Title: The Sea of Monsters [Percy Jackson and the Olympians 2]
Author: Rick Riordan
Genre: Fantasy, Middle Grade, Mythology
Length: 288
Rating: 3.5 rounded up to 4 Star
Series Review: 1, 2, 3, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.5
Description/Synopsis:
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.
Review – MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
I didn’t like this one quite as much as the first one.
I think a main reason for this is that Clarisse became a main character. I do not like her. At all. Having to read so much about her greatly annoyed me. I was plotting her death with each page. We did get some new characters though. Percy gets a brother who I think is kind of adorable. Percy kind of didn’t like him at first but he got over it. We also got more info about some of the gods and I have come to really like Hermes.
“It doesn’t matter if they hate you, or embarrass you, or simply don’t appreciate your genius for inventing the internet-“
“You invented the internet?”
It was my idea, Martha said.
Rats are delicious, George said.
“It was my idea!” Hermes said. “I mean the internet, not the rats. But that’s not the point.”
In this book I started to feel more attached to the characters. Riordan is beginning to really weave a good story with characters I can feel all the heart they have and the ideals they try to uphold.
I found this book more realistic than the last one since Percy is older here. He is in danger constantly and goes through so much but he doesn’t even freak out or really get hurt ever. I found this hard to consume in the first one cause he was only 14, but I think its more “realistic” when he is 15. The style of the writing is still the same way I liked it, both series but takes a moment to mention the ridiculous things that can happen along the way.
This story in terms of plot moved ahead nicely and actually threw me a curve ball at the end which I didn’t see coming, so I really enjoyed that. In this one Grover gets captured by a Cyclops and Thalia’s Tree is sick and the only thing that can help it and protect Camp Half-Blood is to find the magical Golden Fleece. Luckily for our heroes, they are both at the same place so they race off to go get them before the tree dies and before Grover is forced to marry the Cyclops! My favorite part about this adventure was that the Fleece was guarded by man eating sheep. I picture that in my head and its just so spastic.
So yeah, good enough to keep me going onto the next books in the series. The ending really has me hooked!
Till Next Time…