The Son of Neptune (The Heroes of Olympus, #2) in The Dusty Bookshelf

Jul 14, 2016 Karen rated it liked it

Shelves: middle-grades-reading-list, ya-read-and-to-read

Well, it's not the worst Percy Jackson book I've read. But can I stop now? I've read SIX of these books. SIX. I have yet to truly enjoy any of them. I am putting Rick Riordan to rest. No more. I know that there's the whole Roman set and the Egypt set. I heard he's doing a Norse set and maaaaaaaaybe I'll pick that up because I do a lot of research into Viking culture, but maybe not.

Because this book was just like all the others: annoying.

The formula is annoying. Percy is annoying. The middle scho Well, it's not the worst Percy Jackson book I've read. But can I stop now? I've read SIX of these books. SIX. I have yet to truly enjoy any of them. I am putting Rick Riordan to rest. No more. I know that there's the whole Roman set and the Egypt set. I heard he's doing a Norse set and maaaaaaaaybe I'll pick that up because I do a lot of research into Viking culture, but maybe not.

Because this book was just like all the others: annoying.

The formula is annoying. Percy is annoying. The middle school humor is annoying. The plot is annoying. I can't do it anymore.

The formula: I don't even need to really read this because every book has the exact same plot. Literally just the characters are different (and they're not even that different). Thus, it gets boring. I know what's coming and when. There are no surprises.

Percy: dude, you're still dumb. I don't care how many people say, "you're smarter than you look," you'll always be dumb as a bag of rocks to me.

The middle school humor: another reviewer put it really well: if the characters can't even take their situations seriously, why should we? Rick Riordan can never hit the serious note. Never. He tries -- there's a character who almost raised an evil monster to life but sacrificed herself to destroy it -- but it always falls flat. There's no real pathos there. But then again, there's no ethos or logos, either, so...

The plot: oh god. Nothing is ever actually bad. Always, always, always, there's a big fat monster that nobody can ever hope to defeat and Percy and his friends defeat them in record time. Snore. And nobody ever dies! There's just the threat of death, but it's never carried out. You want me to care? Give me an actual, emotional death. Kill Cedric Diggory. Kill Ares (oh god I'm still really damn upset about that one). Kill Hedwig (okay that one got me too). Kill King Arthur, for god's sake! Stop. Threatening. Unless you're willing to carry it out, I'm not gonna be scared. And thus, not emotionally invested.

Finally, I have hit upon something that has been niggling at me for quite some time that really bothers me about Rick Riordan's writing. He's really insensitive. One of the best examples I saw had to do with Buddhism and Taoism. These are two very popular philosophies over in Asia and elsewhere. Hell, I had a 5th grader last year who was a practicing Buddhist. My aunt is a Buddhist monk. And Rick Riordan described statues of Buddhist and Taoist iconography as looking like "psycho clowns". Really? Really? Instead of tying in another religion/philosophy into your whole mythos, let's just put down this whole culture in one broad movement by comparing sacred iconography to "psycho clowns". And also, Percy is given a bunch of supplies in a tie-dyed satchel meant to be for men. He proceeds to complain about it for literally the rest of the book. IT'S A GODDAMN BAG, YOU BINARY-BLINDED BIGOT, GET OVER IT. It's holding your supplies, do you have to be so whiny about the fact that it's a "man bag"? And why wouldn't a man need a bag? Don't men have supplies they need? Was it not butch enough for you because of your extremely fragile masculinity?

But the real problem I have with this is: what is Rick Riordan saying to children? Is a little boy who loves purses going to read this and feel ashamed because Percy made such a big fuss about having to carry a satchel? Is a little girl who practices Buddhism going to be upset because Riordan negatively portrayed her philosophy? Are there other little kids whose only exposure to Buddhism is going to be negative because of this? Are these the kinds of ideas we want to promote in the novels we give to our children? At the very least, this should be the start of a conversation. But I bet it's not. I bet these kids are just reading these and the parents are just letting them and nobody cares. Until they grow up and vote to "make China pay for the wall" because they only know that there are a lot of Buddhists in China and Buddhism reminds them of "psycho clowns".

And maybe I'm reading too much into this. Maybe I'm getting real pissed off about nothing. But THERE ARE SO MANY OTHER, BETTER BOOKS OUT THERE FOR KIDS. Why must this drivel continue to be privileged when IT'S SO VERY SECOND-RATE? Ugh. I'm done. I'm done with this review, I'm done with this rant, and I'm done with Rick Riordan. Sayonara, sucka. ...more

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Apr 25, 2011 Hannah rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy-magic, 10-and-up, 11andup, 12-and-up, adventure, favorite, wishlist, series, fiction, romance

EEEEEEEEEEEEP! PERCY! I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!!! IT WAS SO GOOD. I LOVED PERCY. So glad he's back.

Hazel and Frank were pretty sweet as well. This set of characters was for sure better than Lost Hero.

It was well written, amazing, gripping, funny, classic, and EPIC. Rick Riordan has done it again. I'm already FREAKED for MARK OF ATHENA!! ...more

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Apr 22, 2019 Josephine (biblioseph) added it

Shelves: fantasy, middle-grade, own-new-york, own-kobo, 2nd-in-a-series

It is so good to see Percy again. I loved being in his head and seeing the maturity. His struggle to hold back, and his self-awareness of his flaws was really impactful.

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Oct 28, 2011 Rebekah rated it really liked it

Shelves: child-at-heart, 2014, 2017, 4-star-reads

Percy finally discovers why Halfbloods never go to San Francisco, or at least he would if he remembered anything about his life. Percy wakes up from a very long sleep remembering only two things his name and another name Annabeth (too cute btw). After being trained to use the pen sword he carries with him by Lupe he travels to a camp of other demi gods. In the camp for Roman demigods Percy quickly proves himself and earns a leadership position and also meets two unlikely heroes Hazel a girl who ...more

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Mar 20, 2012 Amanda rated it really liked it

Shelves: fun-reads, mythical-magical-or-prophacy-tales

I am so glad I picked up this series. I almost didn't read them thinking it would be just another story about demigods. Riordan really knows how to weave a tale. He takes the same characters, and a few new ones, and puts together something good. ...more

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