Book Review: The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan

The Hidden Oracle (The Trials of Apollo #1) by Rick Riordan

Pages: 359
Publish date: May 3rd, 2016
Publisher: Penguin Teen Australia
ISBN: 9780141363936
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU – Dymocks

How do you punish an immortal?

By making him human.

After angering his father Zeus, the god Apollo is cast down from Olympus. Weak and disoriented, 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 favor.

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.

The Hidden Oracle:

I knew before I started reading this books that I was going to love it. Rick Riordan has never disappointed me before and The Hidden Oracle stood up to his previous books. I was hooked from the start and didn’t want to stop.

Just a note you will need to read all previous books in this world if you do not want to get spoiled or miss anything that is important.

The Hidden Oracle has a very different feel her Rick Riordan’s other books simply because of the protagonist. We are usually in for a ride with a demi-god, but this series is different. It’s a God that takes charge. Well, a God that is now human.

The Hidden Oracle follows protagonist Apollo as he falls from Mount Olympus, literally. Not only does he have to deal with not having his powers anymore and not being immortal but also losing his memories. When he runs into trouble in New York, he knows one person that could help and where he might just have to go.

Apollo for some people might be a difficult protagonist to get along with. His arrogant, full of himself and thinks he’s the best person in the world. But, he is a God or was. He has been this way for thousands of years and you can’t just let that go in one day. Throughout the book, the reader is able to see him struggle with being human. His whole life he has relied on his godly powers and with them gone – he feels useless. It was hard to see Apollo this way, he not only is doubting himself but feels like that without being a God, he is nothing.

In saying all that, Apollo was hilarious. He would get angry at little things that just cracked me up – like acne. A God does not have acne like he says.

Early on in the novel Apollo becomes tied to Meg, a 12-year-old who isn’t having the time of her life. Meg’s very stubborn, to say the least, and at times this can be quite frustrating. She is also very opinionated at while it did annoy me, she is 12, and I totally understood. However, I felt that we didn’t get to know her that much and she was in a lot of the book. I didn’t feel that her character was developed enough for the reader to really get to know her.

What I love about this world is that we get to see those we have loved from previous series’ again and again. We see Percy, Nico, Will and just so many of those characters that we have come to know and love.

Talking about old character, we find ourselves back in Camp Half-Blood and I loved it! We haven’t been here for a while and I just love the atmosphere, the activity and everything in between.

One thing that I love about Rick Riordan’s books is that there isn’t a romance focus – there is very little romance in The Hidden Oracle. The reader hears a lot about Apollo previous love interests and we come to find out that his bi and just my heart. I loved it all too much. But, there is also heartbreak there and we see that Apollo does have human traits that most of us feel – heartbreak.

The plot was very well paced. The last third I couldn’t keep my eyes of the page and I just kept on reading and reading. While the first half or so was a nice setup for what is going to happen in the series. We are seeing this world from a totally new perspective and it was refreshing

Another thing I loved so much about The Hidden Oracle was its focus on Greek History and Mythology. If you don’t know already, I am a major history buff. Especially when it relates to mythology so these books and so in my element. I loved how much it focus on that and took from myths.

Overall, I loved The Hidden Oracle was such good read. It’s fun, heartbreaking, addicting. It’s that classic Rick Riordan humor and in a world which we know and love. With new and old characters you are sure in for a ride in a world where things are always wrong. The Hidden Oracle explores the notion of finding yourself, friendship, family and more. It’s about believing in yourself and those around you.

Have you read The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan? What did you think of it? Are you planning on reading it? Have you read any of Riordan’s other books? Let’s Chat!