Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

8 reviews

crieraylas's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Ableism, Car accident, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Murder, Violence, Grief, War, Abandonment, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Blood, Domestic abuse, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Death of parent, and Physical abuse

Minor: Sexism, Toxic friendship, Child death, Incest, Infidelity, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Addiction

cluckieduck's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

12 year old me would have been absolutely enamoured with this book and would have obsessed about being great friends with Percy, Annabeth and Grover. 36 year old me has some issues with the dialogue and character descriptions (SO MANY ugly things). I’ve already started watching the new Disney+ series and appreciate the changes that have been made to the story. 

But overall it’s a fun little romp - a very easy read and a great way to pique an interest in Greek mythology. I’m interested to see how Percy and his powers develop and where the story goes from here. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Bullying, Violence, Ableism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Abandonment

Minor: Vomit, Sexism, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Blood, War, and Medical content

aprilblues348's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Death, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Blood, Domestic abuse, Grief, Toxic relationship, War, Xenophobia, Animal cruelty, Sexism, Child death, Addiction, Ableism, Car accident, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Racism, Child abuse, Islamophobia, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

seapotatohowisitalrtaken's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Blood, Bullying, Sexism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Death, Abandonment, and Child death

Minor: War

becca_w_'s review against another edition

adventurous inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Bullying, Death, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Body shaming, Child death, Stalking, Abandonment, and War

Minor: Kidnapping and Blood

finnft4's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Good. A middle grade adventure novel was refreshingly different to read, especially compared to the sort of novels I usually read. Even though this is the first time I've ever read any Riordan book, it still felt nostalgic, reminding me of what I used to read when I was younger (and, admittedly, read more in general - before having assigned readings, and before I started being so cynical of the content I consumed). It almost made me feel like a kid again. And it does feel like a series I would've loved when I was younger; I hate that I never got into it. 

Before I actually get into the book, I'll put a disclaimer here: my view of Percy Jackson was definitely tainted by the bad movies. I had watched both of them (but barely paid attention for the second one since I didn't like the first one) before reading the book and unfortunately couldn't shake the association of the two. As such, I already knew most of the plot points and twists. As the series goes on, I hope this aspect becomes completely negligible. The badness of the movies shouldn't be hurting how much better the books are. 

I'll first briefly go over the stuff I didn't like (not a lot of stuff tbh).

So I thought the whole "Western civilization is in danger, the Olympus locations are all in Western places, the Gods went with the West" thing to be pretty stupid. A lot of people commented that this was white supremacist. I wouldn't go that far, but it's definitely white-centric. Definitely not a book-ruiner, though. Just a bit silly. On the same note, I rolled my eyes a little at George Washington being Athena's son lmao.

I also thought that, while the book was generally good at balancing the serious with the lighthearted, there were definitely some instances of tonal whiplash, where a dark scene would happen shortly after or before a comical one, with little room in between - I think this is pretty unavoidable though, considering how fast-paced the book is. 

Now onto the stuff I liked.

I found Percy, Grover, and Annabeth to all be fun and likable characters. Percy is an interesting narrator; I particularly liked how sarcastic and "impertinent" he was - he definitely had his own, strong personality. Him learning to be more brave and starting to forge his own life path was great to see. Grover and Annabeth's characters, while both being similar to ones I've seen before, both had their own unique qualities as well and their own little arcs, which I appreciated. I also found most of the side characters to be endearing or entertaining (though a couple were pretty outdated and tiring tropes, this wasn't a huge issue for me). I thought the whole ADHD + dyslexia = half-god to be strange at first, but it eventually grew on me. The whole concept, along with the characters being descendants of gods, is all super cool. Certain characters having certain skills or qualities depending on their parents was very interesting. As someone who used to be into Harry Potter, it reminded me of Hogwarts houses (which was one of the big things I liked about that series).

I really LOVED the action scenes in this book, too. They were crazy. The fight scenes were perfectly tense; Riordan really nailed the visual imagery. 

I had such a fun time reading this. Looking forward to getting to the rest of the series!

Edit: I used to rank this one pretty low, but it's since grown on me. After thinking on it more, I've only just realized how good it was. It has so many stand-out scenes, and the quest doesn't feel unnecessarily long, menial, and formulaic (like in some other books). It's simple, and it effectively builds the world while investing the reader. A great start. 

RANKING
[1] PJO: The Last Olympian
[2] HoO: The House of Hades
[3] HoO: The Mark of Athena
[4] PJO: The Lightning Thief
[5] PJO: The Titan's Curse
[6] HoO: The Son of Neptune
[7] PJO: The Battle of the Labyrinth
[8] HoO: The Lost Hero
[9] PJO: The Sea of Monsters
[10] HoO: The Blood of Olympus 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Body shaming, Body horror, and Bullying

Minor: Child abuse, Colonisation, War, Death of parent, and Sexism

kelsey_carol's review against another edition

adventurous funny inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexism

despoena's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful informative mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

The book is very interesting because the plot is inspired from the Ancient Greek myths but it is  presented in a modern version that makes it very fresh.But the book has some flaws the world-building in this book doesn't exist. The author doesn't spend any time building his world so that the reader can be attached to it. The book has a very fast pace and sometimes some events are not mentioned in detail. He could have  cut down in adventures and spend more time in world building and in details.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying

Minor: Blood, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Physical abuse, and Gun violence