Book Review/Thoughts: "The Lost Hero"
Sooo... I just finished the book. I think I'm a lot less disappointed than other people simply because I let myself have almost NO spoilers for breakfast.
The book was advertised to let us believe that Percy and the gang would play a small if any role in the new book, therefore I was NOT expecting to see so much of Annabeth and Rachel or to even have so much of Percy around in spirit.
So even though I had my share of WHERETHEBLAZINGHADESISPERCYJACKSON?!?!, I was, for the most part, just pleasantly surprised and happy whenever he got mentioned. The fact that I did NOT expect to see Percy in the book, kinda freed me up emotionally to focus on the 3 main characters, and I actually did like 'em fairly quickly.
Jason... I liked him. I think I liked him a little better as a full amnesiac than as a semi-amnesiac, simply because it feels unfair that we don't experience all of his memory-return with him. So when he recalls his legion training all of a sudden or suddenly starts prattling in Latin, we feel all "WTF?" instead of "Oooh we be gettin' somewhere!" It would be better if we were in on random flashbacks before he started using the info. I was intrigued, though, that we slowly but surely realize that this kid is accustomed to being badass. That the only reason he isn't so badass here and now is because he lost his memory and that makes him very, very vulnerable and having so many nice people (i.e. Piper, Leo, Annabeth) around is keeping him from getting too emotionally defensive. But I think it's cool that even though Jason is the equivalent of Percy in the badass camp of Roman purple-ness, he is not a copy of Percy. His personality is actually very different, not so relaxed, and a lot more leaderly. I loved his desire to reconnect with Thalia. I'm just a sucker for things like that in general, but I thought it was well-done, even though we didn't see enough of it.
His relationship with Piper could have used a little work, though. I loved the start with the fake memories and the mention of how he liked Piper when she was less intimidating, but recognized that the intense!beauty was just another aspect of her. They needed more moments to show the why of their connection later on though. And the fact that he was basically a birthday present for Hera? LOVE THIS IDEA. (Pfft, peace offering, whatever. I have this imagery in my head of Zeus/Jupiter handing her a baby wrapped with red bow and Hera being all "Oooh! I have a demigod of my own now! Yay!")
Piper... so many interesting ideas wrapped up in her. I think it's rather interesting how she really does embody a very modern concept regarding beauty: that it is a matter of finding what best fits the individual rather than conforming the individual to a supposed ideal. At first, I was like "Yeah, daughter of the goddess of love is supposed to be a tomboy who likes whacked haircuts and scuffy shoes? I don't buy it." But it wasn't that Piper wanted necessarily to avoid looking nice, she just didn't want to look like a Barbie doll. I guess the whole thing with the turquoise dress just kinda struck me as cool, and gave me a lot more respect for Aphrodite in general.
Also, I liked that she still allowed herself to feel the brunt of the false memories. That she didn't kid herself about being able to shake how the recollections made her feel.
As for the charm, I think it could have been handled a little better. We don't really get a feel for what it's like to make an effort with that ability, or exactly how she stretches her skill with it. I love how she wanted to protect her father, and that they were trying to make a relationship work, but failed on so many levels. And as little as we saw of Tristan McLean, I think I felt myself developing a little of a fangirlish crush on him too. 'Cause you know some part of him is waiting for Aphrodite to come back... and that just makes you want to shake your head and hug him.
On another side-tracking sort of note, I found myself thinking that if Piper were to be sorted into Hogwarts, she would totally be a Hufflepuff. I love how she was such a loyal and loving person, and got so completely split over being a possible traitor. I don't often do that mentally-sorting-non-HP-characters thing, but Piper totally struck me as a Hufflepuff.
Leo... I admit I had my skepticism at first, but it quickly disappeared. It was all gone by the time he cried shamelessly over losing Festus. Not that he cried, but that he was totally 100% not ashamed to be crying, despite that he is so very much a guy in just about every sense of the word. That... just... guh.
I felt that he had two rolls in the story to play: he had to first be the Nico, the angsty friend of the hero who's got his own fascinating sub-plot and can rock the adorable card. But he also needed to be the Grover in some ways, granting us the buddy-buddy bff feeling and much of the comedic relief. He rocked it all very well, ifn' ya ask me. I didn't expect to take much interest in the Hephaestus camp, but Leo quickly swept that notion away by connecting to his cursed cabin and being determined to make all the jinxing go away through sheer determination and sassy refusal. And his relationship with Hera... the fact that he just doesn't even bother with "Hera" but just continues on with "Tia Calida" despite all he has learned since... yes. The queen of the heavens shall always be a memorable if whacked-out babysitter to Leo. That's how he rolls.
Leo/Thalia fic. I am now anticipating it.
As for other random notes and characters, I really enjoyed Gleeson. The Coach actually dug his way deeper into my heart than Grover did, with his crazy-violent tendencies, and the fact that he was as much of a nature guy as anyone else, he was just more of a survive-the-wild-by-kicking-ass sort. I know he wasn't as well-rounded a character, but I just plain liked his attitude, as oft-misplaced as it was.
Also, Jason/Medea creepy reincarnation-themed fic. I am now anticipating it, despite it's inherent wrongness.
I also want more Hera. Hera and her patroness relationship with Jason, and maybe even some of the crazy Auntie thing she has going with Leo. Because when I was an ickle Gidge reading my Greek myth stories, I thought it was a little weird how Hera seemed to keep getting the short end of the stick, considering she was the faithful one. And then there's that image that's STILL in my head of bow-wrapped baby Jason being plopped in a very happy Hera's arms... DON"T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT; I DON"T EVEN!
As far as the Percy Jackson characters are concerned, I did hate the lack of Percy at the end. Around the middle, I figured he'd be rescued. After all, he kind of IS the title of the book (though you could argue that it's also Jason, but whatever)... so I figured we'd at least see him at the end right? Right? I screamed at the final chapter. Screamed at it.
But I still did love how he kept popping up. That he'd become such a household name around the camp, that the newbies kept hearing about him and hearing about him and hearing about him I love how they're all "Who IS this Percy Jackson dude?" because dramatic irony is fun like that.
Mr. Riordan, you get an A for dramatic irony this time around, and about a C+ for mystery, because your characters who over-conveniently didn't say too much despite knowing everything going down for centuries was overtly over-convenient, and all-too often more frustrating than intriguing. The plus is because I loved the reveal that Percy is in Camp Purple like Jason is in Camp Orange. But then again, it may have come as a surprise only because I am slow like that. I dunno.
All-in-all, loved the characters, loved the book. Looking forward to the next round.
FYI, most .gif from Disney Tumblr.
The book was advertised to let us believe that Percy and the gang would play a small if any role in the new book, therefore I was NOT expecting to see so much of Annabeth and Rachel or to even have so much of Percy around in spirit.
So even though I had my share of WHERETHEBLAZINGHADESISPERCYJACKSON?!?!, I was, for the most part, just pleasantly surprised and happy whenever he got mentioned. The fact that I did NOT expect to see Percy in the book, kinda freed me up emotionally to focus on the 3 main characters, and I actually did like 'em fairly quickly.
Jason... I liked him. I think I liked him a little better as a full amnesiac than as a semi-amnesiac, simply because it feels unfair that we don't experience all of his memory-return with him. So when he recalls his legion training all of a sudden or suddenly starts prattling in Latin, we feel all "WTF?" instead of "Oooh we be gettin' somewhere!" It would be better if we were in on random flashbacks before he started using the info. I was intrigued, though, that we slowly but surely realize that this kid is accustomed to being badass. That the only reason he isn't so badass here and now is because he lost his memory and that makes him very, very vulnerable and having so many nice people (i.e. Piper, Leo, Annabeth) around is keeping him from getting too emotionally defensive. But I think it's cool that even though Jason is the equivalent of Percy in the badass camp of Roman purple-ness, he is not a copy of Percy. His personality is actually very different, not so relaxed, and a lot more leaderly. I loved his desire to reconnect with Thalia. I'm just a sucker for things like that in general, but I thought it was well-done, even though we didn't see enough of it.
His relationship with Piper could have used a little work, though. I loved the start with the fake memories and the mention of how he liked Piper when she was less intimidating, but recognized that the intense!beauty was just another aspect of her. They needed more moments to show the why of their connection later on though. And the fact that he was basically a birthday present for Hera? LOVE THIS IDEA. (Pfft, peace offering, whatever. I have this imagery in my head of Zeus/Jupiter handing her a baby wrapped with red bow and Hera being all "Oooh! I have a demigod of my own now! Yay!")
Piper... so many interesting ideas wrapped up in her. I think it's rather interesting how she really does embody a very modern concept regarding beauty: that it is a matter of finding what best fits the individual rather than conforming the individual to a supposed ideal. At first, I was like "Yeah, daughter of the goddess of love is supposed to be a tomboy who likes whacked haircuts and scuffy shoes? I don't buy it." But it wasn't that Piper wanted necessarily to avoid looking nice, she just didn't want to look like a Barbie doll. I guess the whole thing with the turquoise dress just kinda struck me as cool, and gave me a lot more respect for Aphrodite in general.
Also, I liked that she still allowed herself to feel the brunt of the false memories. That she didn't kid herself about being able to shake how the recollections made her feel.
As for the charm, I think it could have been handled a little better. We don't really get a feel for what it's like to make an effort with that ability, or exactly how she stretches her skill with it. I love how she wanted to protect her father, and that they were trying to make a relationship work, but failed on so many levels. And as little as we saw of Tristan McLean, I think I felt myself developing a little of a fangirlish crush on him too. 'Cause you know some part of him is waiting for Aphrodite to come back... and that just makes you want to shake your head and hug him.
On another side-tracking sort of note, I found myself thinking that if Piper were to be sorted into Hogwarts, she would totally be a Hufflepuff. I love how she was such a loyal and loving person, and got so completely split over being a possible traitor. I don't often do that mentally-sorting-non-HP-characters thing, but Piper totally struck me as a Hufflepuff.
Leo... I admit I had my skepticism at first, but it quickly disappeared. It was all gone by the time he cried shamelessly over losing Festus. Not that he cried, but that he was totally 100% not ashamed to be crying, despite that he is so very much a guy in just about every sense of the word. That... just... guh.
I felt that he had two rolls in the story to play: he had to first be the Nico, the angsty friend of the hero who's got his own fascinating sub-plot and can rock the adorable card. But he also needed to be the Grover in some ways, granting us the buddy-buddy bff feeling and much of the comedic relief. He rocked it all very well, ifn' ya ask me. I didn't expect to take much interest in the Hephaestus camp, but Leo quickly swept that notion away by connecting to his cursed cabin and being determined to make all the jinxing go away through sheer determination and sassy refusal. And his relationship with Hera... the fact that he just doesn't even bother with "Hera" but just continues on with "Tia Calida" despite all he has learned since... yes. The queen of the heavens shall always be a memorable if whacked-out babysitter to Leo. That's how he rolls.
Leo/Thalia fic. I am now anticipating it.
As for other random notes and characters, I really enjoyed Gleeson. The Coach actually dug his way deeper into my heart than Grover did, with his crazy-violent tendencies, and the fact that he was as much of a nature guy as anyone else, he was just more of a survive-the-wild-by-kicking-ass sort. I know he wasn't as well-rounded a character, but I just plain liked his attitude, as oft-misplaced as it was.
Also, Jason/Medea creepy reincarnation-themed fic. I am now anticipating it, despite it's inherent wrongness.
I also want more Hera. Hera and her patroness relationship with Jason, and maybe even some of the crazy Auntie thing she has going with Leo. Because when I was an ickle Gidge reading my Greek myth stories, I thought it was a little weird how Hera seemed to keep getting the short end of the stick, considering she was the faithful one. And then there's that image that's STILL in my head of bow-wrapped baby Jason being plopped in a very happy Hera's arms... DON"T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT; I DON"T EVEN!
As far as the Percy Jackson characters are concerned, I did hate the lack of Percy at the end. Around the middle, I figured he'd be rescued. After all, he kind of IS the title of the book (though you could argue that it's also Jason, but whatever)... so I figured we'd at least see him at the end right? Right? I screamed at the final chapter. Screamed at it.
But I still did love how he kept popping up. That he'd become such a household name around the camp, that the newbies kept hearing about him and hearing about him and hearing about him I love how they're all "Who IS this Percy Jackson dude?" because dramatic irony is fun like that.
Mr. Riordan, you get an A for dramatic irony this time around, and about a C+ for mystery, because your characters who over-conveniently didn't say too much despite knowing everything going down for centuries was overtly over-convenient, and all-too often more frustrating than intriguing. The plus is because I loved the reveal that Percy is in Camp Purple like Jason is in Camp Orange. But then again, it may have come as a surprise only because I am slow like that. I dunno.
All-in-all, loved the characters, loved the book. Looking forward to the next round.
FYI, most .gif from Disney Tumblr.