Percy Jackson: Lightning Thief — Ares needs to be arrested
my original, beat up copy of The Lightning Thief
I don’t think I need to write about Rick Riordan’s wonderful book, but I’m going to anyways! There’s been countless said about the Olympians series, and while I probably don’t have anything new to say I’m going to say it regardless.
This time, at least with these books specifically, I’m not going to be reading them alone. My Mom is reading through them with me! I have her to thank for getting into writing, reading, and fantasy as a whole. Without her buying these books when I was a kid I would’ve never known how wonderful the world can be.
So, let’s dive back into the fantastical world of Percy Jackson and the Olympians and it’s cute, adventurous, memorable first book, The Lightning Thief…
TLT starts with our protagonist, poor Percy Jackson, having a less-than-grand argument with one of his teachers. Percy is a troubled kid with a troubled life, and while he tries his best to, well, try, there are plenty of times where it seems the world is out to get him. Having dyslexia and ADHD have done little to help his case, and while is friend Grover tries to keep Percy out of trouble, trouble itself always seems to find him. That trouble, kicked like a line of dominoes, cascades into the threat of a world war and ancient powerful forces doing their best to piss their siblings off. Percy’s first book can best be described as Percy-has-a-terrible-time-with-his-family-and-friends and even that doesn’t remotely sum up the myriad of crazy encounters, backstabs, and evil lap-dogs our little hero must (literally) fight against just to survive.
Spoilers beyond this point, you’ve been warned… (about a book that came out a while ago, but still…)
Percy is sent along on his journey by a series of accidents, a long-hidden secret, and the death of his mom. He, joined by Grover, his friend, and Annabeth, a girl wise beyond her years, by his once-school-teacher now centaur-teacher Chiron (Percy is very overwhelmed by this fact) to recover the stolen Master Bolt, Zeus’ (yes, that Zeus) strongest weapon. All the while being hunted by Hades, harassed by Ares, and claimed by his father, Posideon (yes, that Posideon). He only survives through his own abilities, Grover’s (who’s a satyr with fuzzy goat legs) nature skills, and Annabeth’s (her mom is the Athena by the way) genius. It’s eventually revealed that Percy’s mom is still alive, being held by Hades because he has had something of his stolen too, and both of them are blaming Percy for this theft. Percy eventually has to leave his mom in the Underworld (a point that made my mom really sad) and has to race back home when he realizes he’s being used by those close to him and farther away. Percy is finally able to return the bolt and Hades’ helm (which gets his mom returned to him) and all ends well!
Until he’s betrayed in the end by a friend of his, Luke, who is working for the long-destroyed God-of-Gods, Kronos.
Spoilers end here… for now!
I freaking love this book. Rick Riordan and Michelle Paver (another childhood author I’ll eventually be talking about) are both phenomenal authors and it’s been such a blast revisiting this book. My mom enjoyed it too! She loves Percy, thinks the blue food is kinda silly, and thought Luke was a loser. We’re going to be moving on to the second book, The Sea of Monsters…
Absolutely recommend.
