Review of Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

Review of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians: 

The Sea of Monsters” by Rick Riordan

Going into reading this book, I remembered it being my favorite of the series. After reading it, I do not think it will be my favorite of the series, I prefer the first book to Sea of Monsters. The second book is the shortest in the series, and I think it suffers from that. Many parts of this book feel rushed, and other parts that could have been rushed, the chariot race, weren’t. We didn’t get to spend enough time with Clarisse or Luke, even though they play crucial roles in this story. We mostly spend our time with Percy and Annabeth, which I love, because we see how their friendship has grown and how they’ve learned to open up and trust each other. Also, I do like Annabeth’s character arc of not liking Tyson because of her past interactions with cyclops, but then comes to realize that Tyson is different, and she gives him credit for helping on the quest. Percy also has a small arc with Tyson. First, he likes him as a friend when he thinks Tyson is human, then he’s ashamed of having a half-brother that’s a monster, and then realizes how much he cares about Tyson when he thinks Tyson is dead. Then in the end he proudly proclaims Tyson as his brother, and it’s kind of sweet, since Percy has been an only child his whole life.

However, with this book being so short, we don’t get the same character development from the other characters that we have spent less time with. I think Clarisse is an interesting character, being the daughter of Ares, and feeling his pressure to finish the quest, while also knowing that she DID need Percy’s help. But we don’t really get to know Clarisse, and how she feels. I would like to know more about Clarisse and why she feels this pressure to live up to her father’s expectations. I can’t remember how much Clarisse we get in the next books, but I think this is the most we get from her, and it’s a little disappointing. There’s also not a lot of Grover or Chiron in this book, the two characters that started off the series at the beginning of Lightning Thief. They were two characters that endeared us to the story. I feel like Grover is the heart and was kind of replaced by Tyson in this book. Chiron is the mentor figure that doesn’t get replaced in this book, so the role is just absent. The reveal of Chiron being the son of Cronus was mentioned and then never discussed after that. Which seems like it should be a big deal, but I don’t know if this will come back up again. Even Tyson comes off as just the simpleton, goofy, little brother, instead of an actual character. Luke has this whole plan to resurrect Cronus, but I think we only get two scenes with Luke in this book, and we need more of him, and him recruiting people to his cause in order to understand him as a villain, and root for him for some kind of redemption. At this point, I just don’t care about Luke, even though we did get to meet Hermes his father. I do like Hermes, he comes off as this fun, mail man business man type, and I like how he speaks to Percy. He doesn’t just treat him like a little kid or is dismissive with him, which is nice to see from one of the Gods, because Percy hasn’t really had any positive encounters with the gods, even Poseidon was a bit cold. I also like the two snakes on Hermes staff, they provide some good comedy.

Throughout the book, Percy and friends take on several new monsters. I like the opening dodgeball scene against the giant cannibals. However, I feel the other monsters were rushed. The new trio is barely camping out for a few minutes before they are attacked by a hydra, and then instantly dispose of it. I also like them going to Circe’s island, but again we don’t’ spend any time here. I wish they would have tied it in more with Circe in mythology. Then they encounter the sirens, and that does reveal Annabeth’s fears, giving us an insight into what’s bothering her, which is a great scene, since Percy learns about it, and it bonds them more as friends. But it’s still a pretty short scene. Then they go up against Polyphemus, a giant cyclops, and they manage to trick him fairly easily. Then in the end Percy has to fight Luke in sword combat, even that feels rushed, and I don’t feel the stakes. I don’t ever worry that Percy is in danger, and I don’t worry that Luke is actually going to kill Percy. I know these books are written for middle grade, but you can do that and still deliver compelling characters, action scenes and make the reader feel like the characters are in real danger.

What I do like is that this book continues the overall arc of the series, revealing the prophecy about a child of the big three, which is why Percy is so special in this world. And then the reveal at the end with Thalia, now Percy is not the only child of the big three. Also, the reveal of what really happened with Annabeth, Luke and Thalia, something that was hinted at in the first book, but we learn that they were attacked by a cyclops, and that Thalia sacrificed herself and turned into a tree, and now the golden fleece has cured her, and we get Thalia back. It’s a great way to tie these stories together. We also learn that the golden fleece can resurrect Cronus, and that is Luke’s plan. I’m still not sure how Luke’s plan in the Lightning Thief ties into his plan in this book. Was this his plan all along or did they need to change plans, after Luke failing at the end of The Lightning Thief?

So, overall, I still like this book, I just don’t love it the way I did when I first read it. Partially because that was over ten years ago, and I’ve learned as a writer, what goes into good characters and storytelling, so my metric for what I like when I read something, has gone up. I think about these stories more critically. I think when I first read this, I just liked that it was fast-paced and fun. Now that I’ve read the entire series, and I’m looking for more, the fast-paced nature is a hindrance, and we need more time spent on the new characters. We’ll see how I end up ranking these five books, maybe this will still be better than the last three, but I have a feeling that I will enjoy the next book "The Titan’s Curse", more than I did the first time I read.

Thanks you all for reading and please leave comment below about your thoughts on the book.