See full review for The Lightning Thief at: https://toomanybooksnotenoughshelves.... 
 I broke my cardinal rule when it comes to books that are adapted into movies and I saw the movie first. In my defense, the movie came out in 2010 and my friend who had read the books desperately wanted to go see it with someone, so I tagged along thinking why not? The guy who directed the first two Harry Potter movies directed this, it could be good. And because I hadn't read the books I thought it was good. My friend was scoffing during the whole movie and told me that I needed to read the books to understand. So three years later - after I got back into reading - I added the series to my reading list and my friend was right. The books are loads better.