“Oh, did you expect me to play fair?" Cupid laughed. "I am the god of love. I am never fair.”I need to tell you right away that I love Rick Riordan. I love this series so much and it got me into the world of gods. Basically for all of you that aren’t familiar with this series, The Heroes of Olympus is a sequel for Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I made a mistake starting the Heroes of Olympus without reading the first series. The Heroes of Olympus has quite a lot of references to Percy Jackson and the Olympians but luckily they explain what has happened before so I get the hang of it. I am planning on reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians sometime (and no, the references didn’t spoil it for me since my memory is quite bad :D) and maybe someday reread the Heroes of Olympus so I can get even more out of it.
“At the conclusion of The Mark of Athena, Annabeth and Percy tumble into a pit leading straight to the Underworld. The other five demigods have to put aside their grief and follow Percy’s instructions to find the mortal side of the Doors of Death. If they can fight their way through the Gaea’s forces, and Percy and Annabeth can survive the House of Hades, then the Seven will be able to seal the Doors both sides and prevent the giants from raising Gaea. But, Leo wonders, if the Doors are sealed, how will Percy and Annabeth be able to escape? They have no choice. If the demigods don’t succeed, Gaea’s armies will never die. They have no time. In about a month, the Romans will march on Camp Half-Blood. The stakes are higher than ever in this adventure that dives into the depths of Tartarus.” – Goodreads
The House of Hades is the 4th book of the series and you need to read the other books first in order to understand it. The whole series is basically about 7 demigods that unite to protect the earth from Gaea who is the goddess of Earth and plans to destroy it. In order to succeed, the Greek Camp, Camp Half-Blood, and the Roman camp, Camp Jupiter, need to work together. The book is told in all of these 7 demigods’ point of view: Percy, Annabeth, Hazel, Frank, Leo, Piper and Jason’s. In the first book you only follow 4 of these characters and in the second one 3 (if I remember correctly), so you can get to know the characters well and see they develop.
After reading the first book of the series I got very interested in mythology and gods. I never really knew which god did what but now I remember some of the gods and their Greek and Roman names. In the end of the book you also have a glossary with all the gods and other words they use in the books so you can easily check there if you don’t remember what god they’re talking about (of course this isn’t as handy if you have an e-book). I loved the beginning of this book so much:
“To my wonderful readers:
Sorry about that last cliff-hanger.
Well, no, not really. HAHAHAHA.
But seriously, I love you guys.”
When I read that, I thought that it was the best beginning I have ever seen in a book. When I go deeper into the story and the characters, I realize that I really love the fact that I can follow the story in 7 points of view. Also, in this book Annabeth and Percy are in Underworld so the setting is a lot different. I also really liked the fact that this book contained a lot of traveling. The 3rd book also had some traveling in it but the two first books were completely in America if recall correctly. In the House of Hades we get to visit for example Roma, Africa and Malta. Leo also gets kicked on an island so there’s that. I was sometimes so emerged in this book I noticed last night that I felt sad and I could really feel Leo’s sadness. That doesn’t happen for me that often! Rick Riordan’s books also have weird but funny humor and I think you can see that the characters in these books are teenagers.
“Keep climbing,' he told himself. 'Cheeseburgers,' his stomach replied. 'Shut up,' he thought. 'With fries,' his stomach complained.” “You’re that lady,” Leo said. “The one who was named after Caribbean music.” Her eyes glinted murderously. “Caribbean music.” “Yeah. Reggae?” Leo shook his head. “Merengue? Hold on, I’ll get it.” He snapped his fingers. “Calypso!”
You can also see the characters getting known to each other and catching feelings. Romance isn’t a very big part of these books but it is there and I love it.
“Annabeth's voice caught on the word friend. Percy was a lot more than that. Even boyfriend really didn't cover it. They'd been through so much together, at this point Percy was part of her -- a sometimes annoying part, sure, but definitely a part she could not live without.”
“For a moment, Percy actually remembered what it was like to be happy. He had an amazing girlfriend. They could have a future together.”
All together I liked this book just as much or more than the other ones in this series. It is hard to review the 4th book of the series separately since it is a part of a series and I haven't reviewed the other ones so I felt like I should give you some background! I still like the first book the best (maybe because the world was new for me and I got so excited about it) and I am excited to read the last book of this series hopefully still this year!
My rating: 5/5 ★★★★★
xoxo Janina
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