User blog comment:SayuriDarling/The House of Hades Official Discussion/@comment-3146930-20131011044335

Guess who finished the book...THIS GUY!

Dark Review

Ok so first off I'm going to point out that I sort of skipped around a lot. I think I read all the Percy/Annabeth chapters first, then the Hazel chapters, parts of Leo's chapters (you know the ones), and pretty much all the others ones....ya, confusing. Anyway...likes and dislikes.

Dislikes
First thing I didn't like actually happened within the first few chapters and continued happening during the book. Almost everyone seemed to get some kind of unneeded power upgrade, some of which didn't even make sense. Hazel for example was chosen by Hecate to learn how to control the Mist. This seems very out of nowhere and I think during the book she only used it twice, with the second time she used it was during the big battle. Not to mention the way she used the Mist wasn't even how Mist works (she somehow transported her friends behind her; since when does the Mist transport people?). We also have Frank, who aside from his shapeshifting and archery skills, now has the Blessing of Ares/Mars that allows him to mow down monsters, which is cool except he can apparently call on it whenever. Also they somewhat established in the last book that Frank can't really control the dead, yet the ghosts are all like "We follow you now" in this one. Percy controls poison and most likely won't do it again because Annabeth told him not to (all we get is that "some things aren't meant to be controlled"). Piper manages to melt Khione's ice with the fires of love...really? I won't even bring up that she charmspoke a machine.

We also have the gods, Titans, and monsters in this book; mostly the one's in Tartarus. Oh gods were they dumb. I can understand that the evil forces of the CHB Universe are down there and at their strongest, but why do they all have to have giant egos? It felt like the entire time, either Annabeth or Percy were talking their way to victory. I cn understand if you wanted to show they had brains, but Nyx looked like a complete joke. After seeing the picture, I expected her to be this fearful creature that would make Percy and Annabeth some kind of deal with the devil. Instead we get "Take my picture."

Also, some things seemed to convenient. I mean Percy gets hurt, Bob jumps into Tartarus to save him. Bob is losing to Tartarus, a Gigantes shows up to help (I forget his name). Tartarus isn't as strong because he isn't used to a humanoid body.

Just a small thing, but the chapters layout. I was kind of hoping for an all Roman+Annabeth POV to balance out the all Greek MoA. Then have everyone narrate the BoO. However Percy and Annabeth combined had about 38 chapters, leaving 40 for 5 other characters (that is 8 per person).

Lastly the Nico thing. Not going to lie, it felt very forced. I can understand Nico maybe greatly admiring Percy, or loving him as a brother. But there has pretty much been no build up at all. There is one line in MoA about how Annabeth thought he had a crush on her, but that is it. Now it is all of a sudden "Hey, I love Percy." Really?

Likes
So for stuff I did enjoy, as always I enjoy the character interactions. Even if everyone is supposed to be a team, they don't always get along and that is cool. Jason is freaked out by Nico a little bit, the way Reyna is still hesitant to eat with everyone, stuff like that. I also like when Percy had to fight the arai, where it shows that not all curses are placed by the monsters Percy has defeated. Like how he was a poor friend to Bob or how someone as sweet as Calypso could curse him. Not to mention the Bob/Percy/Annabeth thing was awesome.

I liked the two quests in general, but like I said I wish we could have more focus on the other demigods. Tartarus was pretty ruthless, as Percy and Annabeth had to struggle just to stay alive and only did so because a Titan was holding their hand the entire way. Plus we found out how monsters are reborn. The quests however as a whole seemed a little lack-luster.

Final Thoughts
So pretty good book overall. Maybe when I read it in the right order, I'll be able to write a better review. As far as comparing it to the other books, I like it more then TLH and the MoA, but not as much as SoN.