Title: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Sea of Monsters
Author: Rick Riordan
Genres: Fantasy, Mid-Grade
Format: Paperback
Pages: 279 Pages
Publication Date: 3/20/2007
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
★★★★★
After a summer spent trying to prevent a catastrophic war among the Greek gods, Percy Jackson finds his seventh-grade school year unnervingly quiet. His biggest problem is dealing with his new friend, Tyson-a six-foot-three, mentally challenged homeless kid who follows Percy everywhere, making it hard for Percy to have any "normal" friends.
But things don't stay quiet for long. Percy soon discovers there is trouble at Camp Half-Blood: the magical borders which protect Half-Blood Hill have been poisoned by a mysterious enemy, and the only safe haven for demigods is on the verge of being overrun by mythological monsters. To save the camp, Percy needs the help of his best friend, Grover, who has been taken prisoner by the Cyclops Polyphemus on an island somewhere in the Sea of Monsters, the dangerous waters Greek heroes have sailed for millennia-only today, the Sea of Monsters goes by a new name the Bermuda Triangle.
Now Percy and his friends-Grover, Annabeth, and Tyson-must retrieve the Golden Fleece from the Island of the Cyclopes by the end of the summer or Camp Half-Blood will be destroyed. But first, Percy will learn a stunning new secret about his family-one that makes him question whether being claimed as Poseidon's son is an honor or simply a cruel joke.
First of all, I want to apologize for taking so long to finish reading this one. It's been an incredibly difficult two weeks and I haven't had a lot of time to read.
Which is disappointing considering how much I loved this book.
I'm going to be honest with you, my dear readers: I wasn't expecting too much after finishing Lightning Thief. The first book was okay but it wasn't amazing. Sea of Monsters made up for that in a way that I didn't anticipate.
It's hard to explain how I could love Lightning Thief without being transfixed by it. In the end, it just didn't quite cut muster for me. Sea of Monsters made up for that, so if you're reading (or have read) Lightning Thief and aren't sure whether you should continue with the series, my advice is do.
When I wrote my review of Lightning Thief (which seems like a lifetime ago, I've been so slow with my reading!), I pointed out that the book got off to a slow start. It was that slow start -- almost exclusively -- that destroyed the book for me. After reading Sea of Monsters, I realize the extent to which this slow start affected my overall enjoyment of the book.
It picked up, but never quite enough. Maybe having seen the movie ruined some things for me (though I stand by my point that the story was vastly different from the story in the movie).
Whatever momentum the first book missed, however, the second book made up for. (And, having started the third book, I can tell you that the more momentum that Riordan achieves, the more he shoots off in the right direction).
Don't let the length of time that it took me to read this book fool you: This one captivated my attention. I loved the relationship between Percy and Annabeth and the development of Grover's character in this book.
You get a sense of where the original trio in this series is going as of this book, and as it went on, I actually began to feel that I was reading something thoroughly different from Harry Potter (which was an original concern of mine).
The action is faced paced, starting right from the outset of this book, and like the previous book, it's nothing at all like the movie of the same name. In fact, I wouldn't anticipate the same events happening in Sea of Monsters as you saw in the movie.
This is my first five-star book of 2017! Thanks to this novel, I'll definitely re-read Percy Jackson and the Olympians!
(So far, Titan's Curse is shaping up to be even better!)
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