Type: Book
Score: 5/10
On a whim I decided to start rereading this series as when I was but a boy I had really fond memories of it. This is probably the only book series I've ever read to completion, certainly the only one of this length. However it's been around half a decade since I last read one of these so there was a lot I forgot. First off I kind of remember Percy being like 15 or something so it was a bit of a surprise when they introduced him as a 12 year old. I guess that was probably one of the reasons I had got so into this at that age because as a schizo 12 year old I felt a really connection with Mr Jackson. Perhaps I thought I'd mysteriously get super powers like him one day too, but alas that day hasn't come just yet (still holding out hope though).
I really hate how at the start of the book it's Percy talking to the audience. I mean I hate it in every book but here especially it comes off as so lazy because I don't even know what it's implying. Are they trying to say Percy was the one who wrote this book?? What I did like was not having to read every passage 20 times in order to understand it. A little semi-related rant but I'm so tired of books people say are good having been written 10000 years ago or being written like they were. A Tale of Two Cities is an awful book and I'm tired of pretending it's not. The flow in that shit is dead awful and I'm sure if I was a little more literate this would be less of an issue but I'm not so reading things made for actual 12 year olds is a nice change of pace sometimes. Another thing about the start, I feel like it would be really funny if there were a few chapters of Percy going insane. I don't know if anyone feels the same but I really enjoyed the small mystery elements in the beginning of this book and I'd have much preferred one big aha moment than three or four smaller ones.
Another problem I have with this book is, especially at the start, Percy asks questions or says something and half the time the person they're talking to just doesn't respond. Like fuck off dude, if I was in Percy's position I'd be so pissed off with these guys and it really isn't how normal people talk so it kind of took from how believable I found this. It might have been fine if it was only a couple times but it was at least 10 in the first 100 or so pages or so alone. Shiffs fluffed up.
Some last smaller gripes for this gripey review, I thought it was kind of insane how easily these kids kept being trapped. Like it was believable for Medusa to get them but everyone else past that point was comically avoidable and they were not nearly skeptical enough. Drove me mad. Another thing that drove me mad was how Percy didn't instantly get the actual meaning of his prophecy instantly. The kid's an idiot. This might also be a dumb question just what would happen if he just sat at camp if he was prophesied to finish the quest anyway? Would the lightning just teleport to him or something?
As for the positives, I don't have many but I was impressed that I was able to sit through this so it wasn't too much of a trainwreck I guess. Admittedly I'm not reading as much as I'd like these days, especially not proper pictureless books. Manga and Manhwa are fine and all but they don't really do anything for expanding my imagination or vocabulary. Even a book made for preteens had a better range of vocab than the average manga translation which was a little depressing... It was also a nice change in setting to a lot I read and watch, I don't see enough of the Greek gods despite them being so influential culturally (or more accurately the Greeks/Romans were but same thing).
Sidenote: Sorry if this review is insane and disjointed, I wrote it over like a month because I just couldn't be arsed, sorry.