Review: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

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.

I don't know why I didn't trust any of the people who raved about how amazing this book was. It is the adventure of a lifetime and so much more.

The characters captured my heart and I found myself ripped into their world. One of my biggest fears was that I wouldn't connect with Percy because he's a 12 yr old kid but I was so wrong. There wasn't a time when I felt tiresome or annoyed from reading from the point of view of a preteen. Usually I get mad at characters for doing stupid things but even with Percy, Annabeth and Grover being so young that wasn't the case.

The romance is very VERY light. There's almost none of it in this first book, which is good because they're so young still. I'm really looking forward to seeing how they develop and evolve in the following books.

As I mentioned before, the adventure sucks you right in. There wasn't a moment when I didn't say, just one more page, because Percy and his friends were in the middle of something crazy. I loved every encounter with the Greek gods and monsters and I thought it was amazing how Rick Riordan managed to bring that old mythology and the modern world together in this epic story.

I can't wait to pick up the second book since this one blew my expectations out of the water. I think I'm the last person ever to read this but if you somehow haven't yet, go get it and start your journey alongside Percy's wild story.

5/5 stars