don’t keep it by your bed.