This is a spoiler-free review! You can read my review of The Son of Neptune here.
Did I read The Mark of Athena eight years ago? Yes. Do I remember which godly parent each of these characters has? Maybe only three of them. Not a review video was in sight when I decided to dive right back into this series in the hopes that everything would come back to me in the first five chapters, and I was not not wrong. As I make my way through the remaining young adult fantasy books on my shelf, The House of Hades has been unironically haunting me since I first acquired the series, and then-high school me would be speechless at adult me for taking this long to read it.
As we all know, Percy and Annabeth are really going through it during this book based off the ending from The Mark of Athena. Their respective perspective chapters were a lot more action packed compared to the other demigods, and while they were entertaining, I wish I would have seen more Percy chapters if it meant that the story would pick up the pace. I found myself needing to force myself to dedicate time to read this book at times, especially when it was a constant monologue of being in the same situation. However, the more Percy and Annabeth had to fight towards their goal, I was more invested in the story.
Leo's journey was so much fun to read and really added a lot to the story when the plot was looking grim. It was definitely a great comedic relief to the underlying dread that hovered over Percy and Annabeth's journey and seemingly constant suffering. There was just something about this book that had me wishing it was shorter -- there were a number of times where it felt as though the plot was just not moving fast enough for characters who were definitely in a hurry.
There was not nearly enough Nico di Angelo in this book for me... why was he basically absent for two thirds of this book? And why were there so many Hazel chapters? I am not sure if it is me no longer being the same age as these characters anymore, but boy oh boy I was not entertained during any chapter that was in Hazel's perspective, and Frank's chapters were a close second. Jason finally was given a bit of a spotlight towards the end of the book, but this installment really felt removed from the rest of the series in terms of pacing and development.
I will obviously be seeing this series through to the end, and may dabble in Riordan's other series if I ever need to jump back into this writing -- I have been reading his books since I was nine years old, so maybe I will always end up back where it all began.
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