The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1)

by Rick Riordan

She loved reading so much, I’d forgotten she was dyslexic, too.

The dead began to disembark. A woman holding a little girl’s hand. An old man and an old woman hobbling along arm in arm. A boy no older than I was, shuffling silently along in his gray robe.

Thinking about how the woman must have had to die after her daughter to pay for passage for them both. How oddly comforting it is that the elderly couple passed together even if they likely didn't die at the same exact time.

We followed the spirits up a well-worn path.

“well-worn path” is PERFECT here

“Who says he’s seeing this place the way we’re seeing it? Humans see what they want to see. You’re very stubborn—er, persistent, that way.”

everybody—even monsters—needed a little attention once in a while.

The dead aren’t scary. They’re just sad.

into the house of Hades.