The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Chapter 20: I Fight My Jerk Relative

While this was very much the “Ah-Ha” chapter of the book, that wasn’t my main focus when reading it. Probably because I know the mystery of the lightning thief is only half-solved, I opted to focus more on Percy and Ares’s fight. It’s not the most epic fight, nor is it the most well written. Ultimately, it’s a battle of wits on Percy’s part; somewhat fitting considering Annabeth’s declaration of reconciliation between the goddess of wisdom and the god of the sea. I focused on this fight because it really enforces how terrifying Percy Jackson actually is.

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The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Chapter 19: We Find Out the Truth, Sort Of

Every mystery has at least one major red herring, at least one clue or person designed to direct someone’s attention away from the real answer. The creepy old man who actually has a heart of gold. The angry character who always says, “I’ll get you for this,” but rarely ever does anything beside brood. Any example you want from any Harry Potter book ever.

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The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Chapter 18: Annabeth Goes to Obedience School

Percy, Annabeth, and Grover finally enter the Underworld by way of Percy’s very own plan. Thankfully, the Underworld does not look like the stereotypical version of Christian Hell. It’s just an endless amount of bureaucracy–which is arguably worse.

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The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Chapter 17: We Stop for Water Beds

While this entire series shows how strange and dangerous being a half-blood is, this chapter is the first to really cement that fact for me.
Percy’s in L.A. for a couple of minutes and immediately gets into a conversation with a Nereid in the Pacific Ocean while testing out his powers–powers that allow him to see clearly in seawater and actually see cold and warm currents (I don’t think this power ever comes up again).

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The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Chapter 16: We Take a Zebra to Vegas

This is a strange chapter. It is simultaneously the most forgettable chapter and one of the most memorable (for me anyway), and the memorable part is only a small part of the whole chapter.

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The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Chapter 15: A God Buys Us Cheeseburgers

A particularly long chapter compared to the previous ones so far; chapter fifteen is comprised of three separate scenes that could have been their own chapters, but thankfully weren’t so I have less chapters to review.

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The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Chapter 14: I Become a Known Fugitive

There isn’t much to discuss in this chapter. This is another transitional/information chapter used to push the trio, and the plot, in a certain direction and explain Percy’s powers a bit more.

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The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Chapter 13: I Plunge to My Death

This is the chapter I keep mixing-and-matching with the previous one. In my defense, having two back-to-back chapters with a toy dog as the central character will lead to me misremembering things, especially when the last chapter was more of a transitional chapter used to show how the trio could possibly make it to California and back within the allotted time and to further expand the characters. This chapter has a monster encounter and a cliffhanger, which makes it more memorable.

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The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Chapter 12: We Get Advice from a Poodle

Chapter twelve is a short chapter about Grover and the ominous big bad of the series that I keep mistaking for the Echidna chapter later on, because I keep thinking Chimera is disguised as a poodle when he’s not. I don’t know why.

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The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Chapter 11: We Get Advice from a Poodle

Chapter eleven sets the precedent for this series and the next’s plot pattern and showcases the biggest problem with using Greek myths.

Random monster encounters, while good for providing action, showing off how well your characters can work together (or even not work together), how they’re getting better at whatever trait is necessary for getting out of the dangerous situation, and padding, is a bit of a staple for quests. However, instead of just running into stock monsters, our protagonists get to run into notable monsters of myth as well, like Medusa.

Now, the problem with using Greek myths in anything is that there are rarely any singular myths. Many myths have variations, some of which are minuscule and ultimately unimportant differences.

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