Son of Neptune reaction post
I'm finished. It's now time for free-for-all discussion, gif spamming and capslock.
Ahem. Now that my feelings about the ending and our troll of an author are off my chest...
I have so many feelings about this book and they're all pretty much feelings of the good variety. I liked this one much more than The Lost Hero. That's not to say I don't like Jason, Piper and Leo or the general plot of TLH, but I dislike the way that book was set up. Sorry RSquared, but I still maintain that making your beloved title character go missing and not having the book be about searching for him was a huuuuuuuge mistake. Fans of the first series are way more attached to Percy and the old crew than they are the newbies, and the frustration with Jason, Piper and Leo not caring about Percy outweighed a lot of the joy I would've gotten out of reading the book originally.
But anyway, enough with my whining about the last book. We're here to talk about The Son of Neptune which did not have the same problem because PERCY JACKSON WAS BACK, BITCHES.
I basically felt like SoN was a lesson in, "HOW TO BE A GQMF 101" because damn, son of Poseidon is the most badass demigod who ever badass'd. Like every chapter was, "Oh, you Romans think you're tough shit, huh? Let me just pull out my BAMF CARD and slap you with it a few times." I was talking to a couple of people while I was reading the EPIC SHOWDOWN chapters and my reaction basically like, "Oh ho hum, Frank turned into a fucking bear or eagle or whatever, finally... wait. Did... what. PERCY JACKSON JUST FELL OFF A GLACIER. ON PURPOSE. WHAT NOW, GAIA. WHAT NOW."
Whenever it was Percy's time to narrate, I giggled with glee. Even when he wasn't narrating and something big happened, like the showdown with Mars (SO MANY LULZ WERE HAD), I couldn't stop grinning. Percy Jackson is one of my favorite literary heroes of all time - probably one of my favorite characters ever - and I was so so glad to have him back in this book. He was what was missing (literally) from the first book, and he's one of the linchpins to Son of Neptune's success.
But the other characters were great too! Even though I got a little tired of Frank and Hazel near the end, I really enjoyed them in the beginning. I want more Reyna, less Frank in the future though. I thought Hazel's curse was clever and kind of cute and omfg, I literally squealed out loud when Nico was revealed to be her brother. EVEN THOUGH I was spoiled for this beforehand, RR just has this way of writing a reveal that makes me want to pee my pants out of excitement. I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS REGARDING HIM AND WE MUST DISCUSS ALL THE THINGS NICO RELATED.
Camp Jupiter was so much more than I had imagined. I really like that RSquared made a legit differences between the two camps and the two types of demigods, not just made them carbon copies of one another. Camp Jupiter was really cool, and there are so many things to play around with in there. And it also goes against the Word of God that says demigods usually don't live long enough to have kids or get married (unless he was just referring to Greek gods), which makes all kinds of possibilities.
Other thoughts I had?
- I giggled so much with the Amazon, Skype and iPad references. Also anything with Percy and Arion made me collapse into giggles. I noticed that RR relied less on butt and fart jokes in this book, so maybe he's almost over that? It can only happen too soon.
- PERCY'S CALL TO SALLY.
Just... have all my creys, Rick. Take them.
What's actually kind of scary is that I had a scene almost exactly like this in a fic I abandoned. R U READING MY GOOGLE DOCS, RICK.
- Speaking of Sally, Percy you gonna be in trouble when you come home with a tattoo.
- I really don't like the way that RR keeps foreshadowing that Percy's going to have to make a horrible choice that he'll fail at? It makes me nervous because "horrible choice" automatically equals Annabeth in my mind and any time Annabeth is threatened, I GET EXTREMELY NERVOUS. All that bullshit at the end about Annabeth being a problem for the next quest (although I don't think that's all that negative? Annabeth's stubborn if things don't go how she expects yo. Exhibit A: The Sphinx) and stuff just makes my nerves extremely jittery.
- Can I just... copy and paste all of the Percy/Annabeth references in this post? I think I broke my highlight key on my Nook. HERE ARE MY FAVS.
1. Also, he was reluctant to share his one clear memory: Annabeth's face, her blonde hair and gray eyes, the way she laughed, threw her arms around him, and gave him a kiss whenever he did something stupid.
She must have kissed me a lot, Percy thought.
He feared that if he spoke abut that memory to anyone, it would evaporate like a dream. He couldn't risk that.
2. He imagined holding hands with Annabeth at a cafe. Maybe when they were older, watching their own kid chase seagulls across the forum...
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ forever
Annnnd, just to round this entire post off:
"I'm gonna be Percy Jackson when I grow up," she told Hazel solemnly.
Ahem. Now that my feelings about the ending and our troll of an author are off my chest...
I have so many feelings about this book and they're all pretty much feelings of the good variety. I liked this one much more than The Lost Hero. That's not to say I don't like Jason, Piper and Leo or the general plot of TLH, but I dislike the way that book was set up. Sorry RSquared, but I still maintain that making your beloved title character go missing and not having the book be about searching for him was a huuuuuuuge mistake. Fans of the first series are way more attached to Percy and the old crew than they are the newbies, and the frustration with Jason, Piper and Leo not caring about Percy outweighed a lot of the joy I would've gotten out of reading the book originally.
But anyway, enough with my whining about the last book. We're here to talk about The Son of Neptune which did not have the same problem because PERCY JACKSON WAS BACK, BITCHES.
I basically felt like SoN was a lesson in, "HOW TO BE A GQMF 101" because damn, son of Poseidon is the most badass demigod who ever badass'd. Like every chapter was, "Oh, you Romans think you're tough shit, huh? Let me just pull out my BAMF CARD and slap you with it a few times." I was talking to a couple of people while I was reading the EPIC SHOWDOWN chapters and my reaction basically like, "Oh ho hum, Frank turned into a fucking bear or eagle or whatever, finally... wait. Did... what. PERCY JACKSON JUST FELL OFF A GLACIER. ON PURPOSE. WHAT NOW, GAIA. WHAT NOW."
Whenever it was Percy's time to narrate, I giggled with glee. Even when he wasn't narrating and something big happened, like the showdown with Mars (SO MANY LULZ WERE HAD), I couldn't stop grinning. Percy Jackson is one of my favorite literary heroes of all time - probably one of my favorite characters ever - and I was so so glad to have him back in this book. He was what was missing (literally) from the first book, and he's one of the linchpins to Son of Neptune's success.
But the other characters were great too! Even though I got a little tired of Frank and Hazel near the end, I really enjoyed them in the beginning. I want more Reyna, less Frank in the future though. I thought Hazel's curse was clever and kind of cute and omfg, I literally squealed out loud when Nico was revealed to be her brother. EVEN THOUGH I was spoiled for this beforehand, RR just has this way of writing a reveal that makes me want to pee my pants out of excitement. I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS REGARDING HIM AND WE MUST DISCUSS ALL THE THINGS NICO RELATED.
Camp Jupiter was so much more than I had imagined. I really like that RSquared made a legit differences between the two camps and the two types of demigods, not just made them carbon copies of one another. Camp Jupiter was really cool, and there are so many things to play around with in there. And it also goes against the Word of God that says demigods usually don't live long enough to have kids or get married (unless he was just referring to Greek gods), which makes all kinds of possibilities.
Other thoughts I had?
- I giggled so much with the Amazon, Skype and iPad references. Also anything with Percy and Arion made me collapse into giggles. I noticed that RR relied less on butt and fart jokes in this book, so maybe he's almost over that? It can only happen too soon.
- PERCY'S CALL TO SALLY.
Just... have all my creys, Rick. Take them.
What's actually kind of scary is that I had a scene almost exactly like this in a fic I abandoned. R U READING MY GOOGLE DOCS, RICK.
- Speaking of Sally, Percy you gonna be in trouble when you come home with a tattoo.
- I really don't like the way that RR keeps foreshadowing that Percy's going to have to make a horrible choice that he'll fail at? It makes me nervous because "horrible choice" automatically equals Annabeth in my mind and any time Annabeth is threatened, I GET EXTREMELY NERVOUS. All that bullshit at the end about Annabeth being a problem for the next quest (although I don't think that's all that negative? Annabeth's stubborn if things don't go how she expects yo. Exhibit A: The Sphinx) and stuff just makes my nerves extremely jittery.
- Can I just... copy and paste all of the Percy/Annabeth references in this post? I think I broke my highlight key on my Nook. HERE ARE MY FAVS.
1. Also, he was reluctant to share his one clear memory: Annabeth's face, her blonde hair and gray eyes, the way she laughed, threw her arms around him, and gave him a kiss whenever he did something stupid.
She must have kissed me a lot, Percy thought.
He feared that if he spoke abut that memory to anyone, it would evaporate like a dream. He couldn't risk that.
2. He imagined holding hands with Annabeth at a cafe. Maybe when they were older, watching their own kid chase seagulls across the forum...
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ forever
Annnnd, just to round this entire post off:
"I'm gonna be Percy Jackson when I grow up," she told Hazel solemnly.