Journal Entry #3

In the third portion of the novel “Percy Jackson and the Olympians – The Lightning Thief” there was even more relentless and intense action. The trio has just finished killing Medusa at “Auntie Em’s Garden Gnome Emporium”. I really like how the author, Rick Riordan, has woven countless Greek myths and stories into the novel including the story of Medusa. He incorporated Medusa into the story but with a modern twist which I found very entertaining and this twist to the myth kept me reading. In the novel he made Medusa the “Garden Gnome Emporium” owner which was interesting and would make sense because the novel is set in the modern world and therefore as times have evolved so have the myths. Most novels would probably make the story of Medusa boring but not Rick Riordan. It was very interesting how he incorporated it and continued it throughout the novel. The author does not do what is expected in a climactic scene either. For example when Percy had just leaped out of a hole in the Gateway Arch in St. Louis you would expect the author to ramble on about how Percy had a deep revelation and at the last second woke up out of the trance before he hit the water. Not so with Rick Riordan who purposely begins a new chapter. Percy in his thoughts is saying how he would love to tell us that he had a deep revelation on the way down, had come to terms with mortality and laughed in the face of death and then Percy says what really and truly happened. All he said was “Arrggghhh!” I enjoy how the author wrote this portion of the book as it is somewhat unexpected for an author to actually write what would have happened in real life. This makes the story interesting because as a reader I can relate even more to the life of Percy Jackson.

Nick Simpson