The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan - Book Review

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Series: Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1
Published by: Disney Hyperion
Pages: 377
Format: Paperback
Genre: Fantasy, Mythology
Source: Bought
Rating: 5 hearts
Buy the Book or Add to Goodreads

FROM GOODREADS: Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school... again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he's angered a few of them. Zeus' master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.

Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus' stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.

MY THOUGHTS:

I originally bought The Lightning Thief when the first movie went to theaters, (which apparently was 2010) because I like to read the book of any book-to-movie adaptation before I watch the movie. For some reason, I never got around to doing that with this one. I watched the movie before I read the book. At the time, I thought it was an okay movie. Time passed, and my copy of The Lightning Thief sat on my TBR shelf, lonely and collecting dust FOR THREE YEARS!! *cringes* I cannot believe this book sat there so long. Anyways, I actually watched the second movie before reading this book!! Then, I started blogging, and I was peer pressured countless times to read this! COUNTLESS times, I tell you! So a fellow book blogging friend and I decided to buckle down and get our Percy Jackson fix. We actually tweeted our reactions via #PercyPowWow. It was SO much fun!!

So now you may be asking what was my reaction to The Lightning Thief? WOW. Guys, THIS BOOK. I was not expecting to read something that I would fall in love with like I did Harry Potter. This book is nowhere near what I watched in the movie adaptation. Honestly, I'm glad I watched that *cough* pathetic excuse for a book-to-movie adaptation *cough, cough* BEFORE I read the book, because I would have been incredibly disappointed.

First of all, I absolutely LOVED the chapter titles in this book! They had me giggling throughout the entirety of the novel. Percy's narration is nothing less than hilarious as well. All in all, if you don't think a book can make you laugh out loud and make strangers stare at you like you're crazy, then you need to pick up The Lightning Thief.

The characters were relatable, and I quickly found myself pining for some romance between Percy and Annabelle. Their back and forth banter was too cute!! Grover rounds out their friendship, and keeps everyone's spirits up with his crazy and weird antics!

I never thought I would enjoy Percy Jackson as much as I did, even though, everyone swore up and down that I would! I'm so glad I finally gave it a chance! You can officially call me a Percy Jackson fanatic, and Percabeth is definitely one of my new favorite ships!!!! The Lightning Thief delivers nothing less than a truly unique, action-packed, and heartfelt adventure! After I finished, I actually drove around my town searching frantically for the rest of the books in the series! Unfortunately, I was only able to find one, so I had to buy the others from Amazon!! Now all I need to round out my newest obsession, is a Camp Half Blood t-shirt!!!