The Lightning Thief

The book I read was called “The Lightning Thief” by Rick Riordan. This book is a part of the 5 book series. “The Lightning Thief” however had the worst ratings out of all the books. This book is about a 12 year old boy named Percy. Percy isn’t like other kids. He has Dyslexia, ADHD. Percy has a knack for getting kicked out of schools and had to attend 6 schools in 6 years. The main theme that I discovered was discovering identity. At the beginning of the book Percy doesn’t know who his father is and he doesn’t know of any powers that he has. Percy only thinks of himself as a bad kid who always gets in trouble. Throughout the book however, he discovers many things about himself and about who his father is.

Percy Jackson is different than the “normal” kid. Percy is a demigod which means he is half-human and half-god. Percy is the son of Poseidon who is the god of the seas. During this book Percy goes on a field trip to a museum. During this field trip a teacher morphs into a “fury” which then attacks Percy. While the “fury” is attaching it keeps telling him to give back the lightning bolt. Eventually Percy learns that the master lightning bolt has been stolen from Zeus. Percy is then accused by the gods to be the one who stole the lightning bolt and has to go on a dangerous journey with his best friend Grover who is a Satyr. A Satyr is half goat half human with the legs being goat legs. Annabeth also attends Percy. Annabeth is the daughter of Athena. They are on a quest to find the lightning bolt and to clear Percy’s name. While reading this book there was one quote that really stood out to me. The quote was “"If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself”(Riordan 170). This quote stuck out because I can apply it to my life.

               

I loved this book. This is definitely a book for everyone. I am usually a sports book kind of guy but this book helped change that. This book never gets boring and the whole time I was curious as to what was going to happen next. “The Lightning Thief” is a must read book. Even though this book had the lowest ratings out of the series, the ratings were very high compared to other books I’ve seen. Specifically about this book, I like all the action that is packed into it. Percy is always in a dangerous position throughout the book, and it gets very nerve racking. In this book, things happen pretty unexpectedly, this makes for a not very predictable book, which in my case is a very good thing. Everyone should read this book.

Book Review by John S.