I’ve finally (regretfully) reached the end of the Percy Jackson books. It’s a little bittersweet finishing an enjoyable new series. It’s been highly enjoyable, however, and I do see myself returning to the series and recommending it to younger readers along the way. The nice thing about these books is that they’re fun without taking themselves too seriously and informational about mythology without being too heavy-handed in focus. In short: they’re appropriate for the audience to whom they are addressed. Percy is trying not to […]

Rick Riordan twists the plot a bit so that he breaks the predictability factor of the books. This is overall good for the series, as he has only one book to wrap up the story arc after this. Because I am a puzzle-person, the archetype of the maze or labyrinth has always been of interest to me (though please do not put me in one of those panic rooms), so I was probably going to find The Battle of the Labyrinth more interesting by default. […]

I think this middle book might have been the weakest of the series for me—it was certainly the least memorable. While Percy falls into a sort of rhythm, Rick Riordan’s plotting starts to get a little paint-by-numbers in a way that makes me wonder if his enormous book output after the Percy Jackson books is being manned by a bookmill of ghostwriters. That said, I was glad to keep inhabiting the Percy universe and learn even more obscure mythology. Annabeth goes missing while Percy is […]

I had such fun reading the first Percy Jackson book that I decided to keep on, once I figured out how to work Hoopla when no internet connection was present (THAT was its own ordeal, trust me. Add to it that I spent 48 hours without internet, and there *might* have been a panic about lack of access to books or the news. Obviously, I made it through just fine, as you can see from this review). My perception of the series continues—it’s fun and […]

I remember when The Lightning Thief first came out, and I enjoyed the first book immensely. I received the whole series as a Christmas present but sadly never finished the other books, so I decided that this summer was the absolute time to correct it. And what better way to shoehorn free time on an international trip than with a fun middle-grade series? Percy Jackson is not like other twelve-year-old boys. He is dyslexic and funny and strange things always happen to him. He’s always […]