Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
It's been a few days since I finished this book and I am still angry with myself for not reading this when I was younger. It was incredible, and not just incredible for the target audience (middle grade/young adult) but for all ages. I've read a few middle grades and one of my main complaints is how while I enjoyed the plot, everything just felt immature and too young for me (which I then go onto explain that it is my fault for reading something that I'm not the target audience for), but that wasn't the case for this book in the slightest! It didn't feel to young or immature. It felt like a typical book I would pick up. Except it was so good!
There were a few reasons to why I finally decided to give this a try, the first being one of my closest friends recommended it to me last year when I first got back into reading it again; my response was along the lines of "I'm not sure that'll really be my thing" well past self, you were wrong. The second was for The Nostalgia Book Club (twitter)! It was Chanelle that made me interested in picking this book up again recently, so I'm very thankful for her!
Okay. Why I totally, completely, absolutely adored this book. First, the characters. I loved Percy and Grover and Annabeth, plus some of the Gods and other side characters! They were all memorable and I want to credit that to Riordan's writing, he knew exactly how to create each character (even those that already existed!). He gave them their quirks and their personalities and I just fell in love. The trio clicked well together, even when it seemed like they didn't, throughout the quest. I also just wanna say I love that Grover is part goat.
Speaking of the quest, that was the next part of the book I really enjoyed. Considering the quest was most of the foundation for the plot, I'm glad I ended up enjoying it! In my personal opinion, more books need to have quests. Or I need to find books that have quests, because they make both the characters and the readers journey throughout the book much more entertaining. There is always twists and turns throughout the quest and this book was not an exception. I did not see the many plot twists coming throughout the book. Riordan, again, wrote these very well and his creativity was brilliant. The idea of this quest too was very unique, that Zeus had his lightning bolt stolen, like dang.
Another thing I liked was how Riordan combined parts of the real world, with aspects of mythology. Mythology has always been something that has captured my interest and this fiction story with mythologic elements was the perfect fix I didn't know I needed. This book starts with Percy at a boarding school, very normal. Throughout the book, on his quest, Percy travels through various cities throughout the United States, two that I've actually been to! The scene in St. Louis was especially captivating to me because
1. I've been to St. Louis
2. I've been inside the arch and know the surroundings of it pretty well
It was crazy to imagine that part of the story happening at a place I've been before, but it's also really cool!
Another thing that made this book enjoyable for me was the narrator of the audiobook. Jesse Bernstein really knew how to voice these characters to encapsulate their entire essences and personalities. It just added this whole layer to the experience and I am so glad I ended up picking this up in an audio format.
I now feel like I need to binge read this entire series along with all of Riordan's other books.
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