Book Review: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan is an important young adult/fantasy series and I am ashamed it has taken me this long to review the book. It has been made into a fairly successful film (although heavily criticised for deviating from the books) and an upcoming series on Disney+, and the book series itself is regularly included on best lists of the fantasy and young adult categories.It had a lot of hype to live up to, and I had to wonder, could it? 

 Yes, yes it could. 

 The Lightning Thief begins with Percy Jackson and his friend Grover on a school trip to a museum. Percy isn’t a bad child, but he is constantly finding himself in trouble. He has dyslexia and adhd and has to deal with bullies picking on him. He also has the slight issue of his teacher changing into a Greek monster and trying to kill him, so you know standard high school problems. 

 You see it turns out that Percy Jackson is a Half-blood, he has one Human parent and one parent who is a Greek God, in Percy’s case he has a Human mother and a Father who is a Greek god.

 The beginning of the book focuses on Percy discovering who he is, avoiding the monsters trying to kill him and enrolling at Camp Half-blood where he can learn the skills he will need to survive. The second half of the book revolves around an argument between the Gods, someone has stolen something of Zeus’, you can probably guess what it is from the title of the book, but somehow Percy finds himself being blamed and the only way to clear his name is to go and retrieve what was stolen. So with the help of his friend Grover and the smart, but cranky, Annabeth, another Half-blood, they must travel across America and into the underworld which is situated in LA, because, well where else would it be? 

 From reading this book I can definitely see why it is so popular and why Percy as a character is so loved. The plot moves at a good pace, staying long enough in each place that you get a feel of the action and drama but never feels bogged down or drags. As the plot progresses we come into contact with bits of Greek Mythology brought to life and I must say they were very well done, a good play on the Myths I learned in school while being able to fit them into modern America and using them for hints of humour throughout.

 Initially I struggled a little with the characters, I found the dialogue to be quite juvenile and some of the attempts at jokes just felt a little too immature for me. Then I remember that the characters are around 12-13 and rereading the dialogue with this in mind felt a lot more natural and I began to fall in love with them, especially Percy. I can see why he gets so much love. He is funny, sarcastic, tries to do the right thing, and is brave in a realistic way. I was worried at one point that he was going to become a bit of a Gary Stu but while he did develop skills in some things he also had stuff he wasn’t good at. 

 Grover and Annabeth, I struggled to engage with quite as much. Grover was portrayed as a bit of a bumbling idiot and I couldn’t understand why he was allowed to go on such an important quest if he was such a liability, but I am glad he did as I did grow to like him. Annabeth felt a little underdeveloped, she was smart and a good fighter, funny and wise, but I did feel that maybe Riordan didn’t quite know what to do with her. I have been told she is used much better in subsequent books which I am looking forward to.

 In summary this is a fantastic story which will engage and delight readers of all ages. The Greek mythology is well done, the characters are fantastic and the plot is perfectly timed and will keep you reading on. If you haven’t read The Lightning Thief yet, then you should.