Genre: Fantasy, Middle Grade, Mythology

Publication Date: June 28th, 2005

Format: Paperback published by Puffin Books

Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood. I never asked to be the son of a greek god.

I was just a normal kid, going to school, playing basketball, skateboarding. The usual. Until I accidentally vaporized my maths teacher. Now I spend my time battling monsters and generally trying to stay alive.

This is the one where Zeus, God of the Sky, thinks I’ve stolen his lightning bolt – and making Zeus angry is a very bad idea.

(from goodreads.com)

This was so good. Everyone raves on and on about these books, and now I can see why. There are so many things to love about it, and I will cover some, but I also plan on reviewing later books in the series, and I want to see how some things develop.

The narrative voice is incredibly readable. It hooks you in with its informal, chatty tone and makes you feel as though you’re listening to a friend recounting the events of their summer to you (albeit very dramatic events). It made it an easy read, perfect after some of the books I’ve read recently (I’m looking at you, Dostoevsky), and I was drawn into the story straight away. I felt as though I left 2017 bordering on entering a reading slump, but that reading slump has definitely been avoided.

Character development in this is just brilliant. I felt like I got to know Percy, to see him grow and develop. How this continues in the later books, I have yet to find out, as character growth is unavoidable in a plot like this – Percy has to discover facts about himself for the story to unfold. Regardless, it is done well. He has to figure things out for himself – they aren’t just suddenly apparent. I, therefore, have high hopes for this to be continued throughout the series.

I loved the integration of the mythology. Okay, I know it’s pretty essential for these books to have mythology woven into the plot, yet it is the subtle mention of smaller stories that aren’t necessarily important for the plot’s progression, but add a bit of background to the characters and make it all a little more interesting. I love Greek mythology, and I’ve read plenty of the myths before, though they never seemed to stick in my mind – but I feel like reading these books may be different. I hope so, anyway.

I cannot wait to continue on with this series, and then onto the rest of Rick Riordan’s books. I initially read this both because of ‘pressure’ from my best friend Hannah, but mainly because of the readalong she is hosting. (Both Hannah’s blog and the Epic Riordan Readalong Youtube channel are linked.) All I can say is I wish I had read these sooner, but at least I’ve started them now, and I can’t wait to find out how the events unfold.

Rating: 5 / 5🌟