Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Release Date: May 4th 2006
Publisher: Puffin Books
Add it: Goodreads
Overall: ♥♥♥1/2
I have a confession, please don't scold me.
I saw the movie before I read the book...
Reading this was sort of like reading Philosopher's Stone for the first time, it's exciting, intended for younger eyes and an easy read but it didn't hook me instantly (I am still in love with Harry Potter, easy 6 solid gold stars). It did however, give the impression that, it's going to be similar to Harry Potter in that, the next few books will feel older and the plot will develop into something amazing!
I loved Percy, Annabeth and Grover (Though I kept picturing him as a blue muppet, rather than a goat) and I really loved how everything fell in place! Although it's basically just 12 year olds on one massive road trip, it was exciting and the pace was brilliant.
The characterisation was just right for me too, I loved Percy because every 12 year old boy with behaviour issues that I know, acts like Percy! I felt so incredibly protective of him, he was so young, naive and stubborn, every time I knew he was going to get into trouble or run into something/someone dangerous, I wanted to guide him through it and help him! But Percy always managed to pull through, he was strong willed and determined to do the right thing and help. Rick Riordan was incredibly successful in creating a loveable 12 year old boy! (Harry Potter still holds the key to my literary heart though!) The fact that ADHD and Dyslexia was portrayed as a good thing in these books left me astonished, I still can't get over it! I think it's so great that somebody has finally turned around to the world and said "screw you" and made these so called 'bad things' into something unique and great! I love that demi-gods are dyslexic and I love that they have ADHD and I love that this is an advantage to them! Too often in books, we see things like these portrayed in the antagonist or as a major flaw in the protagonist and it was refreshing to see it portrayed in a different light for a change! I could go on about this for ages but simply put, I was impressed :)
The way the Greek Gods were portrayed was awesome. I've always loved Greek mythology but as it turns out, I have forgotten alot of information! So it was refreshing to read a book about a topic and have it turn out to be fairly accurate, seriously people, how often do you get accurate mythology is 90% of YA-novels? I felt Riordan gave each of the Gods great defining characteristics that weren't necessarily cliche except for Poseidon wearing a freaking Hawaiian shirt or something? - That is my work uniform :| .... but they had definite personalities, although they were still Gods and therefore Godlike.
As for setting, it annoys me that the centre of the world is America. It annoyed me that the Greek Gods were in America (although this is roughly explained) and that pretty much everything is based in New York. One major thing that irked me was when Percy said that Persephone really did control the seasons by saying that when she was in the Underworld it was winter, and when she was above ground it was Summer. Sorry, but where does the other side of the world come into this? So, at the time of writing this, it'll be winter in America, so it's summer in Australia (YAY!!!), but according to this we are in winter still. Ahh! Rant over :)
The setting of the Underworld however, fascinated me! When I read about "Hades" in 'Hades', I wanted to punch the author in the face, when I read about the Underworld by the REAL HADES, I was so happy! I'm glad it wasn't just portrayed as Hell with the burning and destroying, blah blah blah, there were GOOD places in the Underworld too! Which makes sense! YAY FOR COMMON KNOWLEDGE :D
Overall, I thought this was great! I didn't love it, but I enjoyed it and will definitely read the others (plus I just got the boxset *dances*) and I have a feeling that because of the ending of this which was AWESOME, the other books will just get better and better :) Also, I have a thought I may turn into a fangirl of this series, but we'll see :)
