Review
Hydroflare
All right! The moment everyone has been waiting for! My review of the Blood of Olympus!
So, before we begin, I just want to say sorry that this is so late after release. I was away for two weeks, even tried scouring bookstores for it while I was away, but no luck. At least, until I landed at the airport yesterday and ran to the Relay bookstore there, discovering that it was open and *gasps* had a copy of BoO in it. I was screaming with excitement. Of course, as soon as I got back home I immediately read it all in one go. I faked falling asleep, then I grabbed my copy of the book and finished it. I didn't sleep until three in the morning.
And I have quite a few things to say about this book. But I want to make sure that I'm doing things right, so: SPOILER ALERT!
Okay, so first, the good stuff in here:
1. Reyna
Reyna turned badass. Through her three cycles, we found out about her family struggles. I think this is the most we've ever learnt about any one character in the shortest amount of time. Defeating Orion, going back to her childhood home? She deserves a pat on the back.
2. Nico
Nico also got a bit more coverage this book. While I wish there was more about his inner feelings, I still think that his POV was pretty good. Of course, his POVs amounted to Bryce, Lycaon and the battle, but at least he got what he deserved: his POV. While he may not be my favourite character, he's the one I relate to the most, so I had to put him on here.
3. Percy
Nope. No kidding. A lot of people hated how Rick made Percy look like an idiot in this book. While I would highly disagree with them, that wasn't the reason why I wanted to put him on this list. It was that while he was kind of undermined by Rick, he made up for it with humour. Allow me to entertain you with some of the funniest Percy moments in this book.
"Hey, I'm a Poseidon kid." he said. "I can't drown. And neither can my pancakes."
"Like your zodiac sign?" Percy asked. "I'm a Leo." "No, stupid." Leo said. "I'm a Leo. You're a Percy."
No? No?... Awww.
4. Leo
Willing to sacrifice himself to stop Gaia. I honestly love Leo. He's recently become my favourite Percy Jackson character, replacing Frank. And he's earned it. Respect, man. If you want to know why I like Leo so much, here's why:
I. All da ladies love Leo. (I'm a boy, but whatever)
II. Team Leo.
III. Caleo OTP.
IV. LEO LEO LEO LEO LEO LEO LEO LEO LEO LEEEEEOOOOOO
Okay, now for some things that I didn't like.
1. It felt like a Fanfiction.
Short chapters, poor writing. Thet sounds like my fanfiction! When you have a chapter that lasts two pages, you know that you have a problem. And that also takes into account the huge chapter titles. Then we have the storyline, which seems ripped out of some fan's story.
2. Percy's Choice
Percy didn't even need to make a choice. He was told by Frank to not interfere, and that was it. Done. Such impossible. Much wow.
3. The focus of the plot
Specifically the Argo II plot. It seemed to be based around the physician's cure, which was weird considering that there was little to no evidence that anyone would die. Like, just because one person told you that somebody would die, would you go running around Greece trying to find the ingredients to cheat death.
4. Lack of POVs
When I say this, I mean that the book was too short. Reyna, Jason and Leo got 3 cycles. Nico got 4 cycles. Piper got 2. That is not enough to tell a story, Rick. One of Nico's cycles was wasted with the aftermath of the war. One of Reyna's chapters was 2 pages long. I would also have loved to see maybe a chapter or two about Percy or Annabeth and Frank or Hazel. That would have rounded it all out.
5. Make the plot work
As you all know I'm a plot person. This book was lacking in that regard - like, whenever Rick can, he pokes fun at himself. Granted, Rick's clever. He purposefully put Annabeth and Percy in situations specifically targeted at them. Percy with the poison, Annabeth with the memories. It made Jason and Piper seem more badass. That's fine, but undermining common sense to do that? Not cool. It isn't logical for a person to run straight towards poison, okay? Then we have Gaia awakening. Personally, I feel that in each book, there is a line between humour, kind-of-but-not-really humour, and the serious stuff. Rick mixed them up this book. Percy woke the Earth mother because of a nosebleed. That was dumb. Give him a wound or something, dude! That entire chapter could have been focused on them trying not to bleed out. It could even have made it better, in my opinion.
So, overall, I give this a 7 out of 10 (10 highest), because of Leo and Percy and their great chemistry. Compare that with TLH (8/10), SoN (8.5/10), MoA (7.5/10), HoH (9/10) and PJ'sGG (8/10). So that' bad, but not too shabby.
Well, now you guys wait and I'll have a special thanks page up soon. Thanks!