Fifth Post!

The time has finally come for me to review the final installment of my favorite series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians. So here it is.
Drumroll, please.
I give you.......... The Last Olympian!
Oh, snap! What a title! You know you love it.
Now, here is where I would usually CAUTION YOU to stop reading if you haven't read all the other books in the series, because this is about to get spoilerific to the max. But I'm not going to, because you should really KNOW BETTER by now.

The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

The fifth book begins with a bang, quite literally: In the first chapter, Percy and Beckendorf blow up a ship. Then, of course, it's straight to camp, where the demigods are preparing for a war that will decide the fate of both the Olympian world and the mortal one. All the gods (minus Poseidon, who is fighting his own war under the ocean) are locked in battle with the giant Typhon, and Kronos, now in Luke's body, is leading his army of monsters and half-bloods to an unprotected Mount Olympus. Percy's sixteenth birthday is in a week, and we all know what that means. The Great Prophecy is finally revealed to our favorite hero and all the rest of the campers, and boy, is it grim. Prophecies are never as they seem, but there's really no way to make what will happen on Percy's birthday sound anything but positively dreadful. Despite the fact that he's practically been handed a death sentence, Percy must lead the demigods of Camp Half-Blood to New York City, to protect the sources of the gods' powers on Olympus. They have little chance of success, and, to make matters worse, there is a spy among them. As the final battle approaches, Percy must make some important choices, unravel the past, and decide what really matters. With twists, turns, loves, deaths, and unexpected heroes galore, this best-selling series comes to an end no less spectacular than what we have come to expect from the talented Rick Riordan and his much-loved Percy Jackson.

Yeah. What I said right there at the end. Basically, it's perfect.
I can't express how much I love this finale. Everything, and I mean everything, comes together. The prophecy is revealed. Luke's past is revealed. Nico's life is pieced together. People live. People die. People trade sides and prove themselves and make their final stands. There is love, and happiness, and there are tearful goodbyes. You do not see it coming. It hits you like a speeding freight train and then proceeds to run you over (and it is a very long speeding freight train). You cannot get enough. You laugh, and you cry; you jump up and down in your overstuffed chair and squeal loudly at the mushy bits, and you curl up in a blanket with your cat and a mug of hot tea and wallow in your misery at the retributory bits. You read it over and over and over and over and over again. You love it like there's no tomorrow. I'm serious, here. I'm for cereal.
You want me to say it, don't you? Fine, I'll say it. The end is reminiscent of the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. (There's another one of my favorite series; maybe I'll review it someday. For now: Read it!) It is, if you think about it, fairly similar, though like the series itself, everything in this book is to a slightly smaller scale. But that doesn't mean it's any less powerful. It is hugely powerful. And The Last Olympian is its own book, with its own story, its own characters, its own revelations, and its own resolution.
I'm not going to try to convince you to read this book. If you are at this point, if you have read all the previous books, I can't imagine being able to stop you from reading it, even if for some incomprehensible reason I wanted to. I am just telling you. It is worth it. This end is worth everything. The end of Percy Jackson and the Olympians is worth everything in the world.

I mean it.

Heck, if they get this far in the movies, I'd kill them for not making this into one.

Thank you to everyone, all of my friends and family members, for bearing with me through my time following this series, particularly there at the end. I know I can get a little over-enthusiastic at times, but you are nothing but supportive. I love you all!
And endless thanks go to Rick Riordan for writing the best series of all times, in my opinion. You have added such a wonderful thing to my life.
Finally, and most importantly, thank you to Percy Jackson. You, my dear friend, have been with me for years. I have followed you on your adventures, laughing and crying, and I have loved every minute of it. (I still do.) You have enriched my life. You are the best, and, in my eyes, you always will be. Keep in touch.
It has been an amazing era.

Recommendation: You. Yes, you. You know who you are.

Fourth Post!

Fourth post means fourth Percy Jackson and the Olympians book! So here it is, The Battle of the Labyrinth, by Rick Riordan, in all its glory. And it has a lot of glory. Oodles and oodles of glory. It's quite spectacular. But please STOP READING NOW if you haven't read the first three. Because to match this book's oodles and oodles of glory, this review contains oodles and oodles of spoilers for the previous books.

The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

This penultimate novel begins not at the end of the school year, but at the beginning of the summer (shush, that is not the same difference), and we find Percy at the freshman orientation for his new high school - yes, the one that his mom's recently acquired boyfriend, Paul Blofis, teaches at. But of course Percy can't get through even this without some type of hitch, and the problem of the day begins with him seeing the last person he wants to see: none other than Rachel Elizabeth Dare, the mortal girl who can see through the Mist that he met at Hoover Dam the prior summer. She saves his butt, though, by warning him that the cheerleaders are both inhuman and evil. So then he has to deal with that. Typical day for a typical demigod. Immediately after orientation, Percy and Annabeth head to camp, where they meet Quintus, the new sword instructor, and find out that Luke is leading an army of demigods and monsters in an attempt to infiltrate Camp Half-Blood. And the route he's taking is right through the Labyrinth, a living, underground maze that probably spans the entire continent and is known to drive people insane. It is up to Annabeth, Percy, Grover, and Tyson to enter the Labyrinth, find the workshop of Daedalus (the man who built the Labyrinth thousands of years before), and prevent Luke from using the maze against them. The prophecy is ominous, the Labyrinth is deceptive, and the stakes are higher than ever.

As I explained in my post for Titan's Curse, this is my very close third-favorite in the series. Almost fourth. This book is positively scrumptious. I love love love watching the adorable tension grow between Percy and Annabeth, especially with the reintroduction of the spectacular Rachel Elizabeth Dare. (Yes, she is me, in case you had not made the connection. Two superb Rachels with frizzy red hair and green eyes and freckles? Duh. It seems that Rick Riordan heard about me and my awesomeness and thought, "Obviously I must base a character off of her, and then there will be no end to the character's awesomeness." Or something like that.) Now, this girl. She is great. And I am being objective when I say this; I am not thinking of her in terms of myself. She is just a great character, totally strong and stubborn and unique. And she is the perfect compliment to Percy and Annabeth - like, the three of them just mesh together perfectly. I'm not saying they get along well, just that the three characters work well together. Rachel's easy-going nature is like a reverse reflection of Annabeth's tendency to worry and overthink things, and the way she deals with Percy - a combination of I-trust-and-respect-you-as-a-person and your-typical-boy-obliviousness-and-recklessness-utterly-exasperate-me - is hilarious. Girl power! Plus it's fun to watch Annabeth get jealous. And then there is Nico, who was just an innocent little boy in the last book. He was a side character, but a year later we find him hardened and matured since his sister's death, and with an agenda. He's an incredibly intriguing character with his own flaws, fears, burdens, ghosts, and haunting side story. He's one of my favorite characters, and, personally, I would love to read a series about him. Also, as usual, we have new Greek myths woven into the novel in the usual Rick Riordan way; the most central and interesting story told is that of Daedalus and the Labyrinth, and Ariadne's string, but there is much more than just that. And it continues to be fast-paced and exciting, and Percy's voice continues with his lovable sarcasm and oblivious-boy routine. This book comes to an intense climax that hits like an affectionate bro-punch to the gut and leaves you reeling pleasantly. Not to mention the end. Talk about insane cliffhanger.

Fingers crossed for no movie? Blow on your dandelions, people!

Thanks to my mom for driving to B&N at nine in the morning again to get me this book the day it came out and drop it off at school for me. You're the best!
And then one day, a couple weeks later, I found out that Rick Riordan was going to be doing a book signing about an hour away from our town later that day. Thank you so so so much, Mommy, for driving me out there! It is because of you that I got to meet the author of my favorite series, got to get all my books signed, got to ask him when Percy's birthday is (August 18th), and got to win the absolute last Battle of the Labyrinth T-shirt he was giving away that day (because I correctly answered the trivia question asking what Athena's sacred animal is) (it's a stag, by the way). I love that T-shirt. Mother Dearest, you are positively divine!
Also, thank you to my dear friend Liana, though we haven't hung out in a while (which is a disgrace and needs to be remedied), for finding my copy of this book on her shelf more than a year after she borrowed it and a long, long time after I had given up hope of ever finding it again. Which would have been a fierce dreadful shame, seeing as how I got it signed. I don't blame you, love; I thought you had returned it as well. I'm just glad you found it!

Recommendation: Really, guys? EVERYONE. Just read them in order, okay? I mean, what pleasure can you possibly get from reading them out of order? Is it, like, a satisfaction in going against the grain? Cause that's just immature. It's just juvenile. Really. I expect more from you.

Third Post!

Took me a long time to get this one out. Sorry... Truth is, I typed up about half of this post two-ish weeks ago, but then my mom wanted her computer back, and I was avoiding the internet on mine (long story), and then, well, I kinda forgot. And then we went college shopping up in Oregon and Washington, so I there went five days, and then I forgot again. But anyway:

As promised, I continue my Percy Jackson and the Olympians review string with the third book, The Titan's Curse. Good stuff! But once again, I WARN YOU that there are spoilers ahead and you should stay far away from this post unless you have read the first two books in this lovely series.

The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan

Unlike the previous two, this book does not begin with Percy on the brink of getting kicked out of another school. No, it begins with Sally Jackson driving Percy, Annabeth, and Thalia to the boarding school that Grover is stationed at, to retrieve two possibly very powerful demigods that he has discovered. But the retrieval does not go at all as planned, and the teens have to deal with a manticore. Just when it looks like all hope is lost, the Hunters of Artemis arrive to save the day, but the manticore escapes - with Annabeth as a hostage. Percy and the others are, of course, distraught. They join with two of the Hunters and embark on a quest to rescue Annabeth and Artemis (who, somehow, has been kidnapped as well), find and stop a mysterious monster that could destroy the gods, and unravel the ominous-sounding Titan's curse. Oh, and, according to the newest prophecy, two of them will die in the process.

Rick Riordan is awesome! As always, his writing is engaging and extremely entertaining, as well as educational. (Wow, four big "e" words in one sentence. Alliteration! In all modesty, I have impressed myself.) Some of the great new characters include Bianca and Nico de Angelo, Zoë Nightshade, Blackjack the pegasus, and, most interestingly of all, Thalia, the daughter of Zeus. She's a great character, and it's wonderful to get to know her after the constant references in the past two books, not to mention that cliffhanger at the end of the last one. And her relationship with Percy is quite something. There is also an introductory cameo on a new and very intriguing character: ME! Just kidding. Well, no, I'm not, not really. Not at all, actually, but that's okay. Read the book, and maybe you'll see what I mean. ;) . Sorry, the winky face was necessary. Anywho, if you don't get it after reading, I'll explain in my review for the next book, because I am thoroughly convinced that I am in this series. Well, enough about me. Continuing: We also get to learn some very exciting things, such as how to drive Apollo's sun chariot and why Dionysus is secretly the king of super-beast-awesomeness and the god any sane (key word, here) person would pick if they could only have one on their side. And there is, of course, an abundance of all those other ridiculous situations that Percy always seems to find himself in. It's why we love him. That, and the snarky thoughts he has when he's in such situations. It's all very endearing, in my opinion. Not to mention hilarious.

Okay, so while Sea of Monsters is my least - sorry, fifth - favorite in the series, Titan's Curse is one of my favorites. If we remember that the Lightning Thief is my all-time favorite because it's the first and it has to be, and then demote it to fourth because it is actually not my favorite at all, we can set up a pretty simple hierarchy. My favorite would have to be the fifth, because, well, because. Read the fifth, or my review of it (coming soon), and you will understand. THIS book, The Titan's Curse, the third in the series, is second. It's just incredibly intense and fresh, and the new characters are beautiful, and it's darker than the previous books - just the right amount of darkness. Very refreshing, this darkness. And exhilarating, actually. I do love it. The book, I mean. I love the darkness, too, but just now I was talking about the book. I love it. At any rate, the fourth (review coming soon) is my third favorite. I think. The top three are very close; though the fifth is my favorite for sure, it's a close race, and my ordering of the third and fourth is a bit iffy. Though I think that this is my official statement. And then, the first is my fourth favorite and the second is my fifth favorite. Yep. Let's go with that. Ha. Well, the point of THAT whole unnecessarily long paragraph is that this third book is my second favorite book in the series. And that it's awesome. Yay!

Hey guys! Let's pray to the gods that they don't try to make this one into a movie, too!
Oh my gods, they probably will. Ugh.

Thanks go to my lovely mother, Lark, who drove to Barnes & Noble at nine in the morning (when it opened) the Tuesday this book came out, because I couldn't, and then dropped it off at my school so I could start it immediately and finish it later that day. Thanks, Mama!
Thanks also to my friend Pamela, who I haven't talked to in a while, for being a bit more than reasonably gullible and for making eighth grade Spanish class (which started the fall after this book came out and continued through the release of the fourth) WAY better than it deserved to be. See, I like connecting myself to actors and characters that I like, and my connection to Percy Jackson is that he is officially my big brother (though he's not that much older than me). It was great, though, because I was always telling Pamela about my big brother who I absolutely adored but rarely got to see, and I kept talking about how I couldn't wait for May 6th (the day the fourth came out) because he was visiting. And she believed it all. She thought it was weird, but she believed it. She figured it out much later when I wore a PJ shirt, but still. It was pretty great. Love you, Pamela!

Recommendation: EVERYONE should read this book. Except everyone should read the second and first books first. But not in that order.

Second Post!

Because Percy Jackson and the Olympians is just my favorite series ever, I'm going to review all five (yes, five!) books in my first five posts. Here is the second, The Sea of Monsters. BUT BEWARE: This contains spoilers about the first book, and stuff you just won't understand without it, so don't read this review without reading The Lightning Thief. Though why anyone would be inclined to read this first, I have absolutely no idea...

The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

Percy, our favorite demigod, can't wait to get back to Grover, Annabeth, and the rest of Camp Half-Blood, especially since he's been having nightmares about Grover. Seventh grade has been surprisingly quiet... But the year's not over yet. On literally the last day of school, Percy and his new friend Tyson (who may not be as human as he seems) barely escape a group of dodgeball-playing giants that destroy the school gym and get Percy expelled again. Percy and Tyson meet up with Annabeth, who has followed similar nightmares across the country, and arrive at camp to find it under attack. Thalia's pine tree has been poisoned, and the defenses of the camp are dying with it. Chiron has been fired and replaced with a sadistic prisoner from the Underworld. And, to make matters worse, Grover is MIA. Obviously, the only course of action for Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson is to leave camp without permission and brave the waters of the Sea of Monsters in search of both their satyr friend and a long-lost artifact that just might be able to save the camp - the legendary Golden Fleece.

Rick Riordan continues to please. This second installment is just as exciting and funny as the first, and sneakily incorporates even more mythology. Percy's voice is as honest and witty as ever, and this summer's adventure is just as compelling. Hilarity abounds, along with guinea pigs, carnivorous sheep, and a very evil sarcophagus. New characters, such as Tyson, Tantalus, and the Stoll brothers, add to the excitement. And the serial plot thickens! Now, out of the five books in this series, this one is my least favorite, but that doesn't mean I don't love it. I do. Let's just say, it's my fifth favorite. I love it like crazy. So you should read it.

Guess what guys? They're making a movie. Yes, a second to the horrid first. WHY OH WHY would they do this??? I'm afraid we have yet to find an answer. Ughh... See, I have to go see it, though. Because it's Percy Jackson. And because it's Logan Lerman. But we all saw how brutally they butchered book one; I don't think I can stand to see them butcher book two. And GUYS! Do you remember the end of the movie? How they completely left Kronos out and blamed it all on Luke? HOW ON EARTH DO THEY EXPECT TO CARRY ON THE STORY WITHOUT KRONOS????? I mean, the serial arc is gone! The whole point to everything is pffftt - nonexistant! I am so seething angry, I'm surprised I'm not seeing red. Seriously. I am mad.
But this blog is not here as ranting space for me. It is not, "Would you like some review on that rant?" but rather, "Would you like some rant on that review?" So I am done.
For now, at least.
And I apologize for my liberal use of capital letters. I should really just be bolding everything, but I just don't feel like that gets the point or the tone across as well. So if you are irked by my choice, than that is very unfortunate for you, and I apologize. But that is all.

Recommendation: EVERYONE! Particularly, everyone who read The Lightning Thief. What else is there to say?

First Post!

I think it's fitting that the first book I review be one of my favorites - you know, to start off on a good note. So here it is, the first book in one of my favorite series ever, the fairly famous Percy Jackson and the Olympians, by the fairly famous Rick Riordan. It is called The Lightning Thief.

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Besides the ADHD and dyslexia, Percy Jackson thinks he's a pretty normal middle schooler - well, maybe not. Trouble seems to follow him everywhere, and lately the word "trouble" hasn't been sufficient. Case in point: at his boarding school field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan, his math teacher turns into a grotesque winged monster and attacks him. And barely a month later, his mother is killed by a Minotaur and Percy finds himself at Camp Half-Blood, a sanctuary for other not-so-normal kids like him - which just so happen to be the half-mortal children of the Greek gods. Yeah, the gods are still around, and Percy has been introduced to this side of the real world just in time to get on all their bad sides. For Zeus's master lightning bolt has been stolen, and, somehow, Percy is the prime suspect. Now it is up to Percy and his two friends, Grover and Annabeth, to clear his name and divert a war by finding the real thief and returning the bolt to its rightful owner.

Now, maybe I'm a bit too old for this book. I mean, Percy is twelve, after all. But I did read this for the first time when I was twelve, during a trip to Costa Rica the winter break of seventh grade. I devoured it in only a couple days, and was then forced to wait a week before we returned to the Bay and I could get to my usual Barnes & Noble and buy the second (which I will review in due time). I reread this series, particularly the first and the last books, every year or so, depending on my inclination, and they never cease to please me. The plot is original and engaging, a thoroughly satisfying adventure. This book is told in Percy's point of view, in first person, and his voice is unique, real, and hilarious. Rick Riordan follows the thoughts of his protagonist with all the wit, sarcasm, and naivete of a typical twelve-year-old, and the book is often laugh-out-loud funny. Riordan, an ex-teacher of both history and English, effortlessly weaves Greek mythology into this easy-and-fun-to-read adventure story. He has made me, at least, into a Greek mythology buff, and because of these books, I am fascinated by all types of mythology. Riordan makes learning fun - that is, if you even notice that you're learning. Hey, even the table of contents is fun to read!

So guys, The Lightning Thief was recently made into a fairly famous movie. It was not good. Do not let that deter you.
I mean, it wasn't bad, and Logan Lerman (the actor who played Percy) is both beautiful and my future husband (#2), but it did not do justice. So many plot elements were twisted, mutilated, and destroyed to the point where it was practically a different story, and a stupid one at that. And the ending! They completely removed the twist that is the driving force of the rest of the series... and I've heard they might make a second! Now, how in the world is that supposed to work?! Sorry. I get riled.
Anyway, the book is way better, and actually has a good storyline.

Basically, I love these books. And endless thanks go to my dear friend Melinda, who introduced me to this series by picking out a book she hadn't read but thought I might like and giving it to me for my birthday many years ago. Thank you, Melinda!

Recommendation: EVERYONE! More specifically, preteens, young teens, teens who aren't too proud to read a preteen book (not many of those, I know), kids who are interested in mythology or need some inspiration in that area, anyone who likes to laugh, etc.
Seriously, though. It's my favorite series for a reason.