PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF
Author: Rick Riordan
Publisher: Miramax Books
Age Range: 11+
Summary:
Percy Jackson is a middle schooler with ADHD and dyslexia. As if attending boarding school in NYC for “troubled kids” wasn't bad enough, Percy realizes that his life is way more complicated when he accidentally vaporizes his math teacher. Then he is attacked by what seems like a half bull-half man, and then a crazy lady from a weird roadside curio shop, then a lion-sized, fire breathing chihuahua and well the list goes on. And guess what? It gets worse because he is accused of stealing something extremely important.
Review:
This has to be one of the most ultimate series known to mankind. I’m not even kidding when I say that I have read the entire series more than 5-10 times. It's just so good that it's tough to keep it aside once you start reading. The book, or just the entire series, is the peak definition of how to incorporate mythology with adventure and humor.
Being in middle school itself is a tough thing, trust me, I’ve been there. But imagine going on a trip to a museum only for your least favorite teacher to turn into a fury and attack you. And after you vaporize her with a pen-turned-into-a-sword given by one of the other teachers, everyone just proceeds to say that the teacher never existed. Yeah, that would be enough to drive anyone crazy. But it just gets crazier when Percy finds out he is the son of Poseidon, the Greek God of Sea.
Finding out that you are the child of a Greek God and that there are multiple other kids who have Greek Gods as their mom or dad isn't as fun and interesting as it sounds. Percy didn't even believe that Greek Gods exist until he went to Camp Half-blood. There he finds out that his dad is Poseidon and that monsters will not stop at anything to kill him.
Being the son of Poseidon comes with benefits like getting to control water but great power comes with great responsibility. I think in the case of demigods, though, it comes with great trouble. My point is proven when Percy is accused of stealing Zeus’s lightning bolt. It might sound childish but its not. A two-foot-long cylinder with god-level-explosives is definitely not something anyone would use in a school play.
And in-order to prove himself as innocent, Percy has to find the bolt before the summer-solstice. Traveling to the Underworld and fighting monsters from Greek mythology is just the tip of the iceberg. The ending is where the entire plot actually sums up and it is such an insane plot-twist, I actually had to keep aside the book for a while and go for a walk to process everything. The cliff-hanger in the end of the book is also something to look forward to.
“You shall go west, and face the god who has turned
You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned
You shall be betrayed by the one who calls you a friend
And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.”
~Avani Endait
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