Mr. Percy Jackson in his entirety

Jun 18, 2012 00:26

I wasn't QUITE sure how I wanted to handle this post due to the fact that there are five Percy Jackson books, so I think for my header I'm just going to kind of give you a run down of the series but then LJ cut each review with the name and star rating I gave it.  Sound good?  Good.  Also, keep in mind that all of these reviews have MAJOR SPOILERS.

Title: Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
Rating: 4/5
Pages: A lot.
Genre:  Children's lit/Fantasy
Summary: Percy Jackson finds out that he is actually half-god and that all the Greek stories were true.  As he grows he runs into monsters, prophecies, and even makes friends along the way.


I really like the Percy Jackson books. This is the second time I've read the first book, and it's still a fun, engaging series.

I love the premise of these books. It's the modern world and the Olympian Gods still exists. On top of all that, they're still producing half-blood heroes. I like that so much mythology gets incorporated into the book. I enjoy the fact that it teaches you mythology without making it feel forced. Percy doesn't know, so he has to be told. Or he's trying to recall it. Riordan manages exposition without making it feel forced. For a children's book, this is a BIG DEAL.

I like that Percy isn't your perfect hero. Does he always win in the end... well, yes because they are Disney books and they are children's books and they are fun books. They just wouldn't feel right if he didn't win. But he messes up... a LOT. He's constantly walking into traps and fighting off monsters and never really knowing what he's doing. In this first installment, he doesn't a really stupid thing and goes and makes himself enemies with Ares, God of War.

It's also kind of heartbreaking. You have these kids, tons of them, who have Gods as parents. But those parents always kind of ignore them. These Gods can never really show their affections towards their children, whether they have it or not, and these kids don't completely understand that. At the end of the day, they're still kids, who still need to be loved and sometimes don't get it from either parent. You end up with a lot of angry, confused kids. One of them being Luke, who finally gets so angry at everyone he decides the right course of action is to side with Kronos and destroy Mt. Olympus and the world.

The worst part is, even though you know Luke is wrong, you know that he shouldn't be siding with Kronos because Kronos is SUCH a bad guy, you can't help buy sympathize with him. These Gods go and sire all these children and then all but ignore them for all their lives. They just don't understand emotions at all and, unfortunately, at the end of the day, their children are still half mortal. Personally, I kind of hope that Luke comes through in the end, but I'm not sure that's going to happen. We'll see.

Overall, a great story. They're easy reads, so they don't take long to read and they're very engaging. I recommend them not only for adults, but for kids too. They're really an all ages kind of book.


The second Percy Jackson book was just as interesting as the first. I like that Riordan manages an overarching story that spans all the books (Luke and Kronos) but also has a story line that spans just that book (This time it was retrieving the Golden Fleece.) It's very satisfying as the reading because you're not frustrated by a lack of conclusion but there's still plenty to keep you reading into the next book.

We got to meet lots of new characters in this book, which I LOVED. I loved Tyson, who we learn is Percy's half brother. You can't help but love him, mainly because he loves Percy so unconditionally. And Annabeth too. He's so innocent, but doesn't hesitate to protect the people he cares about.

We get to know characters we've seen before, like Clarisse. All we really knew about her was that she hated Percy, but, you kind of don't hate her by the end of the book, which is unexpected. Usually in books, once the bully, always the bully and Riordan didn't do that here. He also didn't give his character all the glory. Percy and friends were kind of in the background when it came to the "glory" part of returning home from the quest, which I really liked. There are a LOT of books where that doesn't happen. Their character is always front and center receiving all the credit.

Once again, the book was easy to read and well paced. I read it in about a day. I really liked how Riordan makes his books great for all ages.


Of all the Percy Jackson books, this is probably my favorite so far. Mainly because things really start to come together in this book. We're introduced to new friends, we lose some old ones and the whole things just really makes you see how bad the whole thing could end up being.

We get to see Thalia and Percy during this book, which I like, because they're supposed to either love or hate each other. The interesting thing is, you kind of see them doing both throughout the whole book.

You also see that Annabeth still hasn't really given up on Luke, which is heartbreaking. He was her companion, basically her brother, for so many years. Even though he basically betrays her in every way, she still can't seem to completely give up on him.

You also get to see a lot of the Gods in this book, which I enjoyed. They're really these elusive characters, during the books, except for maybe one or two a book. But they all come out in full force during this installment and I thought that was neat. You got to see which sides they were taking, where they stood on the whole matter and what wisdom they really had. Also, you got to see that they were realizing just how dire the situation with Kronos was becoming. War is coming and the Olympians are just starting to really get that idea.

This book is really a heart breaking one. It's the first book we really see anyone die. It's the first book we lose characters that we really love. It's the first book that we have to come to terms with death and lost hopes. Grover almost locates Pan in this book but has to leave him behind because he decides his friends and his current quest are more important.

Overall, I loved it, and I only think that it's going to get better. I really hope that Riordan wraps up all the story lines that he's put in front of us, because there's a few of them, and there's only two more books. I haven't read them yet, but I have high hopes for them.


I probably loved this book more than all the rest. I think it was so great and so much happened and really brought the series to it's climax.

I like the book because it's probably their hardest challenge. They have to navigate one of the most dangerous things in mythology; the labrynth. And Annabeth has to lead them there.

I really like that we get to see our four characters together again. They seem really united on this one. We haven't really seen that for a couple of books. One or the other has always been missing. This was a great one where we got to see all of them with each other and even Grover and Tyson pair up, which was awesome to see.

I really like that, even though we're in book four, we get to see new characters! Rachel Elizabeth Dare ends up playing a huge part in this book, a character we thought we'd probably never see again. We also got to see Paul Blofis, Percy's mother's new beau. I really enjoy the fact that Riordan isn't afraid to show us new people, new important people, this late in the game.

I LOVED the conclusion to the Pan quest. It was heartbreaking and unexpected and wonderful all at the same time. I thought for sure that Pan was going to burst out and save the day, that he had been trapped in the labrynth and Grover had to free him. But to have him die? To have Grover be the one to carry that message? It was the saddest thing in the world. But fitting. I like that it was unexpected.

Once again, we got to see the personalities of more Gods and Goddesses. Hephestus, though a little rough around the edges, had a soft spot to him. Hera, someone who was supposed to be all about families, was really only about the perfect family. We got to see some more myths, like Calypso, who has a tragic story attached to her life.

Percy and Annabeth's romantic relationship is starting to develop which... I'm not sure how I feel about. I always knew that they would end up together I just like them so much as friends. But, to Riordan's defense, at least he waited four books to even start going down this road. I like that it was almost a second thought, that it hasn't been the main focus of the book.

This was also a heart breaking book. So many people who had so many dreams and so many of them were crushed. So many friends were lost and there was just so much... anger in this book. Nico and Daedalus and Luke. People were getting betrayed left and right.

The battle for Camp Half-blood was awesome to read about but there were still people who died, heros who were lost. We saw a much more tender side to Dionysus when his son had died. I thought that Riordan did a wonderful job putting all of this into this book.

I thought that this was, easily, the best installment of this series so far. If nothing else, read the series so you can read this book. I've been impressed with up until now but this book really blew me away.


This was a hard book for me, not because I didn't enjoy it, but because it was hard to watch my heros falter. So much happened to them and a lot of it was hard to watch.

Percy finally hears the entirety of the prophecy and he kind of lets that make a lot of his decisions. He, better than anyone, should know at this point that prophecies are never what they seem. But things seem pretty hopeless on the winning front, so he takes some pretty extreme measures- he bathes in the river Styx and becomes as invunerable as Achilles.

I was surprised at how early the fighting began in this book. Really, they were fighting and defending New York for three fourths of the novel, which was actually a good choice I think. As the reader, we'd been waiting for this moment for four books so I'm glad that Riordan really took the time to bring us this final battle, to give it the attention that it deserved.

We got to see some characters we haven't seen for awhile. Thalia reappeared with the hunters. We got to see Nico and get a great feel for him. I really ended up loving him by the end of it all. We got to see Hades and he wasn't quite as jerky as he could've been. And we got to see a lot of the minor characters in action. The Stoll brothers and Silena. You saw that even Aphrodite's children were brave fighters.

And we saw so many lost. When Beckendorf died, I couldn't believe it. I stared at the page for a full five minutes. He had been a character that had been around since the beginning and I just couldn't believe that he was gone.

The ending was predictable, but that was ok. I knew the prophecy wouldn't quite be what they predicted. I knew Luke wouldn't live, but he wouldn't turn out to be totally evil. I knew that the heros would win but with casualities.

Things I didn't expect: Rachel Dare to be the next oracle. That was surprising and... I'm not sure I like it. I don't know. I feel like Riordan just didn't know what to do with her but I liked her a lot better as quirky mortal Rachel who happens to see through the mist.

Also, Percy is as strong as Achilles but no one ever mentions it when the book ends! It's this great curse and this Very Bad Thing but it's just like, "Psh, whatever. We're just going to forget about that invincible part." I don't know. It really bothered me.

Other than that, I loved the book. I loved the series. I think Riordan did a great job of balancing humor, friendship, love and families. Families are complicated and he did agreat job of portraying that here. I think everyone should pick it up.

Currently Reading: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.
As always, you can find this an all my reviews on Goodreads, Username: Natalia173
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