PJ: The Sea of Monsters — I sea what you’re doing
My original copy of The Sea of Monsters
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters is the second book in the strong-starting and already well-acclaimed series by author Rick Riordian. We once again follow Percy, about a year later, as he undertakes a second, possibly more dangerous quest after his initial successes in The Lightning Thief. Now, obviously, I’ll be discussing spoilers here, so if you want to enjoy the books on their own, start at the first one and come back here! If you don’t mind, or you’ve already read these books to death (like I have) sit down and take it easy.
I have to come clean with this one right off the back. Sea of Monsters is my least favorite book in the PJ saga. Bear in mind, I still really love it and I don’t want that fact to get obscured by my less-excited reactions to it. I do love this book, I just think it suffers a bit from having to set things up for the rest of the series. I don’t dislike any of the characters, I don’t even dislike the quest itself, I just feel like the moment-to-moment story isn’t as strong as The Lightning Thief or The Titan’s Curse (which I’m about midway through as of writing this).
With that out of the way, let’s talk characters! Percy is as enjoyable as ever; Annabeth is still my favorite character in the series; there’s some great banter/moments with Clarisse and her continual hostility toward Percy; I love Tyson as a new addition and find his back-and-forth with Percy really endearing (if a little silly).
Broad strokes, the quest itself is fun. I love the idea of going on a sea-fairing adventure, of running into pirates and Guinea pigs. I really got a laugh out of the Monster Donuts bit and the bib-wearing hydra. I’m a Monster Donut kid indeed.
Let’s talk spoilers.
SPOILERS BELOW, DUH
Percy’s fun time summer adventure 2 begins with his school gymnasium getting blown to bits by giants in a flaming dodge-ball competition. Percy, naturally, is blamed for this, but is saved by his classmate (later-revealed Cyclops brother Tyson) and Annabeth, who just happened to pass by after having dreams about their summer camp’s demise. Annabeth isn’t thrilled to be near Tyson (for arguably justified reasons, though not because of him) but the three set out to find Camp Half-Blood under attack. They find that the tree denoting the camp’s border has been poisoned and, with no one proper to blame, the camp head Chiron is to blame.
After swift replacement and a chariot race gone a-fowl, a quest is made and (shocker) Percy’s bully Clarisse is elected to lead it. Percy and friends, annoyed and with more than a little divine help, decide to go on their own unsanctioned quest to 1) find and stop Luke, their former friend, 2) save Grover, who is currently trapped in the world’s most unpleasant arrangement and 3) nab the Golden Fleece while they’re at it. Obviously, the three plans fall apart about as soon as they happen, with the wild, crazy, added note of rodent rodeoing and pirate-provoking only adding to the mess. Percy steals a pirate ship, sails it one-handed, no-sells the whole part too. I’m skimming a few details here, partially to incentivize you to go read the book if you haven’t or it’s been a while. It’s still good, just a bit… chaotic!
Spoilers end here.
Probably my least favorite of the original five books, though I can’t stress enough that I still think it’s great. My mom and I had a lot of similar thoughts on this one, but we both ended it excited to see where the series goes next. And if you’ve read The Titan’s Curse, you know it gets pretty good. On to the next one.
