Saturday 19 March 2011

Review 17- The Red Pyramid

I bought this and started it ages ago, but when I started it I got annoyed at one of the characters and at some bits of the way it was written. Though I know it's written for a younger audience, but still, when you get annoyed at a main character and narrator, it's hard to read a book. But let's start on something other than the characters this time.

The plot is definitely a very original one, you learn a lot about the Egyptian Gods and Mythology and it's extremely interesting. It has a very similar structure to his Percy Jackson series, but has more of the family aspect to it. I mean, yes the first Percy Jackson book has a lot to do with him looking for his mother to save her, but because this book is narrated by two narrators who are brother and sister, you can see the focus shifting more to the family as you see them interacting with each other, and how it's driven on by their family and who they've lost and found over the years.

One think I didn't really like about this though was how he started it. Rick Riordan started it with what seemed to be a life or death situation, the narrators directing a warning to the reader telling them that they were in danger, extremely dramatic and as if it was the most important thing in the world. That was fine, but he didn't follow through. By the end (I won't spoil anything I swear) it was as if it didn't matter, or the first page was completely separate from the story, almost like an after thought that he'd completely forgotten what he wrote at the start and just rushed back to it at the end. I think if he put it in it shouldn't have ended in the pathetic way he made it end. It could have just linked and the way he made it, he could have had the recording have stopped saying there was a glitch on the tape or they hadn't transcribed the full thing. In my opinion he rushed it out so he could tie it with the first chapter, and with a page or two of him telling us this pretty useless information that had nothing to do with the rest of the book, it felt like it could have been missed out altogether or been told in some other way.

Now for the characters. As i've stated I'm not keen on one of his main characters, but I'll just write what I think, why I think it and try not to sound too judgemental though I know I already sound it. I'll start with Carter. He was a character I liked, you saw his fear, you saw his knowledge, his love for his family, his jealousy toward his sister for her 'normal' life. He was definitely a well rounded character filled with faults and strengths. You saw him fall in love, you saw him grow basically, and it was just a good way to show him as a character.

And Sadie? This narrator I wasn't keen on. Sadie is twelve. She's English, and she drinks tea...which is made in a pot. This may be me being picky (it probably is), but I hate this stereotype that is pushed onto English people. I'm English, and I'm eighteen years old and I hate tea at this age, definitely wouldn't touch the stuff when I was twelve years old. So, in my eyes, I really can't see a twelve year old drinking a cup of tea in the best china that's been made in a pot which is how Sadie is portrayed. Unfortunately, Rick Riordan made this twelve year old girl have mannerisms of someone much older than she was, I mean she was wearing combat boots, had streaks of red in her hair, drank tea. She seemed like she was a sixteen year old wannabe Goth who drank tea to impress older people, not the twelve year old girl who should be carefree and happy and all that jazz. Don't get me wrong, she had her faults and strengths just like her brother, and is definitely a well rounded character as well, it's just hard to drop first ideas about the character when you see such a blatant over used stereotype that really annoys you. I apologise for the rant, but I can't help it when it comes to these stereotypes.

Overall though, it was an ok book. Definitely not his strongest book in my opinion, but the plot was good, most of the characters were good characters, nearly all of them well rounded and balanced, even if I didn't like some of them. And though I didn't like one of the characters, I must admit I will most probably read the next one.

Overall rating- 5.5 out of 10
Would I read anything else by this author- Yes, I still love his Percy Jackson series
Anything else- Nope

Thanks for reading guys! x

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