Five Techniques that made Percy Jackson a Worldwide Phenomenon

Rick Riordan’s demigod heroes have embossed themselves on hearts across the world. Heroes and monsters battle between the covers of books from the Kaine Chronicles to The Trials of Apollo. 

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief and its following books were so incredibly popular that they revived a genre—a genre that blew up and then oversaturated the market because Percy Jackson was so popular. 

What is so great about Percy Jackson?  

Mythology 

Mythology in fantasy stories is par-for-the-course. Rick Riordan certainly did not invent the ideas or the genre. However, he made it popular. 

In the opening pages of The Lightning Thief, Percy valiantly tries to stay awake during his Greek Mythology class.

This is a nod to the audience. Riordan knows that Greek Mythology will likely bore his target audience of middle-schoolers to death, and with a wink and a nod, he does a little foreshadowing.  

Just wait because the dusty old myths are about to become fun. 

Just like Percy getting the shock of a lifetime in the middle of yawning, the audience is about to experience the adventure of a lifetime.  

Since Greek Mythology isn’t usually a kid-friendly topic, Riordan puts a comedic spin on everything.  

Medusa becomes a purveyor of garden gnomes and statues.  

Hermes delivers packages for the gods. 

Hades is a ruler of the underworld whose greatest frustrations are new housing developments and dealing with uppity ex-rulers and kings. 

The humor and absurd spin on classically serious material makes it palatable for the target audience.

It’s also important to note that even though this is one of the funniest stories I’ve read, the stakes are still real. Monsters, meddling gods, and family issues weave serious threads throughout the story. 

Humor makes this a fun adventure. Weighty stakes make it an adventure worth reading. 

Narration 

Percy is one of the funniest narrators in middle grade fantasy. His narration undergirds the entire story and glues the mythology together.

Mythical monsters, gods, and crummy oracles are fun, but without Percy’s everything happens to me attitude (and it really does seem that way), the story wouldn’t sing. 

The comedic spin on monsters and gods make the mythology an adventure, but it ends up being too absurd for anyone to accept without Percy’s narrative voice. 

Relation to the Target Audience 

Middle grade and YA fantasy are popular genres among adult readers as well as kids.

Forget that for a moment and think about why Percy as a hero resonates so well with the target audience of middle-schoolers. 

Two main elements contribute to success in this area. 

Percy is a kid in a room of adults. 

Percy has a rebellious streak that sometimes gets him in trouble, but ultimately, it’s the reason he ends up saving the world. 

To the first point: Percy is the embodiment of every kid who has ever felt like the adults ignored him, underestimated him, or saddled him with a responsibility too big to handle. 

He’s fighting monsters because the gods are too busy backstabbing and squabbling to get their act together long enough to sort it out!

His mom was kidnapped because of a god’s political maneuvering that basically boiled down to, “Meh, I was bored.”

To the second point: most kids either have a rebellious streak or a rebellious phase, and one of Percy’s main flaws is his rebellious nature. It’s a strength and a weakness. 

His rebellious nature guides him on the path to saving the world. 

It’s also the reason why he isn’t popular with most of the gods.  

Rick Riordan’s ability to instill that rebellion within Percy and make it nuanced—it can be a strength but sometimes it gets Percy in trouble—helps kids see themselves in the hero. 

Percy and his friends might be powerful demigods who kill monsters every day, but they’re also kids struggling with the same problems as the audience.  

The Hero’s Thorn 

Every hero needs pain that keeps them human. Otherwise, normal people like us won’t understand them. And, more importantly for readers, we won’t understand what makes them so special. 

A hero’s thorn keeps them special because it highlights their gift. Their thorn is that poisonous weakness, flaw, or nemesis that haunts them. It is the thing that they confront repeatedly that always leaves a gaping wound. 

Superman has Kryptonite and a heart so big that it’s easily broken. 

Batman’s incredible ability and crippling need to control everything has saved countless lives, but it’s also alienated a good chunk of the Bat-Family, along with most of the Robins.  

In Percy’s case, he states his fatal flaw later in the series: Percy is ridiculously loyal to his friends.  

His friends are his weakness. 

When one of his friends betrays him and becomes a direct servant of the series’ villain, Percy confronts that painful truth repeatedly. Can he save Luke? Does Luke even deserve a second chance after what he’s done? 

In addition, Percy has other struggles to balance out his overwhelming demigod powers. Most of the gods don’t like him, which is a big problem since they rule the world.  

He has dyslexia and ADHD. 

His stepfather is abusive. 

These things create more empathy between readers and protagonists. Readers love Percy because like many of literature’s most inspiring heroes, Percy is just like us...except better. 

He is a hero. 

Which means that we can be heroes, too. 

This is certainly not an original idea, but it works so well and holds weight with the audience when executed properly.  

Done well, it is inspiring.  

Done poorly, it patronizes the audience. 

Percy’s weaknesses and his thorn keep him perfectly positioned in relation to the audience. Not perfect. Certainly not a classic hero. But heroic by any measure. 

Character-Driven Story 

Percy Jackson is a great example of a character’s choices driving the story forward. 

Nothing happens in the story without Percy initiating it. Plenty of monsters try to kill, stretch, freeze, devour, or otherwise maim Percy throughout the story, but it’s all part of the quest.

Percy is the one who keeps making decisions. 

Closing Thoughts 

Chapter 20 of The Lightning Thief is titled ‘I Battle my Jerk Relative’.  

This perfectly encapsulates everything that makes the Percy Jackson series great. Humor, personality, character-driven conflict, heroism, and family issues blown to huge proportions.