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The book I read was The Lightning Thief. The Lightning Thief is written by author Rick Riordan, who has written other notable novels in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series. The genre of The Lightning Thief is quite obviously fantasy, but can also be considered Greek Mythology since the topic of the story is relevant to Greek Mythology. To briefly summarize the book, the story is based around a twelve year old boy named Percy Jackson. Percy is a demigod, half human and half the son of Poseidon. in order to be protected from the monsters, Percy is taken to Camp Half-Blood. While at camp, Percy is told that he must restore order to Mt Olympus since they believe that Percy stole his master bolt. Percy and his friend's Grover and Annabeth then go on a journey to find who actually stole the master bolt. On the way, they encounter many monsters which try to halt their journey to the Underworld to retrieve the master bolt. They realize when they arrive at the Underworld that Hades doesn't have the bolt, but they actually do. They eventually realize that Ares, who helped them earlier, had stolen the bolt for Lord Kronos, the Titan lord. Then, they return the master bolt and return to Camp Half-Blood. In the end, one of Percy's friends Luke betrays him in favor of Lord Kronos and manages to injure him with a scorpion. The ending sets the scene for the story which follows suit to The Lightning Thief.

In my opinion, the book didn't live up to it's hype. I could definitely see how a large crowd of people could really back this story with all the intense actions scenes and the drama, but that's really not my style. Honestly, the perfect book for me is a story with absolutely no drama and any form of psychological intensity. But, I do have to give kudos to Rick Riordan for this story. I definitely enjoyed the story more than any mainstream book out their. I'll give it a 7/10 for that last aspect. For others, I would definitely recommend this book. I'm sure that many people will come to enjoy this book more than I did with no trouble at all. Today's society is based upon the action scenes and the drama involved, and I definitely think that this book fits in for today's standards.

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The book review gives a very short overview of the story in the first sentence,  saying " the Greek Gods still rule, though now from a Mt. Olympus on the 600th floor of the Empire State Building, and their offspring, demigods, live among human beings" (Publisher Weekly). The review then goes on to talk about Percy's experiences at Yancy Academy, mainly emphasizing how he vaporized Mrs. Dodds. The author then ends the summary by saying how Percy must embark on a quest to retrieve the master bolt. The author's legitimate review of the book is a "swift and humorous" (Publisher Weekly).

I obviously don't agree with this person's review. They felt that the book was full of emotion and humor. I didn't really discover anything new since I read certain parts of the book which they raved about, and I didn't come to the conclusion that they did. So, naturally, I don't agree with the person who wrote the review. Also, I didn't really notice anything new in the book when I read the review. All the review was was someone with a different mindset than me, so I was just parts of the story I had a different viewpoint on with a completely contradictory viewpoint.

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A universal theme of The Lightning Thief which is most prominent throughout the story is finding one's identity. The three main characters of the story, Annabeth, Grover, and Percy, all exemplify these themes. Annaabeth's struggle with her identity is pretty evident from when we first meet her. We learn in the semi-truck more about Annabeth's dark past, "My dad's resented me from the day I was born, Percy," she said. "He never wanted a baby. When he got me, he asked Athena to take me back and raise me on Olympus because he was too busy with his work." (Riordan 200), which she personally tells Percy. The mission which she joins Grover and Percy on acts as sort of a test in my book. It lets Annabeth knows whether or not she's the person she wishes to be, or the person she's doomed to be. Annabeth obviously isn't our only main character who exemplifies this theme. Grover exemplifies this theme through the journey as well. Grover and other satyrs help get people to Camp Half-Blood in order to escape the monsters of the outside world. Grover sadly fails on one of his journeys, though. Even though it wasn't truly his fault, it is viewed upon as a failure by the council. Trough this mission, Grover can show whether or not he is worthy of being a rescuer of different Half-Bloods, or should he be booted out of camp. The final character which exemplifies this theme is Percy. Percy doesn't really know who he is in the beginning. He tells us on page one,  "Am I a troubled kid? Yeah. You could say that" (Riordan 1). Percy is in general a troubled kid since he does have ADHD and dyslexia, and later comes to learn that these disabilities are caused due to the fact that he is in fact a demigod. The journey which they embark on is a sort of a test as well to tell whether or not Percy is a true demigod, or another typical middle school-aged boy.

The reason why it's a universal theme is that people from many different cultures have this issue. An Asian, African, Indian, American, Mexican, European, or a Middle Eastern person could all struggle with this issue. The universal theme in this story is also relate able since the audience could be dealing with this issue. Even though the issues of Annabeth, Grover, and Percy might seem different, they can all be linked through the theme of identity. The singular theme of identity can branch out to many issues. An audience member trying to choose which pair of shoes to buy and someone not knowing what color they want to paint their wall can all be made relatable through this one theme. The theme is relevant in our world today especially with the acceptance of gays, lesbians, and transvestites. All of their different viewpoints can be accepted by everyone through this new wave of identity which is sweeping across the world.

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Percy Jackson is the main character of The Lightning Thief, and he really isn't your typical middle school-aged boy. Even on page one, Percy tells the audience "Am I a troubled kid? Yeah. You could say that" (Riordan 1). The audience even before this is told something which comes even more jarring than that. The first sentence of the entire story says, "Look, I didn't want to be a Half-Blood" (Riordan 1). The audience can obviously infer from this point that the main character isn't normal. The new inference is only confirmed when Percy tells us the last major details of his personality. On top of being a demigod and considered a troubled kid, Percy also has dyslexia and ADHD. All of these factors combined make for a perfect main character for the story ahead.

Another important aspect of Percy is his motivation. Percy has two motivations, the common good, and his mother. At the end of the book, when Percy's best friend Luke betrays him in favor of Lord Kronos, Percy says "We can't just sit back and do nothing" (Riordan 371). Obviously, his yearn for saving himself and others from the harm of Lord Kronos is great, and thus motivates him. Another form of motivation is his own mother. Percy has always loved his mother greatly since the beginning of the book, but she was sadly killed by the Minotaur. Percy learns later in the story from Ares that his mother actually isn't dead, but rather with Hades in the Underworld. This helps Percy keep moving along the way even when times seem to be completely hopeless. Since Percy is a main character, he obviously has a great affection the people around him. The main way that Percy really helps those around him is with his power. Since Grover is a satyr and Annabeth isn't a daughter of a more "skillful" god (Aphrodite), they tend to need help on the fire-power side. After being attacked by the furies, Annabeth tells Percy that "I appreciate you coming back for us, okay? That was really brave" (Riordan 169). Grover further helps to back this up by saying "We would've been sliced like sandwich bread" (Riordan 169). Without the help of Percy, the journey would've been cut short since neither Annabeth nor Grover have the fighting skill that Percy does.

I can definitely relate to Percy. Since identity is a prominent theme throughout the story, it actually made me think about myself in his situation. Rick Riordan describes him as pretty much a loner due to his bad disposition towards school. Though I don't have any sort of a problem with school, I really am bad off socially. You can sort of relate Percy's issue of choosing human or demigod to me having to make the choice of more socialization or more isolization. I guess that school is my journey to find out who I am, and what is driving me is to become an integral part of society. Me and Percy are both strangers in the human world. Strangers in a world we will never know if are destined to figure out.

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Book Review:
https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-7868-5629-9
Book Itself:
Riordan, Rick. Percy Jackson & the Olympians #1: The Lightning Thief. New York: Hyperion, 2006. Print.
Picture:
http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/9780786838653_p3_v3_s192x300.jpg