The Lightning Thief
Rick Riordan, 2005
Fantasy Young adultReligion & spiritualityGraphic novels & humour
A twelve-year-old with ADHD and a talent for trouble discovers the Greek gods are real, and one of their lightning bolts has gone missing. A fast, funny first-person adventure where finding out who you are mixes with myth-sized danger and a twelve-year-old's irreverent jokes.
Feels like wonder, awe and dread. About identity and adventure.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy Greek myths recast as a middle-school quest, with jokes and monster fights along the way. The humour often runs on silly middle-school asides, so readers wanting a solemn treatment of the gods may find the tone too light.
Why read it
It gives you a quick, witty way into Greek mythology, with a hero whose ADHD and trouble-fitting-in are part of the adventure rather than a problem to fix.
A page from the book
Even the underworld has to compete with a demigod's wandering attention.
Hades raised an eyebrow. When he sat forward in his throne, shadowy faces appeared in the folds of his black robes, faces of torment,as if the garment was stitched of trapped souls from the Fields of Punishment, trying to get out. The ADHD part of me wondered, off-task, whether the rest of his clothes were made the same way. What horrible things would you have to do in your life to get woven into Hades’ underwear? Rick Riordan.Riordan was a middle-school English and social studies teacher for fifteen years and wrote Percy's story as a bedtime tale for his son.
Books that feel like this
More by Rick Riordan
The Blood of Olympus
Rick Riordan, 2014
Greek and Roman demigods race to stop a rising earth goddess, armed with prophecies, old grudges and very bad jokes.
The Sea of Monsters
Rick Riordan, 2006
Percy Jackson returns to camp just as its magical borders fail, and the only fix lies across a sea full of monsters, old myths and awkward friendships.
The Battle of the Labyrinth
Rick Riordan, 2008
Percy Jackson's summer starts with an exploding school and leads into a living maze beneath Camp Half-Blood, where every turn has a myth waiting.
Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is The Lightning Thief for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy Greek myths recast as a middle-school quest, with jokes and monster fights along the way. The humour often runs on silly middle-school asides, so readers wanting a solemn treatment of the gods may find the tone too light.
- What is The Lightning Thief like?
- A fast, funny first-person adventure where finding out who you are mixes with myth-sized danger and a twelve-year-old's irreverent jokes. Feels like wonder, awe and dread. About identity and adventure.
- What should I read after The Lightning Thief?
- If you liked The Lightning Thief, try The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Sherman Alexie), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (J. K. Rowling) and Good Omens (Terry Pratchett).
A taste of the feed
What poverty actually teaches, from someone who sat through the lesson.
Poverty doesn’t give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian · Sherman Alexie
The story we invent to keep friends from seeing what we are.
Now, my three friends could hardly fail to notice that I disappeared once a month. I made up all sorts of stories. I told them my mother was ill, and that I had to go home to see her... I was terrified they would desert me the moment they found out what I was. But of course, they, like you, Hermione, worked out the truth...
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban · J. K. Rowling
A demon's professional failing is liking the people he's meant to ruin.
He rather liked people. It was a major failing in a demon. Oh, he did his best to make their short lives miserable, because that was his job, but nothing he could think up was half as bad as the stuff they thought up themselves. They seemed to have a talent for it. It was built into the design, somehow. They were born into a world that was against them in a thousand little ways, and then devoted most of their energies to making it worse.
Good Omens · Terry Pratchett
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