Title: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titan's Curse
Author: Rick Riordan
Genres: Fantasy, Mid-Grade
Format: Paperback
Pages: 312 Pages
Publication Date: 5/9/2009
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
★★★★★
Percy Jackson isn't expecting freshman orientation to be any fun. But when a mysterious mortal acquaintance appears on campus, followed by demon cheerleaders, things quickly move from bad to diabolical.
In this latest installment of the blockbuster series, time is running out as war between the Olympians and the evil Titan lord Kronos draws near. Even the safe haven of Camp Half-Blood grows more vulnerable by the minute as Kronos's army prepares to invade its once impenetrable borders. To stop them, Percy and his demigod friends must set out on a quest through the Labyrinth-a sprawling underground world with stunning surprises at every turn. Full of humor and heart-pounding action, this fourth book promises to be their most thrilling adventure yet.
Six stars. Is that a thing?
I'm starting to feel like I did a wrong thing by rating Lightning Thief four stars. At the rate that these books are getting better and better, I'm going to run out of stars. Or maybe I already did, because six stars is not, in fact, a thing.
But it should be. Because Titan's Curse.
So here's the thing about this book. I'm jumping to the middle, but I want to tell you about this thing. Maybe it's more like "the end" but so what? I promise I won't spoil this for you.
This book made me cry. For real, it made me cry.
Not pretty crying, either. I'm talking about big, ugly tears, rolling down my cheeks, sobbing so hard that my family members remarked on it later.
If you've read my previous reviews, specifically of Lightning Thief and then my references to that book in my review of Sea of Monsters, you might already have an idea of why this caught me so much by surprise. While I wouldn't go so far as to say that the first book in this series is weak, it certainly didn't live up to its potential, and the subsequent books (so far) have proven this to me.
Alright. Titan's Curse is emotional. It gets emotional quickly, which really brings me to one of the most important things about this book, for a reader like me: The action starts immediately. I thought the action started quickly in the previous book, but in Titan's Curse you're in the middle of it before you can blink, and so much is happening immediately that you're surrounded by action.
And mystery.
Whew boy. If there's one thing I love, it's a good mystery, and I'm especially fond of a real mystery of the variety that can be solved. I'm pleased to report that the main mystery in this story (who the divine parent of the new half-bloods is) solvable with a bit of thought into the story and the things that you've read so far.
It can be pieced together.
That excited me. Having something to work out, to pick at as I read the story, to tease and tantalize me? That was exciting.
We also get to meet more gods -- lots of them -- in an official capacity. Just when I was thinking that we were going to stop with Ares and Hermes and be eternally (pardon the pun) frustrated by the lack of godly involvement, this book knocks it out of the park.
Not only that, but you know those books that you have to carry with you so that you can read a sentence here or there while you're otherwise busy? This one did that for me. I tore through pages so fast that I literally ripped one of them in my urgency to get to the next page. I dreamed about this book last night (read half last night and the other half today). I'm still thinking about it.
By the time this series is done, I speculate it will be a ten-star series. Unbelievable!
If you haven't read any of the Percy Jackson books, I'm telling you right now: do.
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