Dear Becca,
I would like to think that I would have read this book even
if you hadn’t selected it for our book swap, but I’m honestly not sure whether
I would have. One of my co-workers also recommended it to me but it’s just not
the type of YA that I’m generally drawn to. It’s extremely well written and I
love the incorporation of Greek mythology – yet, I’m not going to lie, it
didn’t leave me eager to read the next in the series. I truly believe that this
is just because I’m so much older than the target audience and also much more
reliant on a romantic subplot – which, as you mentioned before, is lacking from
this book. All in all, it was an entertaining and fast read, but not high on my
list of favorites.
Going back to romantic subplots, I feel like there’s a hinting
that Percy’s friendship with Annabelle could develop into something more
romantic as he gets older. Did you get that sense at all? Maybe I’m reading too
much into things! In general, I found Annabelle an incredibly hard character to
like. She had such mixed feelings toward Percy and while it’s not unbelievable
that she could go from resenting/disliking Percy to genuinely caring about him,
the trouble was that I didn’t truly believe that she ever disliked him or had
these conflicting emotions. I’m glad that this isn’t an English assignment
because I didn’t pull quotes that support my opinion. However, the more I think
about Annabelle, the more I realize that it wasn’t just her character I had
this problem with…I feel like all of the secondary characters were a little under-developed.
There are still four more books in the series, though, and I’m sure that all of
the characters will grow during the course of those books.
Also on the topic of characters, I was extremely
disappointed in the storyline about Percy’s mother. I had a “you’re kidding,
right?” moment when it was revealed that his mother married Smelly Gabe in
order to hide Percy’s half-blood scent. Seriously?! Couldn’t she have done
something other than marry an abusive man who treats both herself and her child
so poorly? My idea would have been to make her a florist – have their whole
house smell like flowers instead of garbage. His mother came across as very
passive in the first book and not a particularly good role model. I would
definitely be curious to see what happens to her character in the rest of the
books.
Again, I’m glad this isn’t an English assignment because my
post is exceeding its word limit…But I want to add one last thing about the movie adaptation of the book. Given the work that we did on our theses, I
think it’s safe to say that we both have a strong interest in this issue. One
of the first things I noticed about this book was the fact that it was
published by Disney Hyperion. I immediately wondered about the book deal and
whether Rick Riordan had perhaps approached Disney with the idea for the book
before it was even written, using the fact that it could be another great young
adult series of movies to sell the book. This is, I admit, extremely cynical of
me and it turns out Rick Riordan was already a well-established author before
writing this series and (I believe) had already completed The Lightning Thief
when he sold the movie rights. But interestingly enough, he DID sell the movie
rights before the book was published. Riordan explains:
“I made the decision to
sell the rights so early because it brought lots of public attention to the
books and helped the series catch on.” Very understandable from a
marketing standpoint. Riordan didn’t turn out to be too vested in the movie
version and admits that he never even watched the movie himself.
Okay, well, I’ve far exceeded our suggested word count and
now that I’ve reached the end, I’m feeling rather badly about my review. Please
do not mistake me – it’s a brilliant book. If I have a son (or daughter) some
day, I would definitely buy him (or her) this series.
I’m looking forward to your next choice!
Megan
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