In The Red Pyramid Rick Riordan attempts to do for Egyptian mythology what he has done for Greek and Roman mythology in his other series–Percy Jackson and The Lost Heroes of Olympus. The surface details vary, but underneath the veneer, the format and story are quite similar to these other series. Possibly because as a culture readers are not as familiar with Egyptian mythology, it is harder to connect with the story as the reader is absorbing a dizzying array of facts, legends, relationships, and gods. Nevertheless, it is refreshing to get a taste of Egypt.
The lay-out of the book is a bit different in that it is voiced by two separate characters. 14 year old Carter and 12 year old Sadie, siblings, alternate narrarating the story as if they are recording it. For a generation raised on Harry Potter, Riordan’s writing is perfect–fun, adventuresome, stuffed with imaginative details, magical, and all with a bonus–Riordan’s gift for dialogue and modern humor. The Red Pyramid is classic Riordan and his fans will not be dissapointed. This is a book where the pages fly by so hold on for some fun!
Content Analysis:
Profanity/Lanugauge: 21 Religious exclamations.
Note: British character occasionally used “bloody” and these were not tallied.
Violence/Gore: Many instances of the stories/myths of Egyptian Gods were recounted or retold–these stories often involved fighting, death in some dramatic way (entombment, be-heading, etc.); many threats of violent death are made by characters (often demons or magical creatures) against other characters; magical dueling with no injury or death; chasing of humans by mythical creatures; report of past incidences of riot. fistfights, hearing of gunfire; a character is turned into a toad; plan to kidnap a character; there were several brief and several (~ a dozen) extended scenes involving fantasy violence with magic, explosions, biting, sword fighting, hitting, smashing, etc. between magicians, characters, and mythical beings, none of which resulted in human death; a demon threatens to make characters blood into wine; a mythical character is tricked into thinking salsa is blood.
Sex/Nudity: Characters “like” or find other characters attractive.
Mature Subject Matter:
Death of a family member, war.
Alcohol / Drug Use:
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