Review: The Sea of Monsters, Rick Riordan

For once, Percy has endured a relatively uneventful year at a school, although he’s been stuck with an awkward friend, Tyson.  That’s until a game of dodgeball goes wrong and Percy gets blamed.  When he heads to his summer refuge, the camp for half-bloods, he finds that Thalia’s tree is dying and the camp’s borders are failing.  It’s no longer safe.  Even though Percy and his friends are told not to, they head off to save one of their friends and their camp from destruction.

Since I knew The Sea of Monsters was more of a MG book going in, I found myself enjoying it a lot more than The Lightning Thief. When I kept the audience in mind, I found this a very engaging read.  The characters are all still endearing.  I loved the addition of Tyson and I felt that he really helped Percy to grow and develop as a character, which if  you’re reading this blog, you know I really appreciate.  He also brought up an interesting issue that Percy needed to explore – that being the son of a god is not necessarily a wonderful thing that will get you out of every scrape you land in.  It makes the story more interesting and more relevant for real kids, even if obviously no modern child is going to get on a ship to rescue their satyr friend.

This is a fast-paced, enjoyable book.  Percy and his friends don’t rest from the first page onwards.  This book does, however, stand alone a bit less than the first did.  A reader new to the series would probably pick up on what was happening thanks to Percy’s explanations, but the story ends on an intriguing twist that will have readers looking for the next book in the series.  There are also references to a prophecy that will probably apply when Percy is sixteen – if he makes it that far – which makes it clear that we’ll have to read the entire series to know what happens.  I’m looking forward to continuing when I need a light, humorous, fast-paced read.

I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased this book.