{Review} The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1)

Rick Riordan

Pages: 389

Publisher: Disney Hyperion Books

Format: A very beat up Paperback

Source: Probably B&N

Age Group: Middle Grade

Date Published: January 1, 2005

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.

OK so I've read this book at least 25 times at this point (unhealthy, I know, but I had a penchant for rereading at age 12). I was kinda freaking out about responsibilities and wasting my summer yada, yada, yada- basically I wanted to be younger me again so I read my favorite book of all time (I think I'm just gonna plow through the whole series now...). I lost about 4 hours this morning in it. I love these books. 

I love Riordan's writing style. It's fun and entertaining, and it didn't bug me that the book was from the perspective of a kid my little sister's age. I laughed through it, awwed at all the baby Percabeth moments, really I just needed this book so bad right now. I used to be able to recite entire chapters (I'm such a nerd, I know) and now I remember why I read this book so many times. I've always loved adventures and this is one heck of one. The movie didn't do it any justice (I have higher hopes for The Sea of Monsters, which is my favorite in the series and they'd better do it good). 

Percy's this pain-in-the-ass ADHD, dyslexic kid who's been in as many schools as grades he's been in. He does poorly in class and picks fights with bullies. He loves his mom more than anything (and he should. She's wicked awesome). They eat blue food together. He pisses gods off and makes friends. I pretty much love this kid. Believe it or not he was my first book crush. He's a cutie pie too, with his dark hair and green eyes. I totally get why baby me was in love him. I like older Percy better now though ;) Anyways, he's an amazing character. He's insanely brave, and clever. He, Grover, and Annabeth make such a great team, because he's not the brightest crayon in the box, and Annabeth totally is (I'll fangirl over her in a minute). And Grover breaks/eats everything and together they're just so dang cute.

So, Annabeth. She was basically who I wanted to be throughout middle school. She made me want to be an architect- and that's actually the reason I ended up at the school I'm at now. I've moved on to a different focus within engineering, but I admired her so much and her character made architecture so interesting that I started to look into it- and loved it. She's super smart and pretty and witty and adorable and I love her. She's brave, like Percy, but in a different way. She's deathly afraid of spiders because of the whole Athena/Arachne thing, which is way understandable. I've just always thought she was awesome. I've never met anyone who's read the series and didn't agree, though.

I love these books more than anything. I want everyone to read them, really. They're fun and interesting and funny and worth reading a million different times. So, yeah. 5 staches!