The Lightning Thief – Rick Riordan

Book 1/5 “Percy Jackson and the Olympians”

Fantasy, (Greek) Mythology, Middle Grade

Buddy read with Destiny

Publication Date: June 28th, 2005

Trigger Warnings: Bullying, talk of abusive relationship (marriage & parental) – mental & physical, control of money by abusive parent, gambling, loss of a loved one (past), arachnophobia, injury, confined spaces, caged circus animals, mistreatment and abuse of animals

Character Guide ⇩

►Perseus “Percy Seaweed Brain” Jackson → 12, Dyslexia, ADHD, lives in Manhattan, loves his mum, sarcastic, black hair, green eyes
►Mr Brunner/Chiron → Latin Teacher/Activities Director at Camp Half-Blood, brown eyes
►Mr D/Dionysus → Curly black hair, God of wine & Camp Director, Zeus (his father) can’t drink wine
►Grover Underwood → 28, Likes enchiladas, vegetarian, curly brown hair, Satyr, Keeper
►Nancy Bobofit → Cleptomaniac girl who goes to Yancy Academy, red hair, bully
►Mrs Dodds → Maths Teacher, says “now honey”, Fury – Hades’ torturers
►Sally Jackson → Percy’s mum, works at a candy shop, parents died in a plane crash when she was young, too good for Poseidon tbh
►Gabe Ugliano → “Smelly Gabe”, Percy’s stepfather, abusive
►Poseidon → Percy’s dad, God of the Sea, black hair, green eyes
►Annabeth Chase “Wise Girl” → 12, grey eyes, blonde, Athena’s daughter, has been at Camp since she was 7
►Luke Castellan → maybe 19, a scar on his face, Hermes’ son
►Clarisse La Rue → bully, daughter of Ares (War God)
►Argus → Blonde, a bunch of blue eyes, Camp H-B Head of Security
►Athena → Goddess of Wisdom & Battle
►Ares → God of War

Camp H-B Cabin Guide ⇩
►Cabin 1 – Zeus, Cabin 2 – Hera, Cabin 3 – Poseidon, Cabin 4 – Demeter, Cabin 5 – Ares, Cabin 6 – Athena, Cabin 7 – Apollo, Cabin 8 – Artemis, Cabin 9 – Hephaestus, Cabin 10 – Aphrodite, Cabin 11 – Hermes, Cabin 12 – Dionysus

⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Charon: Are you dyslexic?
Percy, an actual dumbass: No, I’m dead.

I mean… honestly.

So… 2020 has been a big year for Percy Jackson, hasn’t it? We got the news about a show right around the time Destiny and I were due to start our buddy read of the series and if thiat isn’t perfect timing, I don’t know what is!

I read this series for the first time back in primary school, so I was maybe 11 or 12 and now here I am a haggard 20 year old in a literal pandemic and reading Percy Jackson again!

Honestly some people re-read Harry Potter or Twilight for their yearly does of nostalgia but I think Percy Jackson is IT for me! The series is funny, heartwarming and I love the characters, I mean, I literally grew up along side them so naturally I’m a little attacheda t this point.

SO yeah, this was a seriously nostalgic read for me! I was already grinning like a lunatic by the second sentence! I also found an old bookmark and tabs in my copy too, which I loved!You can tell my copy has been read A LOT by me in the past! Honestly, it’s probably time I bought new editions since mine are almost 10 years old and have probably been read more than 10 times.

Oh yeah… the review! 😂

Sorry, I got caught up in nostalgic gushing, let’s actually talk about the book!

“My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room.”

Where else would we start, other than with Percy himself?

This kid is a Mummas boy and he knows it. Honestly, I’ve never fully appreciated the relationship between Percy and his mum more than I have on this re-read! He seriously adores his mother and I appreciate that so much! I feel like so often kids are embarrassed by or annoyed by their parents, and like fair enough with Gabe, because he’s abusive and horrible and stinks. But Sally is a ray of sunshine and Percy knows it! He just gets so frustrated because his mum is “the nicest lady in the world” and if that isn’t’ the cutest thing I’ve ever read!! Honestly, I am team Sally Jackson and I need her to only be happy from now on, okay Rick?

So, yeah I’m a Sally stan and I love how much Percy straight up worships his mum and appreciated how hard she works. I feel like so often kids either dont realise or they just brush over how much parents can push themselves for their kids, because that’s what parents are supposed to do blah blah blah. But Percy actually cares about his mum and wants the best for her and ugh I’m serously a sucker for the bare minimum nice characters I know, but Percy is just genuinely a nice boy who would do anything for his mother and I love him.

↣ Also, I just want to make a note about the blue food thing. I’m a literal sucker for a running gag or any consistent theme that runs through a long-running series so I always pay attention to the blue food and I’m not gonna lie I used to purposely eat blue food because of this series. (also, I may or may not have eaten a lot of blue cake while reading this book… I just couldn’t help myself!)

So, anyway it’s a theme that runs through into the next series too and I both love it and hate it. Yes, it’s amazing that Percy and Sally are both badasses with a running joke that all of Percy’s friends appreciate and get in on. But, at the same time the whole story behind how the joke started in the first place is SO sad. Like, if eating blue food is the only form of rebellion of freedom you can get against another person. It’s kind of depressing to think about but I appreciate that Sally and Percy have claimed it as their thing and I kind of wanna go eat some blueberries now or something!

↣ Also, while we’re talking about food, what the hell is seven layer dip and why does it sound like wet concrete?

“Go on with what your heart tells you, or you will lose all.”

↣ Honestly, I don’t have too much to say because obviously I love this book and one re-read isn’t going to change that. But, I did want to make a note to maybe look back on once I’ve finished my re-read of the Heroes of Olympus series (the companion series set after PJO). Anger seems to really kickstart Percy’s powers throughout this book and I think, in general, Percy deals a lot with controlling his anger. So I’d be really interested to see if he harnesses that throughout the series or if he’s just completely chaotic and unhinged by the end of the books because I think this kid has the potential to be driven absolutely nuts.

↣ Another minor note: It’s amazing to me that I never really noticed, as a kid but Luke is actually 19. Like, I always just assumed that most of the people at the camp were around Percy’s age but now it makes so much more sense why they trusted him and looked up to him. Also, it makes him a much scarier villain when you imagine that he is 7 years older and therefore, has seven years more experience than Percy does. I used to re-read this series quite often throughout primary and high school but, it’s really interesting to me reading now, as an older reader, to notice all these little things because they make reading the book a really different experience for me and it really adds layers to the story.

↣ The difference between the movies and the books are crazy to me! There are so many more interactions with the gods and the world in the books & even things like the Lotus Casino make so much more sense. Clearly, they tried to make the movies YA rather than MG and it’s pretty obvious. Like, the books have a really great balance of serious and goofy but the movies clearly went more the serious fantasy franchise route rather than just making a fun story with loveable characters that also happens to be a franchise.

↣ Also, Percy straight up has no qualms with telling the god of war to get fucked and that is why I think this boy needs supervision and maybe also a hug.

“I had become one with the plumbing.”

All in all, I had a lot of fun re-reading this! This is a really easy book to read quickly + I love how descriptive the writing style is, it makes it really easy to picture what’s going on + Percy is a really fun character to read from! I had a total blast re-reading this and I already can’t wait to read book 2 which was always my favourite as a kid!

Who’s your favourite PJO character?
Have you re-read the series since the show was announced?

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