Review: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Hello, Bookish Buddies, and welcome to 2008, when most people read this book! I finally read Percy Jackson and the Lighting Thief, which I clearly should have a long time ago, because it was epic. In my defense, I started it back then, I just didn’t finish it. Anyway, let’s get onto the review! If you some how don’t know what The Lightning Thief is about, here is the synopsis for you:

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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.

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First of all, can we talk about the chapter titles? Of course we can, this is my book review. The chapter titles were one of the best parts of the book for me, and I really enjoyed this book.  They were so witty and they made me never want to put the book down. Some examples of my favorite chapter titles are ‘Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death’, ‘We Get Advice From a Poodle’, and ‘We Take a Zebra to Vegas’. I absolutely cannot wait to see what other hilarious chapter titles Rick Riordan has in store for me.

Now onto my actual thoughts about the book. As I mentioned earlier, I started The Lighting Thief at some point in my childhood, but never finished it. Because I have a really weird bookish memory, I was able to remember some of the early plot points almost exactly, which kind of sucked. I felt like I had been spoiled by my younger self, which kind of took away from the reading experience for me.

However, I hadn’t read very much into it, so I was introduced to Camp Half Blood for the first time and it was epic. I wish I was a demigod so I could go.  How epic would it be to go to Hogwarts for school and Camp Half Blood in the summer?  This is why I read, because imagination is so much cooler than reality.

There were a few flaws within it that I noticed, such as the incredibly obvious foreshadowing. Nothing that happened especially surprised me, but I feel like it would have if I read it when I was younger.  I hate to admit it, but I also kind of had an issue with Annabeth.  Don’t get me wrong, she is so beautifully sarcastic and I thought she was awesome, but at times she felt unrealistically smart.  I guess that comes with being the daughter of Athena, but she just felt unrealistically intelligent for a twelve year old girl. However, both of these flaws were easily overlooked.

Overall, I rated Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief a 4/5 stars. I have The Sea of Monsters on my Overdrive and I am excited to start it soon!

What did you think of The Lightning Thief?