The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #2)

The Sea of Monsters – Rick Riordan

Book 2/5 “Percy Jackson and the Olympians”

Fantasy, (Greek) Mythology, Middle Grade

Buddy read with Destiny

Publication Date: April 1st, 2006

Trigger Warnings: Bullying, Homeless children, parental abandonment, use of word freak, r*tard (challenged) & fatty, feeling insecure about appearance, death, injury

The Lightning Thief | Review | 3 ⭐

Character Guide ⇩

►Perseus “Percy Seaweed Brain” Jackson → 13, Dyslexic, ADHD, lives in Manhattan, loves his mum, sarcastic, black hair, green eyes
►Annabeth Chase “Wise Girl” → 13, grey eyes, blonde, Athena’s daughter, has been at Camp since she was 7
►Grover Underwood → 29 (looks 13), Likes enchiladas, vegetarian, curly brown hair, Satyr, Keeper
►Tyson → 6 foot 3, Cyclops, Homeless orphan (children of nature spirit and a god), immune to fire, son of Poseidon
►Mr Brunner/Chiron → Latin Teacher/Activities Director at Camp Half-Blood (currently not at camp), brown eyes
►Mr D/Dionysus → Curly black hair, God of wine & Camp Director, Zeus (his father) can’t drink wine
►Luke Castellan → maybe 19, a scar on his face, Hermes’ son,
►Thalia → Turned into a pine tree at age 12
►Argus → Blonde, a bunch of blue eyes, Camp H-B Head of Security
► Tantalus → CHB Activities Director in place of Chiron, cursed (can’t eat or drink)
►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
►Clarisse La Rue → bully, daughter of Ares (War God)
►Charles Beckendorf → African American, Heaphestus cabin
►Selena Beauregard → Daughter of Aphrodite
►Travis & Conor Stoll → Hermes cabin, tall, skinny, brown hair (not twins)
►George & Martha → Snakes on Hermes’ phone/staff
►Hermes → God of thieves, messengers & travellers

⭐ ⭐ ⭐

This is going to be a shorter review than usual because the book itself is pretty short and honestly, I don’t have all that much to say about this instalment in the series as I would say it probably has some of the least impact for plot and characters (until the very end).

LET’S TALK ABOUT PERCY “SEAWEED BRAIN” JACKSON

I somehow grew to lvoe Percy even more in this book. He certainly has a bit of a rough patch once he gets to camp but honestly, once he got through that I was loving him more than ever!

I feel like we saw a bit of this aspect of his personality in book one, but it really got to shine in this book and honestly, I loved it! I love how kind and patient Percy is with his friends. Like, how Percy would defend Grover in book 1 and share his food with him and in this one Tyson is scared of travelling underground alone and Percy doesn’t want him to get upset so he makes sure to get to the subway station on time. Honestly, Percy should get a “World’s Best Friend” mug because this kid is considerate and always takes his friends’ opinions and feelings into account and then changes his life to accomodate them! Why aren’t there more protagonists like Percy in fiction??

TYSON’S CHARACTERISATION

Tyson is the character that would typically get made fun of (and so was Grover, for that matter) but Percy is friends with him anyway, even though he cries a lot and is literally scared of his own reflection (which Percy knows). As long as you’re a good person that’s all Percy cares about and looks for in a friend and I really appreciate that. That’s one the things I’ve really enjoyed about these books so far, Percy is genuinely a good guy and where I feel like most main characters would judge or make fun of a character like Tyson, Percy is like, nope he’s my friend now and I’ll fight you if you make him sad.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

Great chapter titles!
The Stoll brothers… are not twins WOAH
There’s actually very little Grover in this book which sucks because this book focuses more on background characters and introducing other characters as well as developing the world building, but hopefully we’ll see more of him in book 3!
The world building has been pretty slow so far but I actually like that because it feels like we learn about the world while Percy does, so it makes sense that way.
Overall, I really enjoyed this, even though some of it is a bit outdated and wouldn’t fly nowadays. BUT, I think it’s really interesting reading this now and having previously already read up to the Magnus Chase trilogy because I’m seeing how much his writing and his character writing improves! Honestly, I can’t wait to get up to date with his works because I know his later stories are even better and defintiely more diverse!

All in all, this wasn’t my favourite book in the series (though, it always was when I was younger) but I did love reading it and of course, will re-read it again in the future. Also, how could I dislike the book that introduces us to all of my favourite secondary characters? Beckendorf! The Stoll brothers! Tyson!!