Episode #122 – Hera Coded

Prophecy Radio episode #122 sits down with a surprise guest to talk about A Drop of Venom by Sajni Patel. We also get a newbie’s reaction to Percy Jackson season 1, including what questions they still had after the final credits rolled. There’s also some important Percy Jackson and Rick Riordan news to discuss, including our dreams coming true with the announcement of a Funko line, as well as some listener feedback from the past couple weeks. New episodes of Prophecy Radio air weekly, and we keep our discussions PG-13.

News and Updates (00:03:09)

• Give a big, warm welcome to our friend Danielle, who we’re so excited to have on the show for the first time!
• Did you see that we’re getting Percy Jackson Funkos!?
• Perhaps even more surprising—we’re getting a Percy Jackson cookbook, too!
• Oh, hey, Luke Arnold from Black Sails would make for an excellent addition to Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
• We pick Danielle’s brain about Percy Jackson season 1 considering she’s never read the books!
• What improvements would she like to see in season 2?

A Drop of Venom by Sajni Patel (00:20:15)

• If you’re not mentally prepared for this discussion, please take care of yourself and either skip it or come back later!
• How familiar were we with Medusa’s story and/or Indian mythology?
• What were our overall thoughts on A Drop of Venom?
• Let’s talk about Manisha and what a nagin is.
• And we can’t forget about Noni!
• Then there’s Pratyush, who’s a slayer because, well, his father was a slayer.
• We liked that Sajni didn’t ignore the struggles men also have thanks to societal norms and pressures.
• But did anyone else think he was a little sus in the beginning?
• We talk explicitly about Manisha’s rape and how it was depicted on the page.
• There are no words for how angry Sita’s betrayal made us.
• The victim blaming in this book is, unfortunately, a reflection of real life.
• It’s important not to use passive language when talking about violence against marginalized groups.
• Was the General just Hera in disguise!?
• He really should’ve made sure Manisha was dead.
• This was not the only sexual assault in the book.
• It’s important for men to stand up against other men when they are participating in rape culture.
• We loved Dev, but he was pretty intense!?
• Girls have to stick together!
• Menstruation is totally normal and we should talk about it more.
• Did you figure out who the three elders represented?
• We LOVED that this book talked about the subjectivity of monstrosity, just like Percy Jackson and the Olympians season 1.
• Is Pratyush as much of a “monster” as Manisha?
• Embrace your darkness!
• The spoiler section begins at 1:20:12.
• Did the general suffer enough?
• How did we feel about the “love story” between Manisha and Pratyush?
• Thank GOODNESS Noni is still alive.
• We have a couple guesses as to what the next book will be about, and even what the title might be!

Feedback (00:52:50)

• Steph agrees that Aryan Simhadri IS Grover Underwood.
• Reilly also agrees that the video we posted in our IG stories needed to have a wedding dress for Grover.

Thanks for listening, and tune in next time for episode 123, in which we’ll have a chat with Roseanne A. Brown about Percy Jackson and the Olympians, as well as her upcoming book, Serwa Boateng’s Guide to Saving the World!

This episode’s hosts are: Karen Rought and Kristen Kranz.

Each episode, our Prophecy Radio hosts and their guests will keep you up to date on the latest information coming out of Camp Half-Blood, including upcoming books and adaptation news, discuss a topic of choice, and do a chapter by chapter reread of the Percy Jackson series.

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