The Lightening Thief

The Lightening Thief

Rick Riordan

Percy Jackson & The Olympians (book 1)

rating: 9

Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school... again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he's angered a few of them. Zeus' master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.

Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus' stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.
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This was a series that I had been wanting to read for a while but haven't been able to get my hands on, constantly moving around and going to third-world countries makes it rather hard to find books.  Anywho, I was able to borrow the series from a friend here, so I was one happy girl!

I loved this book from the start, mainly because I love Greek and Roman mythology.  So right off the bat I will warn you that if you don't like mythology or things that revolve around it, this isn't the book for you.  But for us mythology nerds, it's awesome!  

First off, the characters!  This is one of the best books that I've read that's been able to develop characters that you fall in love with in such a quick time-frame.  Percy, Annabeth, Clarisse, Grover(!), Mr. D, and Chiron (just to name a few) are all super relatable and real, flaws and all!  Also the way that Rick Riordan puts the Greek gods in present day cracks me up, for example, Ares is a gnarly, Harley guy with a bad temper and Zeus wears a pen-striped suit, kinda funny...  

I don't think that there are a lot of things that would be objectionable.  Other than that fact that (just like in mythology) the whole reason there are demigods are that the gods have been having kids with mortals.  But it never goes into details and they always talk about how much the god loved the mortal parent.  So, it's kinda up to you…

Now before you go and order them from the library or borrow them from a friend, make sure you borrow more than one, if not all of the series.  I don't think any of the books end at a real suspenseful part, but if you read the sneak peak of the next book in the back, well you're toast.  And all of the books are written at a young reading level so they're super easy reads.

I actually just finished the last book, sadly…  but, they were awesome and there is actually another series with this story, so I'm now trying to figure out how to get that series…
I was gonna lump all the books into one review but i decided to break it up, so this is only the 1st of the 5 books.  Stay tuned!