Book Nerds Across America: the mark of athena

Monday, October 14, 2013

The House of Hades by Rick Riordan

Flo's Review

I opted not to share the Goodreads book summary because it is spoilery for the previous book in the series, The Mark of Athena. This will be my non-spoilery review of the book, and my full review will be on my Goodreads page.

I have been looking forward to The House of Hades from the moment I put down the last book, which ended in a massive cliffhanger. In fact, one of my favorite parts of the this book was Rick's dedication:

How can you not love an author who will do a dedication like this?!

The House of Hades did not disappoint. This book comes in 3 pages shy of 600, and I read the entire thing in one weekend. I love the action and the pacing in Rick's stories, and this one was once again on point. The characters continued to grow in a realistic way. The theme of this book really seemed to me that you CHOOSE your destiny. From Hazel's crossroads, to Jason's decision, the characters were met with the idea that they had to choose what they felt was right in their hearts.

If you have read the other 3 books in the Heroes of Olympus series, you should definitely, definitely pick this one up sooner than later. I laughed, I cried, I got frustrated, I felt the love -- all the feels. And now for my favorite picture:

Look! It's me and Rick!!

Here are my reviews of the other Heroes of Olympus books:

The Lost Hero

The Son of Neptune

The Mark of Athena

Sunday, October 14, 2012

The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan

"In a fantastical ship called the Argo II, seven demigods journey by air across the United States and by sea to Rome on their quest to defeat the earth mother, Gaea. Meanwhile, war is breaking out between the Roman and Greek demigods they left behind, and only Annabeth holds the key to restoring peace." (from HeroesofOlympus.com)

Flo's Summary

OH MY GODS. I have been seeing all my friends reading this simultaneously (it just came out this month) and giving it five star reviews on Goodreads. I was even warned by one: "FLO. THE ENDING WILL KILL YOU. I'm not even joking. You will die."

They were right. Rick Riordan was at the top of his game with The Mark of Athena. It had everything I've come to know about love about his books: action, suspense, adventure, cleverness, romance. These seven demigods are all fantastic, and it was so great to see them all learning how to work together and trust each other. I was amazed how something would come up in one part of the book that seemed like and inconsequential at the time, but ended up being something quite huge later on. As always, the settings were fantastic -- I loved seeing both places I've been (like Atlanta) as well as places I could only imagine through the eyes of the demigods. I have never flown through a 600 page book so quickly! Rick left us almost literally with a cliffhanger, so now I guess I have to face the long year ahead of me as I wait for The House of Hades.