THE TRIALS OF APOLLO: THE HIDDEN ORACLE by Rick Riordan (2016)

"Four thousand years of knowledge, the secrets of the universe, a sea of wisdom -- lost, because I can't contain it all in this teacup of a head." - Rick Riordan, The Hidden Oracle

THIS REVIEW IS SPOILER-FREE

Disclaimer: This review is constructed upon my personal reaction to the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. SOLANGELO IS CANON I LOVE THE GAYS

One of the pros of being a Percy Jackson fan is that Rick Riordan will not stop writing about the Percy Jackson world. Technically, the series ended in 2009, with the release of The Last Olympian, part five in the five-part Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. However, Riordan decided actually, he wasn’t done yet, and wrote another five-part series: The Heroes of Olympus, picking up where The Last Olympian left off. This series ended in 2014 with The Blood of Olympus, and after ten books, you’d think Rick would’ve had his fill.

You’d be mistaken. He’s relentless.

In 2015, Riordan announced he was writing another five-part series set in the PJO universe. This series, titled The Trials of Apollo, would begin in May 2016 with The Hidden Oracle, and was tasked with filling in all the plot holes The Blood of Olympus left behind. It follows the god Apollo, cast down from Olympus to fulfil some unknown purpose as penance for royally ticking Zeus off. Rick Riordan fans across the world collectively rolled their eyes when The Trials of Apollo was announced, because even though we know Rick won’t “stop beating this dead horse until it stops spitting out money” (will I ever stop with the Bo Burnham references?), we also know we’re going to be the ones shoving dollar bills up that horse’s ass. As soon as The Hidden Oracle arrived at my doorstep, I started reading it.

Riordan’s last couple of books haven’t really done it for me. The Blood of Olympus was enjoyable but brimming with shoddy characterisation and lazy plot holes, and Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer, the first book in a sister series to PJO, was fun, but not particularly memorable. Thankfully, The Hidden Oracle is great -- funny, action-packed, clever, progressive. It paid homage to the sarcastic, dry humour Percy Jackson is famous for, something I feel we lost sight of in Magnus Chase. Apollo’s characterisation was really unique -- I found Magnus very stylistically similar to Percy, making his voice feel awkward and unoriginal. Apollo couldn’t have been more different to Percy; whereas Percy is light-hearted, goofy, and completely and utterly selfless, Apollo is narcissistic, arrogant, and frankly, annoying. I liked about him, though, as it marked him as truly different from Percy. There was a refreshingly lyrical quality to Apollo’s narrative -- many sections of the book were beautifully eloquent, something I’m not used to with Riordan’s simplistic writing style. The fan service throughout the book was also glorious; so many new storylines that were only touched on in The Blood of Olympus were finally fully fleshed out. Rick Riordan responded to his fans’ prayers/angry tweets. The fandom rejoiced en masse.

It’s not, however, these simple, aesthetic aspects that made The Trials of Apollo great; for me, it was the social issues Riordan tackled. Inarguably, the best part of the book is the fact that Apollo is openly and proudly bisexual. This isn’t a spoiler -- it’s accurate historical representation, as in ancient Greek mythology, Apollo fell in love/slept with women and men all the time. The dude got around, and he wasn’t picky. Riordan has impressed me in the past with his representation of gay characters, but I never expected bisexuality to be one of the topics he tackled, as no one ever bothers tackling it. Bisexuality is horrifically underrepresented everywhere except Tumblr, and when it is represented, the character in question is either ambiguously bisexual, or they were just experimenting in college. Apollo is different. There’s no questioning or ambiguity, no insecurity or experimentation; he’s bi, and he doesn’t get why anyone could possibly find it weird. This is such a bold and progressive move for Riordan to have made, and a powerful one, too. Apollo’s nonchalant bisexuality is going to help so many kids come to terms with, accept, and rejoice in their own bi/pansexuality, because Apollo’s mentality shows us bisexuality is completely normal. It doesn’t change anything about him. It’s not weird or out-of-the-ordinary, and I think that’s a super important message for Riordan’s readers to take away from this book. (Side note: my friend and I were reading 1-star reviews of The Hidden Oracle on Amazon, and a majority of them were from homophobic parents complaining that boy-on-boy relationships are ‘inappropriate’ for their children, and declaring they will never buy another Percy Jackson book. There’s another great thing about The Hidden Oracle: it’s weeding out the weak.)

The other issue Riordan discusses in The Hidden Oracle is emotional and psychological abuse. We all know the statistics of physical abuse: in New Zealand, a family violence investigation is recorded every 5 and a half minutes, 1 in 3 Kiwi women experience physical abuse in their lifetime, etcetera, etcetera.  Family Violence Is Not Okay (But It Is Okay To Ask For Help). Physical and domestic abuse are awful phenomena we need to seriously crack down on, but emotional abuse is almost completely overlooked and invalidated. Riordan, then, changed the game. One of the characters in The Hidden Oracle suffers from emotional abuse by a parent figure who threatens to unleash their ‘angry side’ if the character in question doesn’t do as they are told. Like a Gemini, the abusive character is two-faced; they present themselves as having split personalities they can’t control. The victim is manipulated into subservience by the threat of any disobedience unleashing the physically abusive personality of the abuser. Apollo, bless his heart, goes on to actively comment on the situation, lamenting how gruesome and manipulative emotional abuse can be. Riordan choosing to put emphasis on this issue was simply wonderful. I admire him for using his platform to bring light to controversies we are usually too uncomfortable or ignorant to confront. When we don’t talk about emotional and psychological abuse, when we stigmatise it and invalidate it and treat it like a joke, we alienate victims of this kind of abuse. We make them feel alone, which, as Riordan has pointed out in The Hidden Oracle, isn’t true at all.  

Not everything about The Hidden Oracle was groundbreaking. The writing was funny, but not entirely up to the standard I’ve come to expect. Apollo was unique, but I’m not sure if I liked him as a protagonist all that much. The fan service was satisfying, but I also feel there was a degree of laziness to it, as if Riordan scrolled down his Tumblr dashboard and picked out headcanons he liked. That being said, what the book lacked in character, it really made up for in representation of overlooked social issues, which is such a goddamn pretentious SJW thing for me to say, but it’s true. I joke about having sold my soul to Rick Riordan, but honestly, I don’t really mind. The Percy Jackson world has brought me happiness ever since my dear friend Robyn introduced it to me at the tender age of twelve, and even though I know we’re reaching the point where Riordan should probably just bury the horse, the truth is, I’m glad he won’t, because his books and his characters and his amazing world bring me joy, and that’s all they really have to do.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I discussed this review with my delightful friend Robyn on Skype before publishing it, and to her, I issued the truth: this review is a thinly-veiled attempt to sophisticate my incoherent love of The Gays™. I hope it was a successful attempt, even if it’s completely transparent. Also, I'm both morally and personally inclined to tell you that the reference I made in the introduction -- "we'll stop beating this dead horse when it stops spitting out money" -- is from the song Repeat Stuff by Bo Burnham, which he performed in his comedy show, what., in 2013. It's a great song, and a great show, and I would highly recommend you check it out. It's on YouTube! The whole hour-long show! Amazing!