Percy Jackson and The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

Warning: Spoilers (duh)

The heroic son of Poseidon makes an action-packed comeback in the second must-read installment of Rick Riordan's amazing young readers series. Starring Percy Jackson, a "half blood" whose mother is human and whose father is the God of the Sea, Riordan's series combines cliffhanger adventure and Greek mythology lessons that results in true page-turners that get better with each installment. In this episode, The Sea of Monsters, Percy sets out to retrieve the Golden Fleece before his summer camp is destroyed, surpassing the first book's drama and setting the stage for more thrills to come.

 After being incredibly impressed with the first book in this series I was expecting big things from Sea of Monsters. It was an excellent book but I did only give it 3.5 / 5 stars. There was nothing necessarily wrong with it, it just didnt excite me as much as the first book.

I think it was the format was pretty much the same as the first so I kind of got the feel about everything that was gonna happen. 

Percy was at school, gets expelled due to monster shenanigans, we get a little camp drama and then quest time. In the quest they constantly run into trouble that they overcome in each chapter and eventually succeed. Now there is nothing wrong with this format, it worked well in the first book and was just as good as the first book. I just wanted more, a little more edge. Percy's abandonment issues didn't really come forth as much in this book and seem a little forgotten but hey ho. 

I loved Clarisse in this book, I think she's the character in which its easy to imagine then very two dimensionally, yet in this book she got some depth which is really beautiful to see. Annabeth and Percy's relationship has already changed without me even noticing which is also really lovely and I thought Grover's storyline was hilarious and gave me  many belly laughs imagining him in a wedding dress. 

I am loving this underlying plot of Kronos though, and Thalia coming back to life, I've seen the film so I knew this would happen, but it did still make me scream out at 1am like 'WOW!' it was an excellent ending. 

MOVIE COMPARISON TIME!

I couldn't help but compare it to the movie of course and this one was a lot closer to the book than the first. It was still incredibly different though, I really don't understand the filmmakers desire to turn its back on the original plot. Very frustrating.

Overall, Sea of Monsters felt like the first book but not as  fresh and insightful but it is setting up a very interesting narrative, the whole prophecy idea I am just dying to figure it out. Now however I am in uncharted territory. I don't know what happens next and I am going to be avoiding spoilers like the plague or that one really drunk girl at a party. I can't wait to find out what happens and watch the plot unfold. 

P.S I hate the movie cover so much.