Tori's Review: The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
Series: Percy Jackson & the Olympians #2
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Mythology
Rating: ★★★★
Pages: 279
Published by Disney-Hyperion Books on April 1, 2006
Date Finished: August 18, 2013
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The heroic son of Poseidon makes an action-packed comeback in the second must-read installment of Rick Riordan's amazing young readers series. Starring Percy Jackson, a "half blood" whose mother is human and whose father is the God of the Sea, Riordan's series combines cliffhanger adventure and Greek mythology lessons that results in true page-turners that get better with each installment. In this episode, The Sea of Monsters, Percy sets out to retrieve the Golden Fleece before his summer camp is destroyed, surpassing the first book's drama and setting the stage for more thrills to come.

This review was written on my iPhone, and you know how the typing is on that device. So if there are any mistakes or funny autocorrections, I just hope you know what I was trying to say in the first place, because I am too lazy to go back and correct my mistakes.

I decided to read this book for a second time because of the new Percy Jackson movie. (I saw it yesterday, woo.) This review will be spoiler free. I'm mostly going to be talking about the characters and writing more than what happened like I usually do. I'm going to say beforehand that I haven't read The Lightning Thief for two or three years because I don't own it, so don't get mad if my facts are based off the movie that I've seen quite a few times.

To start this review off let's just say that I forgot about the prophecy. And Thalia. And Tyson. I pretty much forgot about everything. It's just been so long since I've read this series so I'm ecstatic to read the series again (I am going to go on and read the third book, The Titan's Curse). And really, I'm glad that I forgot pretty much everyone but Percy Jackson himself because now I can experience the world all over again!

When reading this book I really think that the characters are strong and solid. That's mostly because the movie is able to capture their personality so well, in my opinion, so I can imagine them being real people. (Although the movie got Clarisse all wrong. I love both Clarisse's so much but the move Clarisse and the book Clarisse are so different.)

The only thing that kept me from giving this book five stars was the beginning. It was quite slow if I do say so myself. Not so slow where it was hard to read but nothing really happened the first 100 pages other than the very action-oriented beginning. The other thing that prevented me from giving this story five stars was the writing. I realize that this book is a children's book, and now I know why. The writing is built more to explain than to show in my opinion. Rick Riordan's writing does happen to be marvelous but I think his writing improves in maturity as the series goes along. There were a few scenes where Percy was pretty much thinking to himself, which made me take a double take a laugh at the weirdness of it.

Other than those two things, this book was enjoyable, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes mythology, action, and fantasy.

This has movie spoilers.

I loved the movie so much, but it was so different from the book. Despite the difference I happen to like a lot the way that the directors if SoM the Movie merged the ending together and changed a few things. I also loved the blatant humor that was in SoM the Movie.

The way that they introduced Tyson was amazing. How he was living in the forest when he was claimed by Poseidon, and then he followed the floating trident to Camp Half-Blood. I was sad when he was shot and thrown into the cavern in the movie though. I completely didn't remember that, hey, water heals the children of Posiedon.

AND THEN ANNABETH. WHEN SHE WAS STABBED BY THE DRAKEN (I'm assuming that thing was a draken). Like whattttttt.

And the way that Clarisse was in the movie more than she was in the book made me happy. I love her in the movie and the fact that she's played by Leven Ramblin made me even happier.

On a final note, LUKE. WHO IS PLAYED BY JAKE ABEL. IT WAS SO HARD TO HATE LUKE.

But seriously though Luke had some hilarious lines in the movie.

If you haven't already go and see this movie. I swear its good and I didn't only like it because of Logan Lermen. Sure the graphics weren't the best but it didn't suck either. I was okay with paying $8 to see it.