THE LIGHTNING THIEF (TEAM BLIND · REVIEW A)
A fast, funny quest that treats the Greek gods as the real thing.
The Worldview
THE LIGHTNING THIEF honors real goods. Percy is fiercely loyal to his friends, loves his mother, and shows courage when it costs him. The book also treats his learning differences as strengths rather than shame.
The frame around those virtues is pagan. The Greek gods are real, they control forces such as the seasons, and they now live in America because the book says the gods follow the center of Western power. Campers toast the gods and burn offerings. An oracle gives prophecies, and Percy "prays" without knowing to whom. The afterlife is a Greek underworld where judgment depends on how heroic and good you were, and a small paradise is kept for the best. Salvation by works is the unspoken rule.
The true God is not attacked. He is set aside. Chiron calls God with a capital G a different matter and refuses to discuss the "metaphysical," then spends the book on the gods as the real powers. The Olympian parents are mostly absent, self-absorbed and unfaithful, and their children are left to resent and admire them.
Grover's laments about pollution and mistreated animals run through the story, mild and tied to his god Pan.
Underneath it all is Percy's longing for a father who sees him and stays. Scripture answers that longing with a Father who is real: "Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation" (Psalm 68:5).
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESTwelve-year-old Percy Jackson has dyslexia and ADHD, a rotten stepfather, and a record of getting kicked out of school. On a museum field trip, his math teacher sprouts wings and talons and tries to kill him. Then everyone insists she never existed.
His best friend is acting strange, his mother wants him far from home, and a midnight storm at the beach is about to prove the danger is real. What do you do when the myths you can't memorize turn out to be hunting you?
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own reader.
- Chapter 1, "I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher" A teacher transforms into a hag with talons and bat wings, threatens Percy, and is vaporized; everyone then claims she never existed.
- Chapter 2, "Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death" Three old women (the Fates) cut a length of blue yarn, and Grover fears Percy will die.
- Chapter 3, "Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants" Gabe, Percy's smoking, drinking stepfather, demands money and food; Percy uses a warding-off-evil gesture that slams a door and sends Gabe flying. Grover's goat legs are revealed.
- Chapter 4, "My Mother Teaches Me Bullfighting" A Minotaur attacks; Percy's mother is squeezed until she disappears in gold light, and Percy kills the monster with its horn.
- Chapter 5, "I Play Pinochle with a Horse" Chiron explains that the Greek gods are real, and tells Percy that God with a capital G is "a different matter" he won't discuss.
- Chapter 6, "I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom" Camp bullies stuff Percy's head in a toilet; he answers with a burst of plumbing.
- Chapter 7, "My Dinner Goes Up in Smoke" Campers burn the best part of their dinner as an offering and toast the gods. [Chapter fit based on title; confirm in the book.]
- Chapter 8, "We Capture a Flag" A game turns into real injury; Percy is cut with a sword and attacked by a hellhound, and a symbol of Poseidon appears over him.
- Chapter 9, "I Am Offered a Quest" Percy visits the Oracle, a spirit in a mummified body who speaks a prophecy about betrayal.
- Chapter 10, "I Ruin a Perfectly Good Bus" Furies attack on a bus and the bus is destroyed.
- Chapter 11, "We Visit the Garden Gnome Emporium" Medusa turns visitors to stone and Percy beheads her; her head is later mailed home as a trophy.
- Chapter 15, "A God Buys Us Cheeseburgers" Ares and Aphrodite's affair is discussed; Percy and Annabeth are trapped in a net on the Tunnel of Love ride, with a swarm of robot spiders.
- Chapter 16, "We Take a Zebra to Vegas" The kids find caged, neglected animals in a truck; later they enter a casino-hotel where guests lose track of time.
- Chapter 17, "We Shop for Water Beds" Procrustes ties victims to beds and stretches them.
- Chapters 18–19 The Underworld: torture scenes, hellhounds, a throne of bones, and Hades' threat to release the dead; a corpse-like presence and spirits judging souls.
- Chapter 20, "I Battle My Jerk Relative" Percy fights the war god Ares.
- Chapters 21–22 Percy's mother returns, Gabe is turned to stone with Medusa's head, and a friend betrays and poisons Percy.
A locator so a parent can pre-read the scenes that matter instead of the whole book.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Very strong pagan worldview presents the Greek gods, an oracle, offerings and a works-based underworld as real, and sets aside the true God as a "metaphysical" matter; it extols loyalty, courage and a son's love for his mother, but is marred by divine adultery, deception, revenge and violence.
Foul Language
Light. No "f" or "s" words found. Mild words include "darn" (a bus driver's "Darn right!" in chapter 2) and "butt" used several times; a few more mild words such as "heck" and "suck" appear. Characters exclaim "Oh my gods," "by the gods," "gods forbid," "Oh Styx" and "Di immortals," invoking false gods. We found no misuse of God's or Jesus' name. Insults and crude humor include "jerk," "devil spawn," "brain boy," "Seaweed Brain," "old sot" (Percy's name for a teacher), "Smelly Gabe," "ugly friends," Gabe's poker buddies who "passed gas in harmony," and a threat to kick Gabe "in his soft spot" so he'll "sing soprano." "Die, honey!" is shouted by a monster.
Violence
Moderate fantasy and realistic-style action, with little gore, such as a teacher turning into a winged Fury who lunges with talons and is cut through and vaporized; a Minotaur chasing Percy and his mother, squeezing her until she vanishes in gold light, and Percy killing it with its own horn; a capture-the-flag game where Percy is cut by a sword and mauled by a hellhound; Medusa decapitated and her head kept as a trophy; a Chimera, a bus exploding after a monster attack, a car wreck, and a villain who stretches victims on beds; an Underworld where the dead are chased by hellhounds and burned at the stake, and where Hades sits on a throne of bones and threatens to unleash the dead; Percy battling the war god Ares; and a friend poisoning Percy near the end. Monsters crumble to dust. The mother's seeming death is mourned. Percy's stepfather hits his mother, and he is turned to stone at the end. Children are in danger throughout.
Sex
Light to moderate. The whole premise rests on gods having affairs with mortals and fathering half-blood children, including Percy, whose father never married his mother. No sexual act is shown. In chapter 15, Ares and Aphrodite, a married goddess, are described as having a long affair, and her husband traps them in a golden net to humiliate them; we are told they were "smooching." Percy and Annabeth blush through an awkward moment on an abandoned "Tunnel of Love" ride, and Percy smiles dreamily at Aphrodite's perfumed scarf. Wood nymphs are mentioned as practiced at running from lovesick gods. There is no kiss between children, and we found no same-sex or gender-identity content in this book.
Nudity
No nudity is shown. A girl snickers about a "naked guy" carved on a Greek grave marker (chapter 1), and the satyr Grover loses his pants, revealing goat legs (chapter 3).
Alcohol Use
Moderate. Percy's stepfather Gabe drinks "always beer" at poker nights, with beer cans left on the carpet (chapter 3). The camp director is Dionysus, the god of wine, who is forbidden to drink as punishment. A myth about wine is told in the opening chapter.
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
Moderate. Gabe smokes cigars constantly, and a taxi driver also smokes a cigar. Percy jokes that his lunch must be "contaminated with magic mushrooms." A surfer also mentions mushrooms. A casino-hotel feeds guests lotus food so they lose all sense of time and forget why they came.
Miscellaneous Immorality
Percy copied a Tom Sawyer essay from the Internet and sold candy from his dorm room, and he lies to his mother about school to spare her worry. He and his friends lie to people they meet on the quest, and Percy hides part of his prophecy from his friends. He shoves a bully into a fountain, wishes he had "decked" her, snaps "shut up" at classmates and insults a teacher; at camp, bullies put heads in toilets and then get soaked by an exploding bathroom. Most of this is treated as part of a troubled kid growing up, and some of it is rewarded with laughs. The Olympian parents are neglectful and unfaithful. Percy is tempted to turn his stepfather to stone, his mother refuses, and at the end she does it herself, a murder-like outcome played as a satisfying joke. Hero characters also steal and evade the law while fleeing as fugitives.
Is the Writing Any Good?
Four stars: this is a well-made page-turner, and it is easy to see why kids race through it. Percy's first-person voice is sarcastic and funny, the chapter titles are jokes of their own, and the quest keeps moving.
The best idea is putting the old myths in modern America. Olympus sits above the Empire State Building, and the entrance to the Underworld is in Los Angeles. A reader picks up a lot of Greek mythology without noticing.
The flaws are small. Percy's grief for his mother can feel thin, the traitor is easy to spot, and the final showdown deflates a little. The book also seems built to set up a series, so some threads are left dangling. Even so, it is a sharp, funny piece of craft.
Talk About It
Four questions for the dinner table, the car, or a parent and teen reading it together.
Percy is angry at a father who left before he was born, and he meets a god-father who shows little interest in him. What does the book say a good father is, and how does God the Father compare?
Psalm 68:5–6 · Luke 15:20When Percy asks about God, Chiron says God with a capital G is "a different matter" and moves on to the gods of Olympus. Why do you think the book leaves God out, and what do the 'gods' in the story get wrong?
1 Corinthians 8:5–6 · Exodus 20:3Percy is tempted to take revenge on his cruel stepfather, and he lies to protect his mom and friends. When is it right to hold back, and when is a lie still a lie?
Romans 12:19–21 · Ephesians 4:25Percy refuses to abandon his friends even when it costs him. Who has stayed with you through something hard, and how can you do that for someone else?
Proverbs 17:17 · Galatians 6:2The Final Word
THE LIGHTNING THIEF is a clever, funny, well-built adventure, and the loyalty and mother-love in it are good. But it asks children to live inside a world run by the Greek gods, with God pushed to the margins, and that is too much for most young readers. Our answer: skip it. For a quest with courage and a real Father, try THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE or THE WINGFEATHER SAGA.
