Stanley Su reviews The Sea of Monsters

I read the book, The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan. This book is the second book of the series Percy Jackson and the Olympians. In the beginning of this book, Percy Jackson, the main character of the story, gets betrayed by his friend Luke. Luke poisons Thalia’s tree which causes camp half blood to become vulnerable to attacks. Camp halfblood is a camp for demi-gods which are half humans and half gods. They go to camp halfblood to stay safe from being hunted by monsters. Thalia’s tree stops the monsters from getting into the camp and with it poisoned the monsters will be able to attack Camp Halfblood. Kronos , the titan and the source of all evil, came up with this maniacal plan to get himself out of eternal imprisonment; he often times convinces heroes to do what they think would stop Kronos but in turn they actually get tricked into helping Kronos. Also Grover, Percy’s best friend that is half man half goat, has been captured by the famous Cyclops, Polyphemus. Percy Jackson, Annabeth, and Tyson, Percy’s Cyclops cousin, set off on an adventure to save Grover from the Cyclops and to retrieve the magical item the Golden Fleece to save Camp Half-Blood. The Golden Fleece can cure any sort of poison even the most lethal; therefore, they can use it to cure Thalia’s tree. However, the Golden Fleece and Grover just happen to be in the same place. Is this all one really convenient coincident or is it part of something bigger, something evil? Were these young heroes tricked into Kronos’s plans once again? Read to find out!
Percy Jackson, the son of Poseidon, is a believable character. As Percy goes on his adventure we see each of his characteristics that define Percy as being believable, characteristics such as courageous, compassionate, and immaturity. “We have to do the quest, but we’ll get expelled”: This quote shows Percy’s immense courage in that he is willing to risk anything to save the world. Percy realizes that if he gets expelled from Camp Half-Blood he has to go back to school which he really doesn’t like and Camp Half-Blood is like his home. Percy acknowledges these consequences and puts them aside for the greater good. He is also very compassionate about his friends; he cares for them very much, “‘Tyson!’ I tackled him with all my might knocking him aside just as the Hydra lunged toward him.” This quote shows that Percy cares for his friend Tyson very much and is willing to sacrifice his life for his friends. Saving Tyson’s life from the Hydra also shows Percy’s courage and that he is willing to stand and fight the Hydra. Although Percy is a very strong and powerful hero; he still is a kid. In this book the Sea of Monsters, Percy is still 16 years old which is very young and you can see that he’s still naïve and immature. “My father, the all-powerful Poseidon, had gotten moony-eyed for some nature spirit, and Tyson had been the result. And me … as much as I liked the big guy, I couldn’t help feeling embarrassed. Ashamed. There, I said it.” In this scene, Percy is having a childish fit because he is embarrassed because his brother is a Cyclops. He is also upset that he isn’t the only one son of Poseidon; he’s sort of jealous in a way that he isn’t the only “special” one anymore. These characteristics make Percy seem more believable because like any young hero; he expresses a great deal of courage and like any good friend he stand up for them and protects them. The author makes Percy seem really believable when he adds this immatureness to his character because we know that he is still very young and that he cant be a perfect hero when he’s only 16. Although Percy is half god we still see him struggling with problems that any average 16 year old would experience: for example, we still see him getting jealous.
I would recommend this book to people who get bored of reading really quickly because this book is filled with action, adventure and it also has a lot of humor. Also greek mythology usually always intrigues people. I definitely liked this book; this book is the sequel of The Lightning Thief and if you liked this book you should definitely read the first and the rest of the series.