The Hidden Oracle

The usual spoiler alerts....

Ok so yes one half of me says Rick Riordan is pulling out the Percy Jackson thing, but the other half of me is fangirling all over this new edition to my bookshelf!

I liked Apollo's view on the human world in general and the references back to actual Greek Mythology mixed in with Modern references Rick Riordan thought Apollo might have done. Like his whole trouble over Daphne and Hyanthesis and his realisations about himself.
    Although I didn't like the Snapchat, Facebook, Hashtag bits. It felt like they were just dropped in to try and please a modern audience and didn't flow with the rest of the story.
So, Hi Rick, Please can you not put any references like that in the next one? I prefer your old style!

I found that the new characters aren't very likeable. They don't have much going on except Apollo's kids and Meg and I don't know about anyone else but I didn't particularly feel very attached to any of them. However I am still in love with all the old characters that made an appearance, especially Nico di Angelo and all his funny conversations with Will Solace and the few glimpses of Percy Jackson we saw. Sad I know but you have to love Apollo's reaction to his apartment, mum, food, ego....
    And Leo Valdez with his metal dragon and ex goddess is going to be in the next book with a major part I'm so excited I have lost the power of punctuation and grammar who cares anyway Leo's back yay

    Even though I am not too keen on the new characters, I love the whole new tri concept thing!
I have heard people say that it doesn't make sense and "wait, the whole Gaia thing was because of some past their time emperors?", but I think it wraps everything weird that ever happened in the world of Percy Jackson together nicely and awesomely and also opens up a hole in Rick Riordan world for him to write a whole bunch more amazing books!! *please, my whole career as a Percy Jackson fangirl would be over if he didn't and that would be tragic*.
   
Last of all I just feel that I should mention
        the haikus at the (5)
        beginning of each chapter (7)
        genius I know (5)
Sorry that was a really bad attempt at a haiku....

Millie x

500 words

Phew that's over. 500 words I mean. The deadline has passed. Submit button been pressed and all is fine. Or at least until the whole "oh my gosh was my story really truly good enough" thing kicks in.
I am not giving any spoilers about what my story is about but I can tell you what it is not about.
Basically I had a story idea. It was going to be the most amazing book of all time....I wrote pages and pages on this subject and everyone I showed it to thought it was really good - not bragging or anything though. So when 500 words came around this year, I was like "why shouldn't I enter it, since it is my last year before I am too old, I may as well go out with a kabam".
I wrote it up on my laptop, tweaking it to fit the requirements. The only problem was that no matter how hard I tweaked or how much I cut out, the characters refused to be cut down to 500 words.
This has happened to me in every single year of me entering 500 words.
In the end I wrote a brand new story on a totally different subject, like 4 hours before the deadline.
It is good-ish (or at least I think it is?!) but it meant me giving up on a few awesome ideas from the last story, that I will tell you because all they will do otherwise is sit on my shelf;

A Jack Sparrow like character who is one of the leaders of a global gang of highwaymen in the sky.

A teenage stowaway and his lil sister

A girl power kind of tough girl figure who fly's after her kidnapped brother

An evil dude with many faces who has fingers in all the major cites of the world apart from one

Good guys being forced to be bad guys and hunt other good guys including the only two people
who could possibly stop this evil dude.

Magical ponies flying through the sky....

Actually no, not that last one. All those things don't sound very impressive when written down like that....but I promise they do all work together but it is too complicated to break down. *sorry*.

 

Did anybody else enter 500 words? See you soon x

Girl Online and Girl Online On Tour by Zoella

My bookshelf is a jumble of words, stories and characters. Percy Jackson sits hand in hand with Anne of Green Gables. Eva Ibbotson gives Michael Morpurgo a hug, Harry Potter is sandwiched against Judith Kerr and Theresa Breslin. Noel Streatfeild is in the seat next to Annie and Goodnight Mister Tom.... you get the idea. I have had two recent edition's to my shelf's which is now in the only available space up against Charlottes Web. They are Girl Online and Girl Online On Tour by Zoella. I don't follow Zoella or watch her vlogs but I know who she is (who doesn't?!). When I first got told the plot -anonymous girl blogger goes to NYC, meets guy, all is well, gets back home only to discover he is a famous rock star with a girlfriend, but they get back together in the end - I was a bit sceptical about whether this was going to be any good. But I read it any way and I am so glad I did!!

    It is funny and makes you feel good. My favourite character is Elliot, I think everyone needs a best friend like him. I also like all the blog post that are interspersed throughout.

    In conclusion it was awesome.STOP.

But then I read Girl Online On Tour. I basically couldn't put it down. But not because it was so good, because everything got messed up and I had to find out if everything turned out ok! It does turn out fine so I guess in the end it is a good book, but I prefer the first one. If Girl Online got 4 stars then Girl Online On Tour gets 2 1/2 stars. I really hope there is going to be a third book.... please??!!

    I recommend both books for 11-16 year old girls but that is just a generalisation, anyone can enjoy them.

Magnus Chase - Pro's and Con's + Trials of Apollo

Yes I know I'm late.... Sorry.... But Rick Riordan has a new book out (yee!!) Magnus Chase and the The Gods of Asgard Book 1: The Sword of Summer. I only got it last week and have been glued to it since to get it finished, but then I was too busy to write this review. But anyway here it is, finally.


Contains some spoilers (however small), so if you haven't read it yet (and are even later then me!)
then you might want to shut this page now. Just warning you.

I will now read through it properly and slowly and probably find tons of stuff that's vital to the story but I missed the first time! I do that kinda thing. I skim read it as quick as I can 'cause I need to know what happens and then I go back and -most of the time- find at least 5 hilarious/useful/generally awesome paragraphs I missed! At least that's what happened with his other books. Unfortunately I'm not entirely sure if that will happen this time, cause I found it stop started in coolness.
That doesn't make sense does it! I guess what I mean is that I did like the Sword of Summer (don't get me wrong on that) it's just that I felt it didn't flow properly.I was expecting it to be as good as Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus and it wasn't, so I was disappointed.

I was also expecting to like Sam more, for her to be the next Annabeth and be all awesome and funny and she was, but more in a kinda action girl way.
    My favourite characters defiantly include Hearthstone, TG, Mallory, Blitzen, Magnus and of course Annabeth! I really liked how Magnus was a hero but not in a complete Action, swords, fight fight fight kind of way.

One more thing; I really wish that we could have read the conversation between Annabeth and Magnus at the end! Would have been so funny!

So over all it was cool, not quite awesome but I would definitely recommend. 

But on a even more exciting note, there is a new book set in the Percy Jackson world coming out next May!! I’m not giving spoilers, mainly ‘cause I don’t know any *awkward pause*.
    Though I do know this; it’s about Apollo, Zeus is sending him down to Camp Half Blood as a human and this series (yes, I know series!!) is about Apollo trying to regain his godliness!

There have also been a bucket load of hints about a few “well-known” characters making an appearance- I’m crossing my fingers for Leo to be one of those characters!

    Did anyone else nearly spontaneously combust with excitement when they heard this news??!! Please say yes, otherwise I just made myself sound seriously sad!!

Once again, sorry, I know most of this is old news, but I thought better late then never, hey?