By: A.B. Timothy
I just finished reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan. I want to review and rate it on three categories. First, I will go into the plot, this will include a brief overview of the plot and a review of how well it was executed, in my opinion. Next, I will discuss the characters and their arcs. This will go over the three main characters and how they changed or did not change over the course of the book. Lastly, I will engage with the pacing. This will involve looking at the pace of the plot and asking whether or not it fits with the genre/audience.
Plot
The plot of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, which will be referred to as The Lightning Thief from here on, is a very simple one. Act 1 is our hero living his daily life as a sixth grader when he begins to realize that he is not normal. Act 2 is Percy going to Camp half-blood, learning what he really is, and embarking on a quest across the United States of America to stop a war between the gods. Act 3 is Percy successfully returning the stolen item that threatened to start a war and settling back into life at Camp Half-blood, until the twist at the very last possible moment.
Overall, this plot gains a lot from how simple it is. The simplicity allows Riordan the ability to lean into a lot of the crazier aspects he draws on from Greek Mythology. There is a small detail he seemingly forgets between Act 2 and Act 3. In Act 3 Percy is tempted by soda into the betrayal by a friend. Percy acts like they don’t get soda at camp, but in the beginning of Act 2, when he shows up at camp, he has a goblet at dinner where he is able to speak any soda he would like into it. That detail is insignificant, but the role it plays in his temptation makes it bigger than it should be.
I give the plot of The Lightning Thief an 8.5/10
Characters
Percy Jackson
Percy Jackson is the titular character of this entire 5-book series, so to see him change so much over the course of only the first book is a testament to Riordan’s character work. He begins the book a dejected, fatherless boy who hates his dad for abandoning his mother and lives a delinquent life. We are told he struggles to live with normal people due to his ADHD and Dyslexia. We are able to see the world from his perspective as this is a 1st person book, and because of that perspective, it is easy to sympathize with Percy. Over the course of the book, he stops hating his father. He first learns who his father is, which makes him hate him even more, then his father’s lineage saves his life in a near-death encounter during Act 2. At the end, he does not hate his father anymore after he has a chance to speak with him one-on-one on Olympus. He has also come to accept his place among the other Half-bloods and makes friends, which is not something he thought he would ever be able to do.
Annabeth Chase
Annabeth Chase is Percy’s quest companion. She eventually becomes his love interest in later books and series, but their romance is not developed much, if at all, in this book. This is part of Annabeth’s larger arc across the series. In this book, however, she does develop. She goes from being one of Percy’s haters to promising to fight by his side instead of her mother’s if war breaks out. She very clearly has a crush on her older friend Luke, but knows that it is nothing more than a crush. The girl learns to stop hating her father, who has been trying to rekindle their father-daughter relationship since she was young, after making the mistake of choosing her step-mother and her children over his own. Percy tells her that she should not give up on her dad, and in the end, she decides to give living with him one more chance.
Grover Underwood
Grover Underwood is Percy’s third quest companion and protector. He is also a satyr, a half-man, half-goat thing. His entire character revolves around making sure Percy is safe and to guide him through life as a half-blood as his friend. Over the course of the book, Grover has many close calls with death: fighting Medusa, nearly getting dragged into Tartarus by magic shoes, and offering to stay behind in the underworld so Percy could rescue his mother. This quest is what proves him worthy to be a searcher. Being a searcher is the dream of most satyrs, and through his proven redemption in this book, he is granted a searcher’s license. His arc culminates in being willing to stay in the underworld, a place especially hated by satyrs, to allow Percy and his mother to live.
I give the character work in The Lightning Thief an 8/10
Pacing
The pacing of the book is breakneck. The plot is go-go-go from the camp to the underworld. There is one exception to this I can think of, but that makes for a great character scene, so I will give it a pass. This speed works in the plot’s favor as the book is marketed to middle-school-age boys. I remember being in middle school, and I can tell you, this worked. For the first time since reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, I could not put the book down when I read it at that age. As an adult, I found myself wishing for some scenes to be taken slower, and for more detail to be given, but I understand that we are reading this from the perspective of a boy with ADHD.
The pacing in The Lightning Thief is 9/10
Conclusion
The Lightning Thief is a great introduction to a wonderful world of magic and monsters. This hits its target demographics beautifully, and even kept me, an adult, entertained for the whole 300+ pages. I have the sequel, The Sea of Monsters, sitting next to me, and I am excited to read it and review the rest of the series.
I give Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief an overall rating of 8.5/10. A very fine book and an excellent kick off to the series.
Comment!
Tell me what you thought of this wonderful middle-grade fiction novel. How long has it been since you’ve read it? Have you read it before? Let’s talk!