Demigods and Monsters Read Online Free PDF Page A

shapes and sizes, not to mention numbers. Surely all they’d have to do would be to keep on coming. Sooner or later, and probably sooner, Percy and his pals are bound to get tired.
    And here’s another question for you: If the monsters are going to go to all the trouble of setting up the opportunity for retail, how come they never seem to be selling anything a young demigod might actually want? Like some super new weapon, the ability to shop for your heart’s desire, or to travel through time.
    It took me a while, but I think I’ve come up with an explanation.
    The fact that the monsters aren’t selling anything our hero and his companions really, truly want is part of the point. I’m talking about the author’s point, now. And Percy not being able to spot the danger monster retail poses, at least not immediately, is the other part. Because the truth (which I put forward knowing full well that I
run the risk of pissing off any monster within earshot) is actually quite radical.
    All those retail monsters Percy encounters are actually doing him a favor, whether they mean to or not.
    And just what is that favor, you’d like to know? They’re teaching Percy about caveat emptor .
    You know what that is, of course.
    It’s Latin for “let the buyer beware.” And if that doesn’t apply to Percy and pals I don’t know what does. Essentially what it means for them, or for any demigod and his or her quest companions, is that they need to keep their eyes open. I’m not just talking about when it comes to monster retail opportunities. I’m talking all the time.
    Because when you get right down to it, almost everybody Percy meets, good or bad, has the potential to be hiding something. Half the time, it’s who they really are. The other half, it’s what they really want. And that’s not even counting the Mist, which can enable citizens of the realm of gods and monsters to screen themselves from mortal eyes entirely, or at the very least change their forms.
    Not that a character has to use the Mist to hide what they really are, of course. The most important character in the series who looks like one thing but turns out to be another is one who never uses the Mist at all. He doesn’t even change shape. Not really. He simply hides his true colors until the time is right to reveal himself.
    You know who I’m talking about, don’t you? It’s Luke, of course.
    Luke, who starts out being the person Percy looks up to as a friend, then metamorphoses into an archenemy determined to bring down the gods at all costs. And he does all this without changing so much as a hair on his head.
    By now, I’ll bet you’re beginning to see my point.
    Almost nobody in Percy’s world is what they originally appear to be, including, as it turns out, Percy himself. And if he’s going to survive in this world he’s suddenly discovered he’s a very important part
of, he’s going to have to use more than his wits. He’s going to have to use his eyes. What’s the best way of learning to do that?
    You got it. By discovering how often you just can’t trust them.
    That’s what monster retail is really all about. It’s about learning to see the difference between truth and illusion. Developing the ability to see what’s really there and what is not. And as Percy’s experience at Aunty Em’s Garden Gnome Emporium goes to show, there’s no such thing as a real bargain when you indulge in monster retail, not to mention no such thing as a free lunch.
    But the thing that really makes the theory work for me is the way that Percy himself begins to catch on. He even says as much, sort of, right before he makes the stupendous mistake of stepping through the front doors of the Lotus Hotel and Casino. Why does he do this, apart from the fact that it seems like a good idea at the time?
    He does it because even he admits he’s