Review of “The Princess Pact” by Melanie Cellier

 Review of “The Princess Pact: A Twist on Rumpelstiltskin” by Melanie Cellier

This is the third book in the “Four Kingdoms” series and after having enjoyed the first two and the novellete, I was looking forward to this tale dealing with Rumpelstiltskin. As someone who watched the show “Once Upon a Time”, I couldn’t get that portrayal of Rumpelstiltskin out of my head while reading this book. I’m not very familiar with the original story of Rumpelstiltskin, so I appreciated the author giving a short retelling of it.

This book takes place in the kingdom of Northhelm and follows Princes Marie, whom we meet in the first book. We quickly learn that Marie was adopted, and that her real father is Rumpelstiltskin, although his real name is a mystery until the end of the book. So, instead of retelling the original tale, this serves more as a continuation of the story.

After learning of her parentage, Marie runs away to seek her father only known as R. She wants to investigate a rebellion that he has created. Marie runs into Rafe a young man that the King had sent to spy on the rebellion. She also left because she suspected that her brother had run off to the rebel camp as well.

At first she is excited to me her real father, and even entertains the idea of joining his rebellion. After learning his true intentions, she decides that she needs to free the rebels, who were only there because of an enchantment. I like that Marie has conflicting emotions about being adoptive, and in the end learns that family are the people that truly love you, whether biological or not.

Marie also falls in love with Rafe, who she believes is a commoner that lives in the forest. Luckily, a twist is revealed and Marie is allowed to marry Rafe after all. It’s a sweet love story, and Rafe comes off as a charming character. There are also side characters that are interesting as well. Marie’s friends at the rebel camp, Lisa and her brother Danny, are also fun characters, as well as Marie’s brother William.

Overall, this was a fun, and interesting take on Rumpelstiltskin. I really enjoyed learning more about Princess Marie because I liked her small part in the first book. The story is well paced, and the character relationships were engaging. So far, this is my second favorite book in the series, the first being the first book, “The Princess Companion”. I’m enjoying the crossover of characters and worldbuilding of these stories.

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Review of “The Coronation Ball" by Melanie Cellier

 Review of “The Coronation Ball: A Four Kingdoms Cinderella Novelette” 

by Melanie Cellier

After reading The Princess Fugitive where we learn about a character named Hanna, the sister of the love interest Hans, we get this novelette that tells us Hanna’s story with a bit of a Cinderella inspired ending. Even though we never met her in The Princess Fugitive, Hanna was a critical part of the guilt that Princess Ava felt and needed to overcome, so it’s great to finally be able to meet Hanna and tell her own story.

The novellete opens with Hanna working as an apprentice pastry chef in the castle of Northgate located in the kingdom of Northhelm, which is where she was sent to after an incident with Princess Ava five years ago. We quickly learn that Hanna is being bullied by another apprentice, and the head chef has no respect for her. But she does have one friend, young man named Stefan who she believes to be a footman.

Hanna is a relatable female character that is struggling to prove herself to her boss, while constantly being thrown under the bus by her female co-worker that thinks she better than her. The female co-work is a stereotypical mean girl. The kitchen staff prove to be helpful when Hanna is given an opportunity to bake a cake for a ball that a family of the royal court is hosting.

It turns out that her friends Stefan is not a footman but actually the son of a royal Lord, and the family is hosting the ball to find him a wife. The mean girl had her eyes set on him, and when she tries to take credit for Hanna’s cake, Hanna decides she needs to warn Stefan. This is where the book turns into a retelling of Cinderella. Hanna’s godmother comes in and gives her a magnificent dress and masque for the ball. Hanna infiltrates her way into the ball, and ends up dancing with Stefan, warning him about the mean girl. As she runs away just before the strike of midnight, Hanna loses her glass slipper. Stefan convinces his family to let him marry the girl that the glass slipper belongs to, and eventually he finds Hanna and she tries on the slipper. Perfect match.

It’s a clever retelling of Cinderella, with some charming characters. I really like Hanna and Stefan as a friends and then a couple. Stefan comes off as a charming prince to the rescue type character, but you can tell that he is torn between his love for Hanna and his duty to his family. His conflict of where his heart and honor lie, make him a compelling character. Hanna as the everyday working girl type makes her sympathetic, and the use of the godmother ties it all in with the other princess stories.

This is a short, fun, easy read if you like fairy tales and princess stories, even though Hanna isn’t a princess, it’s very similar. I enjoyed having a story about a character that was previously set up in another book. The author continues to build out her Four Kingdoms world, and it’s an enjoyable setting for these retellings of classic fairy tales. If you have read the main books in the series be sure to read this novellete.

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Review of “The Princess Fugitive” by Melanie Cellier

Review of “The Princess Fugitive: A Reimagining of Little Red Riding Hood” by Melanie Cellier

Having really enjoyed the first book, I was looking forward to reading this book. It is supposed to be a reimagining of “Little Red Riding Hood”, but really has nothing to do with the classic fairy tale. There are some homages to it, like the red cloak, and the wolf, but that’s about it.

Going into it, I assumed this book would be a new world and story, but it focuses on the villain that was in the last book, Princess Ava. I like the idea of continuing to build on the world that was established in the first book. While I hated Princess Ava in the first book, I grew to like her by the end of this book. We learn about her past, and that she is more emotionally complex than we thought.

The book opens with the assassination of Ava’s father, the King. As well as an attempted assassination of Ava. It’s later revealed that her brother was behind it, to ascend the throne early.

The first third of this book has Ava on the run, hiding from her brother’s forces. She is stripped of her princess identity, and she learns what it’s like to live as a simple traveling merchant. It humbles her and she befriends two young women. Her guard and companion is Hans, a young, handsome man that is extremely loyal to her. Throughout the book, Hans and Ava build their relationship and reveal their love for each other. It’s surprisingly a decent love story plot, even if it is a bit cliché.

While I really enjoyed the beginning and ending of this book, I thought the middle slowed down pace a bit, and I lost interest. I do love the new friends that she makes, Evelyn, who is a merchant guard, and Sarah who is her cousin. They have a great dynamic that feels like they are family, and Sarah provides the heart and levity of the book.

Halfway through the book Ava meets the High King, who is king of the fairies, and he tells her that she can redeem herself and take back her kingdom from her brother. Throughout the story, Ava learns to open up her emotions, and gains compassion and sympathy for the commoners.

The last part of the book brings in a few characters from the first book. We catch up with Alyssa and Prince Max which I really enjoyed. Then Mathilde and her husband Aldric join Ava’s team. Mathilde was a great, fun character from the first book, so I loved seeing her return here and help Ava.

The climax of the book involves Ava competing against her brother for the crown. She eventually is able to outsmart him and wins the competition with the help of her friend. Ava learns the value of love and emotions and having friends. She embraces her feelings for Hans and it turns out to be a decent romance story.

Even though I hated Ava from the first book, they do a great job giving her a character arc that explores her emotional journey. I love bringing in characters from the first book, as well as developing the new characters, Hans, Sarah and Evelyn. It does a great job expanding the world that was established in the first book. I’m not sure what Little Red Riding Hood has to do with it, but I still enjoyed this story.

 

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Review of “The Princess Companion” by Melanie Cellier

Review of “The Princess Companion: A Retelling of The Princess and the Pea” by Melanie Cellier

I’ve decided to step into the world of Princesses and fairy tales. Author Melanie Cellier has created her own fairytale world based on retelling and reimagining classic fairy tales with a slightly more modern context but not world. As someone who enjoys classic fairy tales, I was interested in this book as a new twist on the old fairy tale of the “Princess and the Pea”. While this wasn’t what I had in mind, it turned out to be even better than I initially thought. Instead of the story being focused on a princess, it’s the story of how a commoner becomes a princess. The pea only comes into play if you’re looking for it, but it’s not fully revealed until the end. One of the things that is also implied but never fully spoken is the fact that Queen Ella, is really Cinderella from the classic story. It’s a nice little twist, and gives insight into what may have become of Cinderella after she marries her true love, Prince.

The characters in this book are fairly stereotypical but are charming and enjoyable to read. The main character Alyssa feels like a real, teenage girl that is becoming a woman and learning about politics and love. Prince Maximillian is charming and more complex than he comes off as, in terms of his feelings for Alyssa. The minor characters are also fun and charming. I love the gossip nature between Alyssa and Mathilde, who is a servant. I do wish we had got more from Alyssa’s family, and the fact that we don’t return to her aunt and cousin towards the end of the book, makes it feel like things were rushed.

Of course, a fairy tale wouldn’t be complete without a villain. I do think that the villain’s plot was not explained well and too generically evil. However, I was always intrigued by the spy plot and Alyssa helping the King to uncover the treachery.

There were a few confusions I had while reading, mainly between the use of Arcadie and ArcadiA. I thought it was a typo until I realized Arcadie is the capital of Arcadia (I had to look at the map). I think that it could have been made more clear in the text. The book could have used a bit more worldbuilding in order to really understand the political nature that was behind the whole spy subplot. As well as the geography of where everyone was traveling to and from since it takes weeks to get anywhere.

As much as I enjoyed this book, I do think that the ending was a bit rushed, and we should have had an epilogue to catch up with the new Princess. The book just ends with them getting married, which I guess is a typical fairy tale ending, but this book is supposed to be more subversive than that. Overall, I this book was a fun, easy read, and recommend it to anyone that likes Princess type stories.

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Review of "Ruin and Rising" by Leigh Bardugo

 

Review of "Ruin and Rising" by Leigh Bardugo

After enjoying the second book, I had hope that the third and final book in the series would be good and turn my view around for the series as a whole. While the first third of the book was a bit slow and boring, the rest of the book was well paced and interesting. Things finally came to a head, we learned more about the history of the amplifier’s creator, Morozova. The new information fills in some questions and illuminates the relationships between Alina, the Darkling, and the Darkling’s mother, Bahgra.

While I haven’t liked the melodramatic relationship between Alina and Mal, we finally gets a resolution to them. When they finally get together, they end up being a cute couple. We also get some resolution for a character that I’ve enjoyed, Genya. She gets some redemption for betraying Alina, and she gets a love interest of her own. We also get the return of a character that I loved from the last book, Nikolai. He gets an interesting character arc in this book, but is still the fun character that I’ve come to enjoy.

One of things I liked about this book is that Alina and her group and traveling and planning their actions against the Darkling. Alina uses the power that the Darkling used in the last book, where she can project herself and talk to him, and gains information that way. It’s a cool use of her power and I like them working as a team.

There’s also an interesting twist that involves Mal, and why he has a connection to Alina and the amplifiers. It’s interesting and reminds me of what they did in the last Harry Potter book. I find the ending resolution to be satisfying and I like the little epilogue that we get with Alina and Mal.

After reading this trilogy, I think the books get better with each installment, but my biggest criticism is that I don’t think this story needed to be stretched out into a trilogy. I do find large portions of these books to be boring, where not much happens. Overall, I think it’s an interesting fantasy world with a fairly generic plot at it’s center. I like the worldbuilding, and I love some of the characters, but can’t say that it’s a series I would return to in the future.

If you like the young adult fantasy genre that deals with the ‘will they/won’t they’ romantic love interest, then you will probably like this series. Author Leigh Bardugo has created a great world with the “Grishaverse” and I look forward to reading another book set in this universe. I want to read “Six of Crows” because those were my favorite characters from the TV show. So, I look forward to reviewing that in the future. That’s it for this review, thank you for reading, be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments.

 

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Review of “Siege and Storm” by Leigh Bardugo

Review of “Siege and Storm” by Leigh Bardugo

I wasn’t impressed with the first book Shadow and Bone, so I didn’t have high hopes about the second book. Luckily, Siege and Storm starts off strong and ends strong. The middle parts have its ups and downs, but overall this book, for me, is an improvement over the first book. The novel opens up with Alina and Mal captured by the Darkling, and their sailing on a ship in order to seek out a sea serpent for the next amplifier. We get a new character Sturmhond the leader of the mercenary ship, who we later find out is Prince Nikolai Lantsov. I like Nikolai as a character, because he has some fun dialogue and is the only that has an interesting personality. Unfortunately, Genya is leaves the book early on, and even though she is a supporter of the darkling, I still enjoy her character and relationship with Alina.

After Alina gets the second amplifier from the serpent, that Mal helps track, Sturmhond betrays the Darkling and Alina and Mal get taken away to the palace. The darkling only shows up as mind illusions to mess with Alina. Back at the palace Alina becomes general of the second army, which is an army of Grisha. We meet some other new characters, brother and sister Tolya and Tamar who are a bit mysterious but loyal in protecting Alina. In addition to new characters, we spend more time with some minor returning characters, like Zoya and David. Zoya is a squaller which his basically an air bender and David is a magical fabricator that created the Stagg collar amplifier that Alina wears. I do like what we get with the Grisha in this book, Alina breaks down barriers between the different kind of Grisha users.

While I do like the new characters and the other Grisha, I will say one of the problems I still have is with the main characters, Alina, Mal and the Darkling. The Darkling is a cliché villain, who doesn’t get to do much for the entire middle of the book. His motives are too generic and there is still some weird, lingering sexual tension between him and Alina. Speaking of sexual tension, I am tired of this will they won’t they between Alina and Mal. They’re melodramatic relationship where she won’t tell him how she feels about him has become tiresome.

Overall, I think this book is more intriguing and engaging than the last book, but I still find this series to be a bit dull. We spend too much time hearing Alina’s monologues in her head, and not enough time actually doing things. The pacing of this book was better than the first, but the middle section does slow down a bit. I will read the third book, just because I am curious to see how this all ends, but I don’t have high hopes that I will like it. Hopefully, I would love to be surprised.

Review of “Shadow and Bone” by Leigh Bardugo

Review of “Shadow and Bone” by Leigh Bardugo

I saw the Shadow and Bone Netflix show before I read the book, and I enjoyed the first season, so I bought the book. However, the show covers more than what’s in the book, so I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy the novel. My favorite part of the show was the Crows gang, and they are not in the book, they are in a separate book called “The Six of Crows”, which I haven’t to read yet. So, I went into this book with different expectations than the show.

The world of the Grishaverse – the universe that “Shadow and Bone” takes place in – is an interesting fantasy land that feels like an early 1900’s setting mixed with a Russian aesthetic. Grisha’s are the magic users in this world, and I like the system of magic and ranks of Grisha that Bardugo has created. However, while I do enjoy the Grisha’s magical powers, I don’t think that Bardugo adds enough explanation and detail for how this magic is used and what each rank does, within this world.

The main character of the story is Alina Starkov a young girl that finds out she a rare type of Grisha known as the Sun Summoner. Everyone hopes that she is the key is getting rid of something known as the Fold, which is a shadowland river that splits part of the country. The creator of the Fold is The Darkling, a Shadow Summoner, the antithesis of the Sun Summoner. Alina is then taken away to a palace and trained as a Grisha. While I kind of liked the character I the show, I feel she is very bland in the book. They even changed an aspect of her for the show, that I thought gave her a bit more character depth. In the show she is part “Shu”, a sort of racial slur for Asiatic people. In the book they do not mention that, and barely mention the Shuhan people. One of the best aspects of a good fantasy is the political and social relationships between different races of people or creatures, and that is played out well enough here. 

Since the book follows Alina’s perspective, we don’t get to see what is going on with her friend and sort of love interest, Mal. In the show, we get to follow his journey, and in the book, he just tells Alina in a few sentences what happened to him. Mal is a sort of charismatic character in the show but comes off as a jealous soldier in the book. Because Mal is an expert tracker, he is tasked with finding a rara magical stag that Alina and the Darkling are after, because the stag will amplify their powers.

There is sort of a twist in the book where we find out who the darkling is, and why he wants Alina’s powers. In the show they drag the reveal out longer and set him up better as a villain. My favorite character from this book is a side character named Genya, who is a Grisha servant at the Palace that befriends Alina. While I do enjoy the fantasy world that author Bardguo has created, I just feel like the story of Alina is too generic and not interesting enough to really get me swept up in this book. The love triangle is boring, and her internal struggle doesn’t really work, because again I don’t think Bardugo does a good enough job showing how the characters interact with the world.

I haven’t watched the second season of the show because I heard it wasn’t very good and made too many changes from the books. I will however finish the “Shadow and Bone” trilogy and I’m looking forward to the “Six of Crows” book. If you like young adult fantasy, then you might enjoy this book, but tame your expectations from the show’s portrayal. 

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Review of Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan

Review of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: 

the Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan

    So, going into this book I did not remember anything. I had got the beginning with the Hunters of Artemis confused with the ending when Thalia decides to join. I did not remember Bianca and Zoe Nightshade, and I thought Nico was introduced in the 4^th book. I did remember the scene at the Hoover Dam, but I thought it was with Annabeth in the second book. So, the story of this book was a big surprise to me reading it this time around. It was a lot of fun going into this book not knowing what to expect. I think this book is structured narratively, more like the first book, where we get thrown into a situation, then meet up at Camp Half-Blood, get the quest from the Oracle, and then the group goes on a mission. It’s a mystery as to who the General is, just like we didn't know who the lightning thief was, and then we end back at Mt. Olympus. 

Now, the second book also had a trio go on a quest but it was structured differently, and I mentioned felt rushed. This book didn’t feel rushed, but I will say they go to too many locations. We could have dropped the ski resort town, and just moved Grover communicating with Pan to a different location. I kind of also think it was a missed opportunity for Percy, the son of Poseidon, to go to the Hoover Dam, and not use his water powers. That could have been fun and cool, because I like to see Percy use his powers in different ways and situations. 

The other thing I liked was the slow reveal of the new prophecy by the oracle. One shall be lost in the land without water, ended up being Bianca, the titan’s curse one must withstand, was Percy needing to hold the sky up, and one that should perish by a parents hand, was Zoe, and all along the way, Thalia and Percy kept suspecting that their father’s might try to kill them. So, it’s great the way the prophecy plays out. I like having Grover back, and seeing how he’s changed since the first book. He’s more confident in his skills as a satyr, and he continues to follow his dream of finding Pan, and while he is still the fun Grover, he’s not used as much as a comedic relief character. I like the relationship between Percy and Thalia, being kind of competitive with each other, but also learning to respect each other, similar to Percy and Annabeth in the first book. Thalia is a strong female character but very different from Annabeth and Clarisse. I’m a bit sad to see he go off with the Hunters at the end of the book. Zoe Nightshade and Bianca were also cool female characters, that we unfortunately let go in this book. 

Like Grover in the last book, we don’t get much Annabeth in this one, but what we do get is great, and I like getting to meet her father and step-mother. We get a little bit more of Luke being the villain in this, and his almost desperation to have Thalia and Annabeth at his side. I still don’t care about Luke being a villain and whether or not he should be redeemed. I’m with Percy on this, let Luke die. While I vaguely remembered there was an ophiotaurus, I think I got it confused with the Hippocampi from the last book. But I like Bessie the ophiotaurus because it brings out a soft side of Percy that reminds us why he is the protagonist and hero of the series. When all the Olympians wanted to kill Bessie just to stop the prophecy, Percy says it’s wrong to kill an innocent creature. So, I like the introduction and mystery of Bessie in this. We don’t get a lot of Chiron, which is honestly something that has surprised me in these books, because I remembered him as being a bigger mentor figure for Percy. We do get a nice scene of Dionysus helping Percy in San Francisco, but he is still not someone that likes Percy.    

By the end of the book, we also learn that Nico is the son of Hades and that he runs away, so I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out, and I think we might find out who got Nico and Bianca out of the Lotus Hotel, probably as another way to try to control the prophecy. Thalia removed herself from the prophecy by joining the hunters, so she’ll never turn 16, and Percy is only 2 years away from his 16^th birthday. But Nico is like 10 so he’s 6 years away, and I don’t think Luke and Kronos are going to wait that long, so I still think that the prophecy about a child of the big three is about Percy, thus the series of books. 

So, I think that this book does a great job of following the standard quest storyline, but tying it in more to the overall story arc of the series. Whereas the first two books felt a little bit more like standalones, this book I think does a great job bridging the first two books and what’s to come in the next two books. Even though I didn’t remember the events of this book at all going in, I got to say I really enjoyed this book a lot. In contrast to me remembering that I loved Sea of Monsters and then read it again and it wasn’t as good. I don’t remember a lot about the next two books, so that is exciting to look forward to. 

So, that’s my review for The Titan’s Curse. Thank you all for reading the review, and stay tuned for the next book review, Battle of the Labyrinth. Be sure to let me know what you think about the book in the comments below.

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.

Review of Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief By Rick Riordan

Review of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: 

The Lightning Thief By Rick Riordan

As a kid I found Greek mythology to be fascinating, so when I saw the Percy Jackson book was kind of like Harry Potter with Greek Mythology, I knew that I wanted to read it. This first book works well as a somewhat standalone book, but also sets up the overarching story that will take place across the five-book series. The first few chapters do a great job of introducing us to who Percy is, as well as slowly reveals this world that is inhabited by Greek mythological characters and creatures.

The story is a typical hero’s journey, with the two best friends, and the mentor figure, and Percy at first rejecting this new world, but then accepts the quest. I like that Percy is not just an overpowered character who is good at everything. Percy has his strengths, he’s naturally good at sword fighting, but not the best, and he also has his weaknesses, which are mainly due to him being an unexperienced twelve year-old kid. Annabeth and Grover also have their strengths and weaknesses and the three of them complement each other well on this journey.

The middle of the book has the trio on the quest, battling monsters at different locations throughout the country. I like seeing this trio of kids defeating these Greek monsters, and it’s an interesting way to explore how the Greek mythological world fits into the “real” world. At first the encounter with Ares, the God of War, seems like a side quest, but I like that it ties into the ending of the book. I think the narrative structure and flow of the story is well done. The plot is always moving forward, and we get bits of information as needed throughout the story progression. The one thing I would complain about is the villain is not present enough, and a few scenes feel rushed, in order to keep the pace moving.

One of the things that I enjoy about this book, is the fun of the magical world, and how Greek magic works. Camp Half-Blood is a fun place to explore, and I like the concept that humans see what they want to see, it’s called “the mist”. I like how the magic is used and incorporated into the quest and the real world. Like Percy using his pen that is a sword, Riptide, or Annabeth and her invisible baseball cap. The world building in this book is well done, and leaves plenty of room to expand in later books. This book also sets up threads that will be explored more in the next book, and beyond.

The twist at the end of the book, is mostly well done, although I do feel that the climax of the book is a bit rushed, and we don’t spend enough time with the big three gods, Zeus, Hades and Poseidon, despite the big deal that is made about them not being allowed to have anymore half-blood children. We briefly meet each of the big three, but they don’t leave a huge impression that makes us care about whether or not it’s special to be a child of the big three. Nor do the Olympic gods and Hades come across as likable characters, which actually helps to empathize with Luke’s motivations.

When I first read this book I really loved it, and immediately wanted to read the rest of the series. On this reading, I still really enjoyed the book, and found a few surprises that I didn’t remember, because I’ve seen the movie version more times than I’ve read the book. I really enjoyed the middle section with the trio on the journey battling monsters in pursuit of the quest. I think even though there are parts where the story feels rushed, overall it is well told and the characters are interesting.

Thank you for reading my review. Let me know what you think about Percy Jackson in the comments section, and stay tuned for the next review, the second book in the series, “Sea of Monsters.”