Rick Riordan

The Lightning Thief – Chapter by Chapter

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At the urging of my social media director (aka my 15-year-old daughter who is much more “up” on things like Bookstagram than I), I have started to read the first book of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, a chapter at a time, recording my thoughts about each chapter as I go. The resulting reels are being posted on my Instagram account. Click the picture below to be taken to chapter 1 and my Instagram account, where so far chapter 2 is also up (I won’t be posting here with every new reel). I wasn’t sure how this would go, but it’s been fun so far!

Book Review Podcast Episode 6

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In episode 6, I review The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan, the first book of the middle grade adventure series, The 39 Clues. Lena reviews the Christian suspense novel Resistance by Jaye L. Knight.
 
We also discuss the difference in how we both decide what books to read next. We were both suffering from lack of sleep during this episode, so it may have made us a bit punchy.

Also available on Spotify:

Book Review: Vespers Rising

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Vespers Rising
The 39 Clues #11
by Rick Riordan, Peter Lerangis, Gordon Korman, & Jude Watson

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Middle grade adventure

Spoiler notice: The following review may contain some spoilers for the previous books in the series, starting with The Maze of Bones.

Though it’s billed as the last book in the main 39 Clues series, this book is really more of a launching point into a spinoff series: Cahills vs. Vespers. This book is a collection of 4 vignettes of different key points in the history of the Cahill family—the death of the patriarch of the family after he split the Clues into 4 sets and sent them with his four children; the fifth Cahill child grown up and trying to figure out how to proceed with her task; Grace Cahill coming into her role in the family; and Amy & Dan learning about the rival family and being sent off on another adventure.

Each of these stories dives in quickly and gives you just what you need to catch up and follow the action. Some are a little confusing at first, but I found each of them to be engaging in its own way.  However, it’s easy to feel like the Vespers were made up after the main series had found enough success that the authors/publisher wanted to be able to keep it going, because it seems strange that, with as dogged as these people are, they would not have come up even once during the Clue hunt in the first 10 books. Whether or not that will prove to be a detraction for the coming books remains to be seen (by me, at least), but I’ll definitely give it a try. I’m also not entirely sure how necessary this book is to the rest of the series. It’s definitely not at all important to finishing the main series. Whether it contains information that is crucial to the spinoff or not, I don’t know. I’m also not sure it would be quite as fun a read for middle grade readers as the rest of the series.

Find out more about Vespers Rising

See what I’m reading next.

If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!

Book Review: The Maze of Bones

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The Maze of Bones
The 39 Clues #1
by Rick Riordan

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Children’s mystery, adventure

When Amy and Dan’s grandmother dies, her will reading sets off a hunt for treasure that no one in the vast, powerful Cahill family can fully comprehend. The vague prize will make the finder or finder’s team the most powerful members of the Cahill family, which has had some pretty powerful members in the past. Amy and Dan have nothing to lose as they do their best to outsmart and outrace the wealthier, older, and deadlier members of their families.

This book reminded me a lot of some other series I’ve read recently—unrealistic, over-the-top action, characters that know everything they need to know to progress, and one can never be quite sure who to trust. And yet, I enjoyed it more than I feel like I should have. By the time I got to the end, I was invested. I don’t normally enjoy a book where you can’t trust anyone, because characters are betraying each other left and right, but I still couldn’t help but start to trust a couple of the potentially treacherous side characters by the end. And now I want badly to know how it will turn out with those characters. I also can’t help but want to know what the big prize is, even though I suspect it will either be ridiculous or a letdown.

I’ve heard of this series for a long time and considered reading the books years ago, but never have until now. I wonder if I might not have been ready for the style and tone of the book until now, since I’ve read a few other series with the same kind of wildly unlikely storylines—at least one of which I liked and one of which I really didn’t. Now, I’m more able to let some of the things that might have bothered me in the past go and enjoy the story for what it is. I’m not sure how I’ll like the change of authors throughout the series, but I’m definitely going to keep going.

Find out more about The Maze of Bones

See what I’m reading next.

If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!