Throughout my writing career, I would have never been able to reach the level that I am on now without the help of the amazing authors who colored my world with their words.

One such book — or rather, series — that greatly affected my writing style was the "Percy Jackson" series by Rick Riordan.

Centered on a 12-year-old dyslexic boy with ADHD named Percy Jackson, this series is a definite must-read for teens everywhere. Riordan whips up a whimsical story of how Percy learns a deep secret about his family’s roots—his dad, whom he had never met before, was Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. Riordan creatively weaves in his indomitable sense of humor and stories from Greek myths, not only entertaining his readers, but also teaching them the many morals of these stories.

With that, I’d like to introduce my readers to this life-changing series by presenting you with some reasons why Percy Jackson is a must-read.

One thing I absolutely loved while reading these books was how likable all the characters were. Percy, the main character, always had me laughing and played a big part in honing my own sense of humor. Another thing about the characters was how they had so many different layers to them. One of my favorite quotes is “I think sometimes people are like onions. On the outside smooth and whole and simple but inside ring upon ring, complex and deep.” Riordan really gave light to this quote by showing how characters like Annabeth seemed to be stuffing their noses into books, trying to attain knowledge, but inside, there was a person who was sad. This was one of the most important things that Riordan taught me with his writing. That leads to my next point.

Rick Riordan was a great influence on my writing. His style has impacted my own and taught me many techniques to make my readers cry, uh I mean to make my writing even deeper and more meaningful. Riordan’s work was a very different manner of writing from the way I was used to and that was something I absolutely loved about it. My writing used to be a one-way journey, showing only one character’s story. However, after reading these powerful books I learned to branch out every aspect of my book and to give each of my characters their own story.

And honestly, after I taught myself to make my books more complex, I enjoyed writing even more than I already did. Another quote I often hear is: “If the writer doesn’t cry while writing their book, their readers won’t.” After writing more complicated backgrounds for each one of my characters, I found it even harder to kill my characters — I mean to end my books — because of how attached I’d grown to my characters. Just to be able to show the different views of different characters is a beautiful thing to be able to do. Riordan’s masterpiece is a perfect example of this. Every character had their own backstory that made you grow so attached to them, that you never wanted to stop learning more about them.

There’s so much more I could say about these incredible books, but if I continue to ramble, this article will just be an endless rant. Overall, I’d like to say that the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series will always be in my top ten favorite books. I hope more people will read these books. Thanks for tuning into my seemingly endless chatter, uh I meant article. (I’m slipping so much in this!)