Percy Jackson: The Sea of Monsters
RATING
Three and a Half Stars
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters [Book 2]
Rick Riordan

GENRE: Fantasy, Mythology
APPROX. PAGES: 272 pages

PURCHASE THE BOOK
I n the beginning of the second book in the series, Percy learns his best friend Grover is in trouble and so are the magical borders that protect the area of camp half-blood. He soon sets out on a journey to help out in both situations.

I didn't think this book was as enthralling as the first. It is a quick read though and still entertaining so I thought it was good enough to keep reading the next books in the series. I did love some of the newly introduced characters, including Tyson, a young cyclops.

The adventures were different from the first book. They faced a completely different set of monsters as they traveled by sea (the first book they mostly were on land). Some of the creatures and monsters they came across were particularly fascinating to me because of a cartoon I used to watch (do you remember Ducktales?) including the Sirens and Circe.

There is a lot of action in this book, but it is also obviously action written for children. It is engaging without being gory, but it also lacks a certain grip on your emotions that action from some other books have. One of my only complaints? With almost every monster that Percy and his friends encounter, right before something bad happens, he says something like, "I should have known," or "It seemed too easy," a couple of times I just wanted to shout at him that he is a demi-god, of course he should assume everyone is trying to kill him because they usually are. I do not believe the character of Percy is stupid, but my heck, sometimes he acts like it.

My final verdict? A good book, worth a read, but don't expect to finish the book a changed person.