[Review] The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Percy Jackson is a good kid, but he can’t seem to focus on his schoolwork or control his temper. And lately, being away at boarding school is only getting worse—Percy could have sworn his pre-algebra teacher turned into a monster and tried to kill him. When Percy’s mom finds out, she knows it’s time that he knew the truth about where he came from, and that he go to the one place he’ll be safe. She sends Percy to Camp Half Blood, a summer camp for demigods (on Long Island), where he learns that the father he never knew is Poseidon, God of the Sea. Soon a mystery unfolds and together with his friends—one a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of Athena—Percy sets out on a quest across the United States to reach the gates of the Underworld (located in a recording studio in Hollywood) and prevent a catastrophic war between the gods. – Goodreads

 

Writing (world building, characters, style, etc.): 

Boy am I glad the book is nothing like the movies, had it been, I don’t think I would have been able to finish. I really disliked Annabeth in the movie, but I found all the characters quite likable in the book. There’s something about Rick Riordan’s style that made it seem like I was making very slow progress. This normally wouldn’t really be a big deal except that I have a deadline and a set amount of books to read. That said, the story was not slow at all, there was actually never a dull moment, which is pretty impressive! There were times where I had a little trouble picturing the settings and I wish there had been more details, but overall the world building was done very nicely.

Is it just me, or did they get the timing wrong? At some point Grover mentions they have 9 days left, then the next morning Annabeth makes “breakfast”, and later on when they are on the train or bus Percy talks about how this was their second day on the bus or train and that they had 8 days left, excuse me, no, you have 7 days left.

There were also times I found the language a little strange. The dialogue sometimes sounded a little unnatural. I can’t put my finger on it, but there was just something a little odd…

Anyway, no major complaints regarding style, characters, or plot!

Did I learn anything? Did it make me think?

Not really, but I do hope this sparks my love for Greek mythology again. When I was young I used to love this stuff, and then one day I just stopped.

Ok, maybe I do have one complaint, why is Percy Poseidon’s kid when Perseus is Zeus’ son in Greek mythology? Are we supposed to just ignore that fact? Was Percy named after his…. cousin? Is this every explained?

Oh and also, Greek gods are a bunch of buttholes, I kinda hate the lot. We’ll see how I feel about them in the next book.

Overall feelings:

I liked this book! It was fun and exciting and never a dull moment! I recommend this book to everyone.

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