Dear Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian...

You are the grand finale of Rick Riordan’s saga, a young adult fantasy where Greek gods walk the streets of New York and heroes are forged in fire. Born in 2009, you carry battles, banter, heartbreak and hope, all bound in a story that feels less like ink and more like a beating heart.

Thank you, not just for existing, but for saving me in ways no one else could. When the world around me felt like a place I didn’t belong, you quietly waited on my bookshelf, ready to become the refuge I didn’t know I needed.

I’ve always felt different, like a puzzle piece that didn’t quite fit, no matter how hard I tried. People made me feel like I was wrong for being myself. I became a shadow fading at the edges of laughter I wasn’t part of. I lost friends. I lost the will to even try. But then I picked you up, and something changed. I found you, or perhaps you found me.

Word by word, you pulled me in. Each page I turned felt like a lifeline, stitching back the parts of me I thought I had lost. Each sentence was a rope thrown to a drowning soul, each chapter a quiet promise that I wasn’t alone. The more my fingers flipped through your wrinkled pages, the deeper I fell under your spell.

When you entered the final battle of Manhattan against Kronos’ army, my heart raced with yours. The weight of the heavens pressed down, the fires of hell snapped at your heels but you stood your ground. With only a handful of brave demigods, you defended a city on the brink of ruin. That scene didn’t just give me goose bumps, it gave me strength. It told me

that even I, in my own small world, could fight my battles. With you, I felt seen.

Percy, your courage, stubborn loyalty, and jokes that made me laugh even when my eyes were heavy with tears, reminded me of someone very close to my heart: my father. Like you, he’s sassy, protective, and willing to go to impossible lengths for the people he loves. Even his silliest jokes light up my darkest moments.

And when Luke the broken villain died in Annabeth’s arms, Rick Riordan painted the moment with such painful beauty that I couldn’t stop crying. I could feel the betrayal, the sorrow, the weight of forgiveness. It shattered something inside me, and strangely, began to heal something in me too.

You didn’t only become my escape but also my anchor, my flicker of light in endless darkness. I started living more in your world than my own, not to run away, but because there, I felt like I mattered.

You were there when no one else was. For that, I will always carry you in the folds of my heart.

Yours lovingly,

Simone Charania

Simone is a student in Grade 7, studying in Ajmera Global School, Mumbai.

This love letter was shortlisted as one of the top 10 entries of our 3rd Writing Contest - writing a love letter to a piece of media you adore.

Read our top 10 contest entries here.