The Lightning Thief
by Rick Riordan
This is one of those books that I picked up on a whim. While I have nothing against reading YA as an adult, I was a little put-off when I realized that the main character here is twelve. So the target audience is slightly younger than YA. At which point I thought “Oh, whatever. I’ll breeze through it in a few days. What there’s a sequel? Yeah, well, I don’t have to read that.”
OMG you guys, I totally want to read the sequel! This book was so much fun! It was fast-paced, action-packed, and, well, Greek gods. Who doesn’t love to see Greek Gods in the middle of New York city every now and then? I particularly loved the portrayal of Ares. It seemed pretty much exactly like how I think he would dress and act if he existed in the modern day.
I must admit to being a little rusty on my Greek mythology so I can’t say how accurate the book was in that department. I can say that I did not entirely buy the explanation for Percy’s dyslexia. The ADD explanation, I can sort of get on board with, but the dyslexia not so much.
I also loved Percy and his friends, and, given that the book ended on an excellent cliff-hanger, I definitely want to read the sequel to find out what happens next!
Beautiful Darkness
by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Not much to say about this book. I did enjoy it and, like the first book of this series, it sucked me in. Once I started reading it was all I wanted to do until I reached the end.
I give this book major props for making me question the relationship between the two main characters. I’m so used to knowing that so-and-so is clearly meant to be with so-and-so and, as a result, no matter what happens, I am never really in fear for their relationship. This book had me wondering though … Not only if their relationship would survive this, but if it should survive. Or maybe that’s just the cynic in me, who knows? In any case, I definitely recommend this book and I cannot wait until I have a chance to get to the sequel.
I just hope it gets made into a movie. I really enjoyed the first movie and was super sad that it crashed in the box office because I really want to see the rest of the series get made into movies. Pleeeeeeeeeeeease!




