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The Sea of Monsters Book Review

4.0 rating
Reviewed by Ashlee Kelsen in Book Review
  • AuthorRick Riordan
  • PublisherScholastic
  • Published4/01/2006
  • Pages279

Hello peeps! I’m your host, Ashlee Kelsen, and today, I am continuing the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. I am doing the Sea of Monsters with a friend of mine, Emma! She’ll come in the review.

If you haven’t already, please go and listen to episode 18, The Lightning Thief. It may spoil some things that are mentioned even in the main review. I love this book, and instead of just one review, you’ll sort of have two! The more, the merrier! Anyway, before we get into the review, let’s meet our guest for today!

The Book Review Podcast

Guest Introduction

Alrighty, you can introduce yourself, Emma!

Hello, my name is Emma! Ashlee got me into reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. As soon as I picked the first book up, I loved it. Over time I grew very fond of the books and continued reading the Percy Jackson based books, like Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods. I’m thrilled that Ashlee invited me to this episode!

Nice! Without further ado, let’s get onto the review!

The Review

After the mess of events in Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief, now 13-year-old Percy Jackson finds himself in a new situation. At the beginning of the story, Percy finds out his satyr Grover is in trouble, a lot of trouble. But I won’t go into detail about that.

After the dream Percy has, we get introduced to his new friend Tyson. After a big “dodgeball” game happened, we finally saw Annabeth, and we’re taken to Camp Half-Blood.

The reader finds out that something happened to Thalia’s pine tree (I apologize if I’m pronounced “Thalia/Thalia” incorrectly). Also, if you read The Lightning Thief, then you already know who did it. But if not, keep reading!

Chiron explains that the only way to save Thalia’s pine tree is to get the Golden Fleece. So, Clarisse, Daughter of Ares, was sent on a quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece. Percy believes that he should retrieve the fleece, and guess what folks! He ends up going with the club, Tyson, and Annabeth.

On this adventure, the team goes through a lot of events, which we’ll discuss later in the highlights segment. This book features a lot of action-packed and funny moments in the story, so if you enjoyed The Lightning Thief, you’d like The Sea of Monsters!

Author Praise

Rick Riordan gives us a fun and adventurous story with new and old characters we love! This story helps the Percy Jackson world become more realistic and fun to read about. His humor is as great as ever and makes this sad, scary, and fast-paced novel a perfect mix. It’s a fantastic sequel and a great way to continue the series!

Basic Facts

  • There are 279 pages
  • There are 20 chapters in the book.
  • Same with The Lightning Thief, I am not sure if this book has won any awards.
  • The author of the book is Rick Riordan
  • The publishing brand is Disney Hyperion

What is Our Rating?

Ok, Emma, we’re going to rate this book!

Alrighty, let’s get to it!

I personally rate this book a 4 out of five stars, I’ll explain why after Emma says her rating.

I would also rate this book a 4 out of five. I would rate this book a four because I love the action and suspense; it always keeps you on the edge of your seat. Now, why did you rate it a four Ashlee?

I rated it a four, because, as you mentioned, it was suspenseful and super funny! I personally liked the Lightning Thief more than this one, but I still loved it! That’s really why I gave it a four and not anything more or less. I also agree with the reasons you gave. Let’s see if we would recommend this book to others!

Would We Recommend?

Now, Emma, if you had to recommend this book to someone, would you?

Well, I would recommend the whole series for people to read. So, technically, they would be reading this book as well. So, yeah! I would recommend this book!

Yeah, I agree, but like The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket, it really depends if they’ve read and/or enjoyed The Lightning Thief. If they did, I would totally recommend this! If they didn’t enjoy it, I would still think they should give this one a shot. And overall, if they didn’t read The Lightning Thief, I would recommend that book to them first. Then this one!

Yep, that makes sense!

Highlights Segment

This is where we spoil a lot! So please, if you haven’t read The Lightning Thief or The Sea of Monsters, please go read it before listening to this part of the episode! Because we are going to spoil a lot of our favorite events from this book.

Alright, here we go!

We find out that Tyson is a cyclops and this comes with some… difficulties. Tyson and Percy’s brothership is amazing and very well done. (Great job Rick!) Percy starts to really care about how people thought about Tyson, a monster, being his brother.

Once Percy recognizes Tyson’s importance and what he does for Percy, is really heartwarming. Emma, anything you enjoyed or wanted to mention about the book?

Yes, I agree with that very much. I also just really like the character development in this book, you realized Clarisse isn’t that bad and that she can be nice too. In the sirens, we also see a side of Annabeth that we haven’t really seen before.

We get to see their Motives and I think this book helps you get really attached to the character and understand why they’re doing the things that they’re doing.

I think Riordan’s idea of bringing Thalia back to life with the Golden Fleece was really helpful. We’ve heard so much about Thalia and what she did for her friends, and we finally get to meet her! (well, not in this book, but stay tuned for The Titan’s Curse review

I thought it was pretty funny how Grover was about to marry a cyclops. Polyphemus believes that Grover is a lady, and wants to marry him! (Yes, Clarisse does mess everything up by correcting him, but oh well!)

Another part that made my mad was how Chiron got fired! A new Camp Actives director Tantalus, and he allowed the Chariot racing?! But why? (This did allow for a lot of Percy and Annabeth friendship growth and Percy and Tyson, but still!)

This was a very interesting thing to add in this book, and an interesting character to add! And speaking of characters…

Character Thoughts

Yay! It’s time to mention our character thoughts! Ready Emma?

Of course!

I’ll go first! I thought that throughout the book Percy and Annabeth start to form a stronger friendship and they become better friends! For example, the Siren’s scene, Percy shows that he does care about Annabeth and uses his powers to save her! Also, at C.C.’s Spa and Resort, Annabeth goes out of her way and saves Percy! What do you think, Emma?

Yeah, I also thought it was funny that Rick Riordan included Hermes. Yes, he did help Percy but also, George and Martha! The two snakes on Hermes’ caduceus!

Yeah! They were really funny, I loved them so much! Well, Emma, let’s talk about our least favorite characters and our favorite.

Though we might be mad at Clarisse no doubt she is a hero in this book. She brought back the Golden Fleece ( thanks to Percy) and helped save the crew, so she may be my favorite character!

Oh nice, I agree with the points you made about Clarisse. My favorite character will always be Annabeth, but I really thought Tyson was a great companion and character overall. His growth with Percy was very well done and he’s just a great and kind character. My least favorite character was Tantalus. It’s pretty obvious why, but he just messed everything up!

Thank You for Listening!

Well, thank you, Emma, for joining me in this week’s episode! It was really fun and I hope the listeners enjoyed!

Of course, thank you for inviting me! It was really fun! I hope people love and read the Percy Jackson and Olympians series.

Same here, alrighty folks, here’s our official Readability ending!

About Rick Riordan

Rick Riordan is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, the Kane Chronicles, and the Heroes of Olympus. He is also the author of the multi-award-winning Tres Navarre mystery series for adults. For fifteen years, Rick taught English and history at public and private middle schools in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Texas. In 2002, Saint Mary's Hall honored him with the school's first Master Teacher Award. While teaching full time, Riordan began writing mystery novels for grownups. His Tres Navarre series went on to win the top three national awards in the mystery genre - the Edgar, the Anthony and the Shamus. Riordan turned to children's fiction when he started The Lightning Thief as a bedtime story for his oldest son. Today over 35 million copies of his Percy Jackson, Kane Chronicles, and Heroes of Olympus books are in print in the United States, and rights have been sold into more than 35 countries. Rick is also the author of The 39 Clues: The Maze of Bones, another #1 New York Times bestseller. Rick Riordan now writes full-time. He lives in Boston with his wife and two sons.

OTHER BOOKS BY THIS AUTHOR

The Lightning Thief The Sea of Monsters The Titan’s Curse

Ashlee Kelsen

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Rick Riordan is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, the Kane Chronicles, and the Heroes of Olympus. He is also the author of the multi-award-winning Tres Navarre mystery series for adults. For fifteen years, Rick taught English and history at public and private middle schools in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Texas. In 2002, Saint Mary's Hall honored him with the school's first Master Teacher Award. While teaching full time, Riordan began writing mystery novels for grownups. His Tres Navarre series went on to win the top three national awards in the mystery genre - the Edgar, the Anthony and the Shamus. Riordan turned to children's fiction when he started The Lightning Thief as a bedtime story for his oldest son. Today over 35 million copies of his Percy Jackson, Kane Chronicles, and Heroes of Olympus books are in print in the United States, and rights have been sold into more than 35 countries. Rick is also the author of The 39 Clues: The Maze of Bones, another #1 New York Times bestseller. Rick Riordan now writes full-time. He lives in Boston with his wife and two sons.

OTHER BOOKS BY THIS AUTHOR

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