A review by vermidian
The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

4.0

This is a solid four star read for me. I actually enjoyed this one better than the first, though I have some gripes about Ares being portrayed as an abusive father. The god who literally was the first person put on trial for murder because his daughter was murdered by another demi-god who he killed? Yeah, nah. Canon Ares would never have raised a hand against his own kid. Someone else's, sure, but never one of his own. But, aside from that, I thought the writing really improved between the two books. The world certainly felt less campy in this one, though perhaps that came with more familiarity with the world. (That said, I've read the whole series before so I don't know if that theory holds water. You'll have to ask Poseidon about that.)

My favorite line remains the part where Percy tells Tantalus to go chase a donut. Still the funniest thing in the book.

If you haven't read this series, I recommend it happily to you. But you can't read this one out of order.