Genre: Middle grade, fantasy

Publication date: 1st April 2006 by Hyperion books

Format: Paperback purchased from The Works

After a year spent trying to prevent a catastrophic war among the Greek gods, Percy Jackson finds his seventh-grade school year unnervingly quiet. His biggest problem is dealing with his new friend, Tyson–a six-foot-three, mentally challenged homeless kid who follows Percy everywhere, making it hard for Percy to have any “normal” friends.

But things don’t stay quiet for long. Percy soon discovers there is trouble at Camp Half-Blood: The magical borders which protect Half-Blood Hill have been poisoned by a mysterious enemy, and the only safe haven for demigods is on the verge of being overrun by mythological monsters. To save the camp, Percy needs the help of his best friend, Grover, who has been taken prisoner by the Cyclops Polyphemus on an island somewhere in the Sea of Monsters–the dangerous waters Greek heroes have sailed for millenia–only today, the Sea of Monsters goes by a new name…the Bermuda Triangle.

Now Percy and his friends–Grover, Annabeth, and Tyson–must retrieve the Golden Fleece from the Island of the Cyclopes by the end of the summer or Camp Half-Blood will be destroyed. But first, Percy will learn a stunning new secret about his family–one that makes him question whether being claimed as Poseidon’s son is an honor or simply a cruel joke.

(from goodreads.com)

This was such a good second book; I’m still fairly new to the series, but I already feel so invested in the world and the characters’ lives. The introduction of Tyson, a cyclops, really changed the character dynamic in the story and I loved his character as well.

The character development almost seemed a little different in this book. I mean, it was explicitly stated in the first book – to an extent – whereas in this one I felt that there was more showing and less telling. I enjoyed both, but I felt that maybe it was done ‘better’ in this book. We learn some of Percy and Annabeth’s deepest flaws and worries, and I loved this, it really altered the story and the way I saw the characters in their given situations.

Reading this book almost makes me a lot more excited for the continuation of the series. The first book made me want to continue to see what happened next, whereas this one has given me faith in Rick Riordan (not that I didn’t have any faith in him before – the sheer number of books he has published says it all really about his writing and storytelling abilities!). He took his characters and gave them a completely new adventure, adding new characters and changing relationships along the way. It wasn’t just a continuation of the first book, it was a new story in itself.

The development of the backstories of several characters really caught my interest too – Annabeth’s in particular. I feel as though there is a lot more to her character compared to what has been revealed so far, and I look forward to where this will go later on in the series. Chiron, too, has a backstory that I hope to learn more about as I work my way through the rest of the books.

I really enjoyed this book, and I can’t wait to carry on through the series – I will be picking up the next one as soon as I’m on track with uni reading! This has definitely given me confidence that every book will be different in some way, and not just an ‘oh it’s a new summer so there must be a new adventure’ kind of thing, the adventures have their reason for being and are well thought-out. I completely understand the hype about this series now, and my only regret is not reading it sooner.

Rating: 4.5 / 5 🌟