7 Books Like Percy Jackson to Read Free Online
Percy Jackson hooked a generation on the idea that the boring kid in the back row of math class might be the son of a god. That the world has a layer underneath it, full of monsters and magic and camps where you learn to fight with a bronze sword. That the weird thing about you, the thing that got you expelled from three schools, is actually the thing that makes you dangerous. Rick Riordan took the structure of the hero's quest and plugged it into American middle school, and it worked because the fantasy wasn't the monsters. The fantasy was being seen.
Every "books like Percy Jackson" list on Google recommends the same published series. Keeper of the Lost Cities. Amari and the Night Brothers. Fablehaven. Magnus Chase. Aru Shah. They're good. You've probably already read them. What you haven't read are the free web novels that scratch the same itch: ordinary kids pulled into hidden worlds, academies that train you to fight things you didn't know existed, friendships forged under pressure, and the moment when the power you didn't ask for becomes the only thing standing between your friends and something that wants them dead.
This is a list of 7 free web novels you can read right now on NovelDay, all sharing DNA with Percy Jackson. Hidden worlds. Magic academies. Mythological creatures. Ordinary protagonists who discover they're not ordinary. No paywalls, no premium tiers, no "wait 23 hours for the next chapter" timers. Just free fiction, updated regularly by independent authors.
If you've read my books like Harry Potter guide, you know the format. Different novels, different angle. Here the focus is specifically on what makes each one feel like Percy Jackson: the kid, the camp, the creatures, and the comedy.
What Makes a Book "Like Percy Jackson"?
Percy Jackson isn't one thing. It's at least six. When readers search for "books like Percy Jackson," they're usually looking for one of these elements:
The ordinary kid: A protagonist who starts out normal. Not a chosen one from birth, not a prophesied hero, just a kid who's bad at school and good at getting in trouble. The story is about what happens when the thing that made them weird turns out to be the thing that makes them powerful.
The hidden world: A layer of reality operating alongside our own that ordinary people can't see. Camp Half-Blood, the Lotus Casino, Mount Olympus hidden above the Empire State Building. The protagonist crosses a threshold and discovers the world is bigger and stranger and more dangerous than they thought.
The training academy: A place where the protagonist learns to fight, survives tests, and meets the friends who will stand with them when things go wrong. Camp Half-Blood is the template: a summer camp that's actually a military training ground for demigods.
The monsters: Mythological creatures, magical beasts, things from folklore that want to eat you. The Minotaur, Medusa, the Furies. The protagonist doesn't just fight them. They learn that the monsters have stories too, and that knowing those stories is how you survive.
The friendship: The chosen family you build when your real family doesn't understand you. Grover, Annabeth, Tyson. The friendships in Percy Jackson aren't side plots. They're the engine. The protagonist fights because their friends are in danger, not because of a prophecy.
The humor: Percy doesn't face the apocalypse with grim determination. He faces it with sarcasm. The books are funny because Percy is funny, and the humor is what makes the dark parts bearable. A Percy Jackson readalike without humor isn't a readalike. It's just fantasy.
The seven novels below each capture at least two of these elements. Some capture all six. None of them are Percy Jackson clones. They're novels that understand what made Riordan's formula work and apply that understanding to different worlds, different mythologies, and different kinds of ordinary kid.
7 Books Like Percy Jackson to Read Free Online
The novels below are ordered by reading time, longest first. This puts the most substantial, developed binges at the top. The first novel is a 10.5-hour time-travel adventure with 32 chapters. The last is a 1.5-hour dragon-slaying quest with 4 chapters. All seven are free to read on NovelDay with no paywalls.
1. The 90's Kid
One morning, Wes walked through a mysterious time portal in his pantry door and came out ten years old in 1995. The hours were long, childhood stretched to the horizon, and all he needed were his buddies, video games, and TV. He ruled a kingdom of kids. Then he went back to 2020, and now he's returning a second time with his young nephew Jace in tow, determined to convince the jaded kid that the decade was something special. But the people who enforce the laws around time travel are watching, and if Wes isn't careful, they'll eat his lunch.
This is the longest novel on the list and the one that most directly captures the Percy Jackson tone: a protagonist who faces extraordinary danger with jokes and loyalty. Wes is not a demigod. He's a guy who found a portal in his pantry. But the structure is the same. An ordinary person stumbles into a world that shouldn't exist, brings a kid along for the ride, and has to navigate forces he doesn't understand while keeping everyone he cares about alive. The time-travel authorities are the Percy Jackson gods: powerful, indifferent, and dangerous if you get their attention.
The school-life element is here too. Wes inserts his nephew into his old friend group, which means a lot of the story takes place in the social ecosystem of a 1990s elementary school. The playground is Camp Half-Blood with monkey bars. The friendships, the legends, the hierarchy of kids, it's the same social architecture that Riordan built at camp, just without the swords. At 32 chapters and 10.5 hours, this is the most substantial binge on the list. If you liked the way Percy Jackson balanced apocalyptic stakes with the mundane reality of being a kid, The 90's Kid does that for 600 pages.
Read it if you like: Percy Jackson (but with time travel instead of gods), Stranger Things (but cozier), stories where the hero's weapon is a sense of humor and a refusal to grow up.
Read The 90's Kid free on NovelDay →
2. Rise of a Champion
Fifteen-year-old orphan Lucille Domitian is meat for the machine. In the brutal Praevecti Academy, she bleeds through six years of savage training, rival knives at her back, and instructors who'd rather bury her than break her. Only her bond with Cain Aurellius keeps her human. The system doesn't just test her. It tries to erase her. She survives anyway.
This is the academy novel on the list. If the Percy Jackson element that grabbed you was Camp Half-Blood, the training, the rivalries, the sense that the camp is both home and battlefield, Rise of a Champion is the novel that takes that idea and turns the intensity up to eleven. Praevecti Academy is Camp Half-Blood without the summer-camp veneer. The instructors are not centaur mentors. They're people who would rather you die than graduate. And Lucille is not a kid who discovers she's the son of a god. She's an orphan with nothing but stubbornness and one friend.
The friendship element is the Percy Jackson connection that makes this novel fit the list. Cain is Lucille's Grover. The bond between them is what keeps her human when the system is trying to erase her, and the story is as much about that friendship as it is about the training. At 62 chapters, the author has room to build the academy the way Riordan built the camp: slowly, from the inside, showing you how the machinery works before showing you what happens when someone refuses to be ground down by it. If you wanted Percy Jackson with more edge and a protagonist who earns every scar, this is the closest match.
Pick this up if you enjoyed: Percy Jackson (the Camp Half-Blood sections), Red Rising by Pierce Brown (the Institute chapters), stories about academies that try to break you and the friendships that keep you whole.
Read Rise of a Champion free on NovelDay →
3. The Bromeliad 2: Bartleby & The Copper Fleas
To earn the freedom of his friend Yarrow, Bee must go undercover on a colonial adventure and subvert a rival trade union's occult plans. It's a heist. There's a crew. There's an old nemesis anxious for the opportunity to rub his nose in the dirt. And there's a whole new cast of lovable, eccentric characters who join the job because no self-respecting absurdist satire would be complete without them. Dark humor, colonialism commentary, body horror, cooties, literary easter eggs, and rutabagas.
This is the comedy novel on the list. Percy Jackson is funny because Percy is funny. The Bromeliad is funny because the world is absurd and the characters know it. Bee is not a demigod. He's a guy trying to free his friend by pulling off a heist in a world that runs on level systems and colonial politics. But the humor is the same DNA. The jokes come at you when the stakes are highest, and they make the dark parts darker by contrast. If you liked the way Percy cracked jokes while the Minotaur was trying to kill him, Bee does the same thing while subverting an occult colonial trade union.
The hidden-identity element adds the Percy Jackson layer. Bee is undercover. He's pretending to be someone he's not, surviving a world that would destroy him if it knew who he really was. That's the Percy Jackson structure: the kid who can't be himself in the normal world because the normal world would eat him alive. The difference is that Bee's version of "can't be himself" is comedic satire rather than mythological destiny. At 27 chapters and a completed story, this is a focused, self-contained binge that actually ends. If you wanted Percy Jackson with more laughs and fewer prophecies, this is the entry point.
For readers who liked: Percy Jackson (the humor), Discworld by Terry Pratchett, heist stories where the crew is more important than the score.
Read The Bromeliad 2 free on NovelDay →
4. A Measure of Magic
A hostile kingdom. A powerful curse. Enemies lurking in the dark. Can two friends defeat them in time to save the ones they cherish? From murders to magical beast attacks, nothing has been going right in Bryolan. As the kingdom's most powerful mage and a newly named baroness, Elliana wants to get to the bottom of it. So does her friend Paige, a commoner with little magic who insists on being a healer anyway. When Paige stumbles upon an unnatural disease, Elliana discovers they're dealing with a curse. The enemies they uncover are far more formidable than they could have imagined.
This is the magic-and-friendship novel on the list. The Percy Jackson connection is the central friendship. Elliana and Paige are not demigods. They're a mage and a healer, one powerful and one stubborn, who refuse to let the other face the darkness alone. That's the Grover-and-Percy dynamic, or the Annabeth-and-Percy dynamic, depending on which friendship you're thinking of. The story is about two people who would be lost without each other, fighting a curse that's bigger than both of them.
The hidden-world element is here too. Bryolan has a magical layer that most people don't see: curses, magical beasts, enemies lurking in the dark. Elliana and Paige move through a world where the political surface hides a magical infrastructure, which is the same structure as Percy Jackson's America with the gods hidden above the Empire State Building. The found-family element seals the Percy Jackson connection. Elliana and Paige are not related by blood. They're family by choice, which is the Camp Half-Blood ethos. If you liked the way Percy Jackson built its emotional core on friendships that became family, A Measure of Magic carries that tradition forward.
This one's for you if you liked: Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger, Percy Jackson (the Annabeth friendship), stories where the magic is real but the friendship is what saves you.
Read A Measure of Magic free on NovelDay →
5. Project:Psychic
Liam is only a student in high school when he finds himself falling deep into a world he never knew existed, with abilities he'll have no choice but to quickly learn in order to stop the coming threat. Ghosts, spirits, ghouls, and things even beyond that all converge to reshape his life forever. What does it mean to fight for a world that should never know why?
This is the ordinary-kid novel on the list. The Percy Jackson connection is the opening move: a normal kid in a normal school discovers that the world has a layer he never knew about, and the thing that makes him different is the thing that pulls him in. Liam is not the son of a god. He's a high school student with psychic powers he didn't ask for, fighting spirits he didn't know existed. But the structure is identical to Percy's first discovery of Camp Half-Blood. The weird thing about you is the thing that makes you dangerous.
The hidden-world element is the spine of the novel. The spirits and ghosts operate alongside the human world, invisible to most people, and Liam has to learn the rules fast or die. That's the Percy Jackson structure: the world you can see is not the whole world, and the world you can't see is the one that's trying to kill you. The school setting adds the Camp Half-Body texture. Liam is still in high school. He's still going to class. He's just also fighting ghosts after hours, which is the Percy Jackson experience of being a kid who has a secret life that no adult can know about.
Read it if you like: Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston, Percy Jackson (the first book, before Percy knows what he is), stories about kids who discover the world is stranger and more dangerous than they thought.
Read Project:Psychic free on NovelDay →
6. Welcome Traveler
Three chimes. That's what Kai heard as he woke in a grave that shouldn't exist yet. He clawed his way to the surface only to find a frozen world that offered nothing to help him survive. And something has already noticed him. In Thunder Hallows, the silent clock tower tolls. A spark has ignited, beginning a new cycle and creating a new Realm. With it comes a Traveler. For some, it's hope. For Talis, who's found them, helped them, and buried most of them, it's just another failure waiting. Kai doesn't know what he's become. Something is burning inside him, a magic that forces knowledge into his mind and allows him to reshape matter. Every use hurts. Every mistake costs.
This is the mythology novel on the list. The Percy Jackson connection is the mythological architecture. Welcome Traveler has myths, gods, immortals, multiple realms, and a protagonist who is an ordinary person pulled into a system that's bigger and older than he is. Kai is not a demigod. He's a Traveler, a soul that slipped through broken space into a world shaped by his arrival. But the structure is the same. The world has rules he doesn't understand. The powers that be have plans for him. And the only way out is through.
The humor element is here too, and it's the reason this novel makes the list instead of a dozen other fantasy adventures. Kai has a snail. The snail has impeccable manners and is already composing a eulogy for him. The snail treats every near-death experience like opening night at the theatre. That's the Percy Jackson voice: facing the apocalypse with a joke and a friend who won't stop being annoying. The friendship element runs through Talis and the village of failed Travelers, which is the Camp Half-Blood structure: a community of people who survived the impossible and are now each other's family. If you wanted Percy Jackson with multiple realms and a snail in a purple top hat, this is the novel.
Read it if you like: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard by Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson (the quest structure), stories with mythology, humor, and a protagonist whose best friend is not human.
Read Welcome Traveler free on NovelDay →
7. A Dragon Slayer: and the Sea Dragon of Delphi
Naphtali is an ordinary boy who lives an ordinary life as a blacksmith's apprentice with his Aunt in the city of Aldun. He hates it. He yearns for adventure. But he has no overwhelming skills, nothing that makes him stand out. There seems to be no way of escaping the mundane grip that life has on him. Even still, Naphtali can't quell the urge to be something great, to be like the Dragon Slayers. Alesia is a land filled with magical creatures of all sorts. Desert dragons in the east, frost dragons in the west, fairies that buzz in the woods, and mermaids in the depths of the seas. Join Naphtali as he embarks upon it.
This is the shortest novel on the list and the one that most directly mirrors the opening move of Percy Jackson. Percy was an ordinary kid who yearned for something more and got pulled into a world of monsters. Naphtali is an ordinary kid who yearns for something more and gets pulled into a world of dragons. The title tells you everything: A Dragon Slayer. The Sea Dragon of Delphi. Delphi is literally a Greek place. The DNA is not hidden.
The monsters element is the Percy Jackson connection that makes this novel fit the list. Alesia is full of magical creatures: dragons, fairies, mermaids. Naphtali's journey is the same kind of journey Percy takes in The Lightning Thief. A kid who doesn't know what he's doing, in a world full of things that can kill him, heading toward a confrontation with a creature that's bigger and older and meaner than he is. The difference is scale. At 4 chapters, this is the beginning of a story, not the whole thing. But the beginning is the part that feels most like Percy Jackson: the moment when the ordinary kid steps through the door and the world gets bigger. If you wanted the first chapter of Percy Jackson expanded into its own story, this is the NovelDay novel that carries that DNA.
Read it if you like: Fablehaven by Brandon Mull, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (the first quest), stories about ordinary boys who want to be dragon slayers and then get their chance.
Read A Dragon Slayer free on NovelDay →
What Should I Read After Percy Jackson?
The honest answer is: it depends on what you're missing. If you miss the training academy and the friendships forged under pressure, start with Rise of a Champion. Praevecti Academy is the most developed training-ground on the list. If you miss the humor and the ordinary-kid tone, start with The 90's Kid. Wes faces extraordinary danger with the same kind of sarcasm Percy uses. If you miss the mythology and the monsters, start with Welcome Traveler. It has myths, gods, multiple realms, and a snail with a purple top hat. If you want a completed story, The Bromeliad 2 is finished at 27 chapters. If you want the longest binge, The 90's Kid is 10.5 hours with 32 chapters.
If you've already read all seven and want more, NovelDay has a larger Fantasy catalog and Adventure catalog with novels that overlap with the mythological and coming-of-age spectrum. You can also browse by tag: Magic, Mythology, and Found Family all surface novels with Percy Jackson-adjacent themes. The full library has everything in one place.
Famous Books Like Percy Jackson (And How These Novels Compare)
Every "books like Percy Jackson" list on Google recommends the same published series. Here's how the novels on this list compare to the ones you've probably already read:
If you liked Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger: Sophie discovered a hidden magical world and a school for people like her. A Measure of Magic does something similar with Elliana and Paige, two friends moving through a kingdom where the political surface hides a magical infrastructure. The difference is that A Measure of Magic is about a curse, not a school, and the friendship is between equals rather than mentor and student.
If you liked Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston: Amari was an ordinary kid who discovered a secret world and powers she didn't ask for. Project:Psychic is the NovelDay equivalent: Liam is a high school student who falls into a world of ghosts and spirits and has to learn fast or die. The difference is that Liam's hidden world is supernatural rather than magical, and his powers are psychic rather than inherited.
If you liked Fablehaven by Brandon Mull: Two kids visited a secret sanctuary full of mythical creatures. A Dragon Slayer: and the Sea Dragon of Delphi is the NovelDay equivalent: Naphtali lives in a land full of dragons, fairies, and mermaids, and yearns to be a Dragon Slayer. The difference is scale. Fablehaven is a complete series. A Dragon Slayer is the opening chapters of a story that's just getting started.
If you liked Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard by Rick Riordan: Magnus was an ordinary kid pulled into Norse mythology with humor and a crew of misfit friends. Welcome Traveler is the NovelDay equivalent: Kai is pulled into a world of myths, gods, and multiple realms, with a snail companion who provides the comic relief. The difference is that Welcome Traveler's mythology is original rather than drawn from a specific tradition.
If you liked Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi: Aru was an ordinary girl who discovered she was part of a mythological lineage. The 90's Kid is the NovelDay equivalent in tone, if not in plot. Wes is an ordinary guy who discovers a portal in his pantry and brings his nephew along for the adventure. The difference is that The 90's Kid uses time travel instead of mythology, but the voice and the humor are the same DNA.
FAQ: Books Like Percy Jackson
Are these novels actually like Percy Jackson?
They share the structural elements: ordinary kids pulled into hidden worlds, training academies, mythological creatures, friendships that become family, and humor as a survival tool. But they're not Percy Jackson clones. Percy Jackson is a specific story with specific characters in a specific world. What these novels share is the experience of reading Percy Jackson: the moment when the ordinary gets weird, the moment when the weird gets dangerous, and the moment when the only thing standing between you and the thing that wants you dead is the friend standing next to you.
Are these novels free to read?
Yes. Every novel on NovelDay is free to read with no paywalls, no premium tiers, and no "wait or pay" timers. Authors post chapters on their own schedules, and you can follow novels to get notified when new chapters drop.
Are these novels appropriate for teens?
Most of the novels on this list are written for adult or older-teen audiences and contain violence, psychological intensity, and dark themes comparable to the later Percy Jackson books. Some carry Mature or Adult genre tags. The Percy Jackson series itself was published as middle-grade but dealt with child endangerment, parental abandonment, and mythological violence. If you're looking specifically for cleaner options, browse the School Life genre for lighter fare.
How long are these novels?
The longest is The 90's Kid at 10.5 hours with 32 chapters. The shortest is A Dragon Slayer at 1.5 hours with 4 chapters. One of the seven is a completed story (The Bromeliad 2), and the rest are ongoing with regular updates.
Can I write my own fantasy novel on NovelDay?
Yes. If you have a fantasy, adventure, or coming-of-age story of your own, you can publish it on NovelDay for free and keep all rights to your work. The platform is open to independent authors, and there are no submission fees or exclusivity requirements.
More Reading Guides
For more free reading guides, I've written several that overlap with this list:
- 10 Books Like Harry Potter to Read Free Online — the companion guide for readers looking for hidden worlds, magic schools, and coming-of-age fantasy
- 7 Books Like The Hunger Games to Read Free Online — if the academy and survival elements of Percy Jackson appeal more than the mythology, this covers training and resistance
- 7 Best Dystopian Books to Read Free Online — if the academy and survival elements of Percy Jackson appeal more than the mythology, this covers training and resistance
- 7 Best Urban Fantasy Books to Read Free Online — if the hidden-world-in-plain-sight element is what grabbed you, this covers fantasy set in the modern world
- Best Comedy Books to Read Free Online — if the humor is what made Percy Jackson work for you, this covers the funniest novels in the catalog
- What is Found Family? And Best Books to Read Free Online — if the friendship-becomes-family element is what you're after, this covers the trope in depth
- 9 Best Sci-Fi Books to Read Free Online — if The 90's Kid caught your eye, this covers more novels that bend reality and stretch the ordinary into the extraordinary
Every novel on NovelDay is free to read. No paywalls, no premium tiers, no "wait or pay" timers. Authors post chapters on their own schedules, and you can follow novels to get notified when new chapters drop. If you're a writer with a fantasy or adventure story of your own, you can publish it on NovelDay for free and keep all rights to your work.
For more free fiction, browse the full NovelDay library or explore the Fantasy genre and Adventure genre for more novels that share the ordinary-kid-extraordinary-world DNA of Percy Jackson.
