Review: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Back Cover Blurb:

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.

The movie trailer:



For fans of: D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Since every movie I’ve seen recently has a trailer for the movie version of The Lightning Thief, I thought I’d review the book just to see what the movie would be about. After looking for the Percy Jackson series in the teen section of my local bookstore, I finally broke down and asked for assistance in finding it. Surprisingly, I was directed into the children’s section, which I’m pretty sure I haven’t set foot in for at least ten years. I’m not sure if this qualifies as Young Adult, but I’ll still review it.

Anyway, Percy is a fun character. He suffers from ADHD and dyslexia, which makes it hard for him to live a normal life. When you add the fact that weirdly dangerous things keep happening around him, Percy makes a perfect candidate for a school for troubled youths. When Percy kills his math teacher, who was really a harpy-in-disguise, his mom sends him to Camp Half-Blood, where he finds out that his father is really Poseidon, the God of the Seas. Also, some good news and bad news: he discovers he has cool new powers that have to do with water and he’s suspected of having taken Zeus’s ultra-super-special lightning bolt. The theft of Zeus’s bolt is causing all of the Greek gods to start getting ready for war, so Percy takes on a quest with his friends Grover and Annabeth in order to discover who really stole the lightning bolt and clear Percy’s name. Eventually, Percy grows into the hero he was born to be and discovers a plot that could change the world as we know it.

I really liked The Lightning Thief. I’ve always been a big fan of Greek mythology, and so seeing Rick Riordan take the old myths and put them in a modern setting is fantastic. I also really enjoyed how along Percy’s journey, he encounters scenarios found in the Odyssey and mythological baddies that are pulled straight from a roster of Greek monsters. I was really excited to see how all the myths translated: the three Fates run a fruit stand by the side of the highway where they knit the strands of Fate; Ares and Aphrodite still get it on in secret while Hephaestus tries to capture them mid flagrante delicto on video.

The writing was well-done, and there was an interesting twist at the end that I didn’t see coming, and a couple of twists that I did guess. The traps Percy fell into along the way were a little obvious if you know a lot about Greek mythology, and the head villain was foreshadowed a little too extensively, but other than that, it was a fun read for a children/teen novel. Would I read the next book in the series? Yeah, if I can get it away from my dad first (I got him interested in the series and now we have to fight over the books). Would I re-read this book? Probably.

My Grade: A-