Review | The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan

The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan
Series: Percy Jackson And The Olympians #1
Published On: March 1, 2006
Published By: Puffin
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 375
Format: Paperback
Source: Bought
Rating: ★★★★

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Half boy. Half God. All Hero. 
Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood. I never asked to be the son of a Greek God. 
I was just a normal kid, going to school, playing basketball, skateboarding. The usual. Until I accidentally vaporized my maths teacher. Now I spend my time battling monsters and generally trying to stay alive. 
This is the one where Zeus, God of the Sky, thinks I've stolen his lightning bolt - and making Zeus angry is a very bad idea.

The Lightening Thief, the first book in the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan, follows Percy as he discovers he is no ordinary kid; he’s a demigod. As the son of a Greek God, there is only one place where Percy will be safe from the many monsters that are after him: Camp Half Blood. With the help of the friends he meets there, Percy must complete his quest to the Underworld to stop a war amongst the Gods.

I have friends who have been trying to get me to read this for a while now and when I finally caved, I flew through it. I had my doubts as I am not much of a fantasy reader, nor have I read much middle grade, but they were definitely unnecessary doubts. I couldn’t get enough of this story.

It is hard not to fly through this book, as it is so action packed. There is never a dull moment throughout Percy’s adventures and hardly a page went by without something exciting happening. I was completely sucked into the story by all of the excitement and action.

Rick Riordan’s writing style adds so much to this story. As if all of the action wasn’t enough, the way in which it was written kept the reader interested. The writing style made everything that much more exciting and even added some suspense, while being very witty at the same time. I’m also curious as to how Rick Riordan thought up all of the crazy things that happened throughout the book. 

The characters in this story are great. I loved pretty much all of them. Percy was a great main character, both brave and heroic. I loved Grover and his loyalty to his friends, as well as his hilarious mannerisms. I even loved the monsters and the bad guys.

Possibly my favourite thing about this book is the references to Greek Mythology. Having studied Latin and Classical studies for 6 years, I am very interested in all things related to Greek and Roman mythology. I loved the way the mythology that could often be considered boring has been given an exciting twist.

Overall, I really enjoyed the first book in this series. I can see why so many people love the series, and why my friends were so eager for me to start reading it, which I’m glad I finally did. I will definitely be making time to read the rest of the books in this series.