Obviously, if you've been following this blog at all, you know that we've been waiting forever for this book. And all that waiting gave us some seriously high expectations of this book. There are many books that do not meet these expectations—but, thankfully, The House of Hades is not one of them.
It doesn't manage to blow you away, but that's not a bad thing. This series doesn't really need more massive change after the author completely caught us with that cliffhanger in The Mark of Athena—I mean, who even saw that one coming? I know I didn't.
The House of Hades basically continues the main storyline of Mark of Athena. Except for one minor thing. If you remember (I'm sure you do), Percy and Annabeth fell into Tartarus. And Tartarus was no disappointment. If you know your Greek mythology, you'll know that Tartarus is actually a god; wife of Gaea, son of Chaos, and father of the Titans & giants. This is a particularly creepy addition to the already high creepiness factor—after all, it's literally the pit of hell. Only one demigod has ever made it out of Tartarus alive—Nico diAngelo. So, obviously getting out is a struggle. But what an awesome struggle.
On the surface-of-the-earth side of things, Frank and Hazel really start to come into themselves as characters. Frank learns to control his shape-shifting ability, and Hazel strikes up an acquaintance with Hecate, the goddess of magic.
Spoiler-y stuff starts now.
The big reveal of this book is the fact that Nico had a crush on Percy, not Annabeth. It makes a ton of sense; it explains why Nico was so angry at Percy for letting Bianca die when he knew that Percy couldn't control it, why he still helped Percy out numerous times, why he couldn't stand to be around Annabeth, etc. I just hope this doesn't turn into a bunch of Nico and Percy shippers running around telling people that they were right the whole time, blah blah blah. No thanks—Percy belongs with Annabeth. :P
The other big spolier-y thing is Leo. And Calypso. The author could not have been more awesomely genius in giving Leo a love interest. I can't write how much I love this. It's PERFECT. Thank you, Rick Riordan.
Spoilers over.
The House of Hades was classic Rick Riordan. It's amazing how he finds new myths to add into the story each book, but it never gets stale. The House of Hades is just as fresh as The Lightning Thief was, which is a fantastic accomplishment. Even though I liked Mark of Athena a tiny bit better.
Final score: 9.4 out of 10
Next review: Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Leviathan
– Nick
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