BOOK REVIEW: Heroes of Olympus, #4: The House of Hades by Rick Riordan

Synopsis:

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.

-from Goodreads.com

BE PREPARED FOR SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT.

I decided that I would review this with a lot more gifs, I feel like gifs describe what I mean to say more than my words.

I’ll gif the main points and elaborate.

Leo being funny:

I feel like there was so much more sass from Leo in this book, I giggled ever so often.

“Stupid rock gods!” Leo yelled from the helm. “That’s the third time I’ve had to replace that mast! You think they grow on trees?”
Nico frowned. “Masts are from trees.”

“I communed with the dead last night.”
He just tossed that line out there, like he was saying he got a text from a buddy.

“Dang man,” Leo grumbled, “I just spent all my cash on homemade explosives and whatnot.”

Leo is one of my favorites If you couldn’t tell already.

Jason and Piper’s relationship development:

In HoH I was hoping for them to act like any normal couple and argue. They just weren’t too exciting to read about. Thankfully, there wasn’t as much mention to their relationship due to impending doom.

Hazel and Frank’s relationship and character development:

I CANNOT CONTAIN MY CONTENTEDNESS WITH FRANK AND HAZEL IN THIS BOOK.

All is right with the world now, I totally support this. They were meant for each other. I also think that their characters have developed so greatly that I just love them!

“She wanted to wander the streets of New Rome, holding hands with Frank Zhang.”

I started flailing my arms so fast I could’ve temporarily hovered a few inches off the ground.

When Frank came back from the poison demon cow mini solo quest and he became bulkier and more confident is the moment I knew that Frank Zhang had tapped into his full potential. I was so proud of him, he’d always deserved that confidence.

Also Hazel, she’s been through so much on this trip to Eprius, she’s learned and fought in this book and it showed a part of her that wasn’t really exposed. And when she tricked Pasiphaë I was just in awe. All in all, Hazel Lavesque was fierce and kick ass!

Nico being in love with Percy:

I did not see that coming, at all. Sure, there are Percico fanfics but I can’t believe it’s actually true. I felt so bad for Nico throughout this whole book. He’s alone, sad, and he’s around my age.

He went through Tartarus alone, I wouldn’t expect him to be okay after that, to be completely honest.

I really want him to find someone who will take his pain away or at least to have a friend.

Bob:

Bob was hilarious. He talked like Tyson (who I miss SO MUCH).

When Percy and Annabeth talked to him about how he could change to be good but he could always go back to being himself but then he decided to be good on his own, I thought that was sweet.

Percy Jackson:

This book was really negative towards him. It showed all his worst parts.  He was really scary when he (not sure about specifics) controlled that one person or monster or whatever because he controlled the posion and was smothering it. It reminded me of Avatar: The Last Airbender and the episode with the blood benders for obvious reasons if you’ve seen the episode.

I was just getting really angry at Percy. He didn’t even save Calypso, so she was stuck on that island after he promised to get her out of there.

And how Nico said that it was basically Percy’s fault that his sister died.

Jason Grace (+ according to polandbananasBOOKS… #JasonFail):

Gets attacked by dwarf monkeys, gets caught in their trap.
Fight against Khione, gets turned into a Jason-icle.
Trying to command army of dead Legioneers, nobody listens.

He seems to be unconscious or stuck whenever they’re in a fight.

Sometimes Jason is just so irrelevant, like why are you even here?! But I guess he can be of use for flying.

EVERYONE’S overall character development:

THANK THE GODS. Rick has done such an amazing job developing these characters. I feel like now they are growing up and they’re growing into themselves.

I’M SO EXCITED FOR THE BLOOD OF OLYMPUS FALL 2014 🙂