Rick Riordan's The Lost Hero

631 Words3 Pages
Advanced Placement Kindergarten In the literary community, an ongoing debate constantly unfolds as professors and teachers alike argue to determine the grounds of definition for the infamous expression, “You may select a work from the list below or another work of equal literary merit,” specifically a clear, operational definition of “equal literary merit.” Scholars claim the basis of literary merit stand in the complexity of a text, the theme of the work, and that test of time on that novel. The last qualification in contrast to the others has been a specific point of friction in the arguments as some claim that simply because an author wrote a book in the last twenty years that it cannot disqualify the book of literary merit.…show more content…
The Lost Hero, written by Rick Riordan, is one of those books that easily fall into the category of an absence of literary merit. Despite the entertaining and exciting values of The Lost Hero, the book does not fall into the category of possessing literary merit because of a simplistic plot and an unsophisticated style. Rick Riordan creates the plot of this novel utilizing archetypal journey characteristics as the main characters; Jason, “[a] son of Zeus, favored by Hera” (Riordan 220); Leo, a son of Hephaestus; and Piper, a daughter of Aphrodite; travel across the country to rescue the queen of the Greek gods, Hera, from a powerful monster rising from a deep sleep. On the journey “[r]iding a bronze dragon rehabilitated by Leo” (“Editorial Review”), they fight monster after monster that Riordan artfully creates as “he relies heavily on primary sources in preparing his latter-day updates on classical mythology” (Itzkoff). He uses these predetermined creature of the ancients to make the story “a page-turner and [that is] very hard to put down” (Gatheru).…show more content…
The text as a whole is incredibly exciting, but it truly does lack the content of a true AP novel. Similar to the absence of complexity in the plot of the novel, Riordan’s style is also lacking the qualities necessitated for the grounds of possessing literary merit. Riordan’s novice diction and syntax earn the novel a ranking of a 4th grade book according to scholastic. He often utilizes simple syntax such as, “The toilet seat sank into the earth” (Riordan 254) with the intention of creating humor. However, in addition to the beginner level diction, the syntax not only creates easy to follow humor, but also more negatively affects the style of the author. Despite this novel winning award after award for the context of the story line and plot, The Lost Hero, by Rick Riordan, simply does not meet the requirements of an AP book of literary merit. Simply because the book is not complex, however, does not make the
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