Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief | Book Review

★★★★

4 Stars | Older Juvenile | Young Adult | Fiction | Mythology

Three teens go on a quest to retrieve Zeus's bolt

Percy Jackson's life is already challenging enough, especially with him potentially getting kicked out of another boarding school. Now, mythological creatures and gods from Mount Olympus, the ones in his textbooks, are coming out of the woodwork to get their hands on him because they think he stole Zeus's bolt! With the potential for war, Percy and his friends only have ten days to return the stolen bolt and find the true thief.
 
I’ve always enjoyed myths and mythology; I find it fascinating. So, when my son got this for Christmas, I of course wanted to read it with him. I remember him telling me how much he liked it when they read it in his class one year, so I was looking forward to this new adventure. I was not disappointed. The story was very well written, the characters and dialogue realistic, and I remember remarking how good this author was at telling a story.

The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is due to that one subjective thing – emotional aspect. I didn’t feel anything for what the characters were going through, and I didn’t feel the obsessive need to know how it ended because the story drove me to know what happened. A couple aspects made be curious to see what the author has in store next for the readers, but ultimately the connection to the characters just wasn’t there for me.

I did smile though, enjoying the explanation provided by one of the characters about the gods. I appreciated how the author acknowledged “God – capital G, God,” was a different matter altogether and the “gods…the immortal gods of Olympus,” was a “smaller matter.”

Overall, I really liked the book, enjoyed visualizing the mythological creatures brought to life in the story and we look forward to Book II: The Sea of Monsters, since neither of us have read it.

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