The big damn House of Hades reaction post
Dear Rick Riordan,
Sincerely,
greenconverses and the rest of your fandom
Might as well get the tl;dr portion of this post out of the way, since the rest of this post is probably going to be long, long, long. There is just so much to discuss! I still don't think I've processed everything that went on in this book - I'm probably going to have to do a re-read this weekend just to get it all straight in my head. So much character development, so many great scenes, so much to digest and talk about.
House of Hades is probably the best book out of the series. I'm sure I say that with each book that comes out and I'll probably keep doing that as long as Riordan's writing keeps improving. The pacing was a little fast because he had to fill in so much information, but it never threw me off. He didn't fall into some of his usual narrative tropes in this book, although I wish he would find some other way of handing down exposition and showing what's going on outside the narrator's POV aside from demigod dreams. It's gone from huh, interesting characteristic! to a bit of a lazy writing crutch, honestly. And there was less heavy handed foreshadowing this time around, probably because he already put his characters in hell! Ahahaha. Ha. Haaaa.
I wish I didn't burn through these books so fast so I could examine his writing style a little bit better; maybe I'll save that for the re-read. I do like that we keep seeing an improvement and change in his writing style over the course of the series, because he could be phoning it in at this point, but he's not.
Anyway, that's not what I'm here to talk about.
I'M HERE TO TALK ABOUT HOW RICK RIORDAN NEEDS TO STOP DESTROYING ME EMOTIONALLY.
I'm going to organize this post like I did with my Mark of Athena react post where each character will have their own section. I wasn't sure how well RSquared's use of the seven POVs would work and how cohesive it would be, but he pulled it off! I don't think there would've been as much character growth without all those POVs and BOY WAS THERE CHARACTER GROWTH. Some of them had smaller than arcs than others, but they all got screentime and a chance to shine, and I loved it. I also liked that a bunch of characters got paired off differently, so we got to see how they interacted with almost everyone else on the ship.
Most of my ~feelings~ for this book center around Nico, Leo, Annabeth and Percy, so forgive me if I don't have much to say about some of the other characters aside from ILU.
So, let me begin with Piper: Piper is still not my favorite, but I appreciate how much she's changed since The Lost Hero. There was also, thankfully, not a lot of mooning over Jason in this book, which I don't think I would've minded as much as before because now there's PLENTY to moon over Jason about. But we'll save that for later. She didn't get as much pagetime in this book compared to others (and only one POV from her!) but when she was there, she was effective and awesome. I loved seeing that she and Hazel had become friends, and that they were learning from each other about their different mystical powers. The ladies were the boss and plentiful in this book, yo.
Reyna: Speaking of boss ladies, I CAN'T HANDLE THIS BOSS LADY RIGHT HERE. She is fabulous and fierce and all those great adjectives we use when describing this woman. She crossed the Atlantic by herself after trusting the word of someone she'd been wary about and thought betrayed her, found her way to the Argo II with no support, volunteered to bring the Athena statue back with Nico, and is probably going to rip out Octavian's throat when she gets back to New York. You don't ignore her orders and live to tell the tale, dude.
Plus, we learned her last name. Officially calling her Ra-Ra from now on.
Hearts in my eyes for Reyna. I need an entire side story of her and her adventures.
Jason: Let me tell you about how much I love Jason Grace after this book, you guys. I've always been sort of ambivalent about him. He never got past cardboard cut-out stage for me in Mark of Athena, and I figured I needed a POV from him with his memories actually restored to get a better judge on his character. Wish granted!
His identity conflict between being Roman or Greek was interesting, and I'm glad he chose what fit right for him. I liked seeing some of the little tidbits about Jason trying to change tradition at New Rome and not everyone going for it. I still want to know what New Rome and Camp Jupiter was like during the Titan War. WRITE A SHORT STORY ABOUT THAT, RICK, C'MON.
Jason Grace gets the highest of fives for the way he behaves around Nico and after he learns about Nico's secret. Like, all the points to you for being a good friend to this kid and recognizing he needs someone at his side. I need these two to become bros after the series ends. Also, I lol'd about Jason's initial, "...idgi" reaction to the West Wind being gay.
JASON. DO YOU KNOW WHO YOUR DAD IS.
DO YOU?
Why are you surprised, bro. Silly kid.
The Jason/Piper, Jason/Reyna resolution: Glad this didn't take up much page time and was addressed swiftly. Jason was pretty blunt about not liking Reyna Like That, wasn't he? I honestly didn't have much stake in either of these ships, so it wasn't that big of a deal to me.
Hazel: Continuing the line of badass women if this book, is Hazel Levesque. Having her team up with an Underworld goddess like Hecate and learn how to manipulate the Mist was great. I need more women bonding and then combining their strengths to defeat evil. I hope all three of these girls get together and go kick ass next book because it will be GREAT.
I really really liked Hazel's scene with Pluto, and, yeah, whatever, he's trying to justify being a deadbeat dad just like Poseidon tried to back in TLT, but UGH, the part where he tells her he doesn't want to see her go back to the Underworld aklsjdlakjdlajs. I had a lot of Underworld siblings and family feelings in this book. Hazel and Nico's relationship is still so new, and yet they're trying with each other, and it's great.
Frank: After Mark of Athena, I was kind of meh on Frank. It was the same reason I was meh on Jason - not enough time from his POV. In MoA, he became the bumbling, butt-of-jokes character and didn't do a lot to get my attention compared to everyone else. Having the helpful explanation that he had his dad's voices arguing in his mind the entire book made a lot of sense and put things in perspective though! But he really grew and came into his own in this book, and I need him to turn a cuddly bear so I can give him a hug. He had great moments with Nico, Hazel, and Jason, and it's awesome that he's still the same guy, even after getting his dad's blessing and becoming praetor. I thought it was super interesting that Jason, our archetypal white dude hero, stepped aside and passed on leadership responsibilities to Frank. Makes me think that Jason and Percy aren't going to be ones who end up having the Final Moment during the showdown with Gaea.
Still can't get into Hazel/Frank because of the age difference (why couldn't you have just made Hazel 15, Riordan, why) so not much to say on that front.
Leo: Leo was the reason had to start liveblogging while reading this on tubmlr. I was doing well until I reached his second POV set, and then I could not keep my feelings to myself any longer. I had to speak about what was happening. And what was happening was Leo/Calypso.
LEO AND CALYPSO.
CALYPSO AND LEO.
LOE NDA ALCAPSkajsdkljaldkjalskdj WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME RIORDAN.
I'd seen some rumors that Leo/Calypso was going to happen in this book, and I was initially Not Cool with it because it seemed, well, unnecessary? I was still against it until it was happening and then I was a mess of emotions I didn't know how to deal with. This was my favorite part of the book (not something Percy/Annabeth or Annabeth-related, SHOCKING I KNOW) and it hit me right in all the right spots. The instant Calypso was a brat about him not being the type of hero she wanted and the phrase Leo dislike her instantly appeared, I was a fucking goner.
A-and then he started fixing things for her and they started to work together on projects and bond and denying they had feelings for each other and - and MAKING PLANS TO OWN A MACHINE SHOP TOGETHER.
And then he had to leave. But he promised to come back and I CAN'T DEAL WITH IT.
How dare you give me this OTP and take it away like that, Riordan. How dare you.
Nico: So, we didn't get a Nico POV in this book, but we got the Nico scenes and characterization we've been waiting for. Nico needs a hug, hot chocolate, and friends after this book, y'all.
Where to even begin with this kid? I suppose it has to be the big revelation, which is that Nico is queer and had a crush on Percy and probably STILL loves that stupid boy because he is in so much pain about it. OH NICO BABY, WE'RE HERE FOR YOU. I've had a week to cope with the Percy/Nico spoilers, and I knowing it was coming in advance made all of Nico's blink-and-you'll-miss-it reactions about Percy all the more painful. The scene toward the end where Percy was trying to thank Nico for being a geniunely good person was made even worse and Percy why are so oblivious to all the people who love you. You know when Percy finds out about Nico's crush, he is going to try so hard to be that ally and take him to pride parades and Nico will be fuck off with those rainbows I hate you.
So much of his standoffishness comes from being afraid and self-hatred, and it just explains so much of his personality beyond grief over Bianca's death. I hope he reconsiders what he said to Jason about leaving forever, and starts to warm up to the other characters. There were glimmers of it when he was being affectionate with Hazel, and maybe once he learns to accept himself and his feelings, he'll finally be at peace and can open up. I think Jason's acceptance has started him on a road to healing.
I'm probably not the right person to talk about how much of a big damn deal it is that Riordan wrote a character like Nico, the fan favorite, as canonically queer and did so in his super popular middle grade novels, but GOD, what a big damn deal. I've always been pretty skeptical that RSquared would actually acknowledge the queer aspects of Greek mythology in HoO and, if he did, it would be for a minor, adult god character and it'd be a brush off moment. So I was shocked that he did do it and it was one of the kids instead. Snaps for representation, Rick Riordan. Now just don't kill off the queer kid, and we'll be good. (Anyone else suddenly worried that Nico and Reyna will become the sacrifices to Gaea? No? Just me? NOW YOU WILL BE.)
AND CAN I JUST SAY that I love that a lot of fandom's response is, "NICO/PERCY/ANNABETH HAS TO HAPPEN!" I thought he was trying to crush my OT3 in Mark of Athena, but now it's back and BETTER THAN EVER. Except Nico seems to really dislike Annabeth or maybe he likes her too but likes Percy more and hates that he wishes she'd go away and why can't he have both of them and YOU'RE NOT TAKING MY OT3 AWAY FROM ME LEAVE ME ALONE
Other things about Nico I liked? Learning more about his history (Nico speaks Italian, it's canon!) and seeing how he interacted with the other characters beside Hazel. And all the references to Nico sneaking up on people and generally being a little creep. My headcanon is that Nico's "creepiness" all the characters talk about is his Hades powers reflecting that he's pulling away from the living and identifying more with the dead. Once he turns around and accepts the living, the creep factor will get turned down a lot more. At least I hope so!
Percy: Percy's character arc throughout this series has been incredibly interesting to watch, and he just seems to get broken down and built back up again book by book. There were a lot of things I liked seeing in Percy in House of Hades - darkness, regret, ineffectiveness, and hope in spite of everything.
Percy's most interesting scene definitely came when he was being attacked by the arai, and had a bunch of different curses inflicted on him. That scene tugged on my heart strings so much. I was handled most of the Tartarus scenes fine because Percy and Annabeth were together, but when Percy doubts himself, everything hurts.
Some criticisms of Percy's character I've seen throughout the series is that he never "lost" everything and that he got to be a hero with none of the downsides. I don't think that's strictly true, since he almost always dies in every book, had to come to terms with possibly dying and failing to save the world at 16, and then got kidnapped by Hera and had his memories wiped, but he is one of the few characters who has a happy home life (now that his stepdad's out of the picture) and hasn't something majorly tragic happen to him. And I both liked and hated the arai scene because it showed Percy how much misery he's inflicted on others (even if they were monsters) and how he's actually no better than the heroes of yore that he sneered down his nose at when it comes to his treatment of characters like Bob, Calypso, and Nico. He may not be a giant toolbag like the original Jason or Theseus and he has a good heart, but he still has some of those characteristics and a tendency to forget about people who aren't in his inner circle, I suppose. As much as I like Percy, he can be a total ass which, conversely, is what I love about him because he's NOT 100 percent good all the time. Vicious cycle.
In addition to seeing Percy get knocked down a peg, I LOVED seeing the dark side of Percy's personality coming out in this book. He had to be close to snapping after all the shit he went through, and then he did snap and it was scary enough that Annabeth was afraid. But she brought him back to himself and ughhh, my babies. Gosh, I need more dark!Percy in my life. GET ON THIS, FANDOM.
Also, Percy continues to be a total doofus. HOW DID YOU NOT KNOW RIPTIDE COULD ACTUALLY BECOME A PEN, STUPIDFACE. AND YES, OF COURSE YOU WANT TO TAKE UP SURFING IN COLLEGE. I HATE YOU. but not really
Annabeth: I joke that this book should be called Annabeth Chase and That Time I Saved Percy's Life a Million Times but it really should be called Annabeth Chase and That Time I Saved Percy's Life a Million Times.
I have said this already, but if anyone tries to tell me that Annabeth is whiny for wanting Percy at her side or completely dependent on him after this book, I will eat their young. Annabeth is a badass queen of everything, and she is positively brilliant and beautiful. She figured out how to communicate to the other side, set a plan in motion, and instinctively trusted that Rachel (forever crying about the blue hairbrush) would communicate to Reyna and the other leader would listen to her and get shit done. And the scene where she's trying to convince Damasen to help them out? Ugh, Annabeth, you are the actual greatest. You are the heart of this book, and the true leader.
P.S. I need to write fic from her POV while she blind and Calypso's curse was on her because OUCH MY OTP FEELINGS, OUCH MY ANNABETH ABANDONMENT COMPLEX.
Percy/Annabeth: Tartarus was terrible, but it actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be? I hope Percy and Annabeth have a bit more PTSD-related incidents in the next book because they're going to need it after going through all of that together.
And instead of waxing poetic about my OTP for the millionth time, I'm just going to post all my favorite pieces of dialogue and scenes between these two. There was SO MUCH Percy/Annabeth I didn't know what to do with myself. They are brilliant.
No, Percy, you don't get to be the self-sacrificing hero. ANNABETH KNOWS YOU TOO WELL TO LET YOU PULL THAT SHIT. And when are we going to get an I love you from Percy, huh? Annabeth has said it a million times and this kid just will not say it back, even though earlier he was all...
HE'S THINKING ABOUT HAVING HER BABIES. Christ, Percy, wait until the world is not ending to think about your future curly haired babies.
Just... leave me here to sob forever about Percy/Annabeth, you guys. I am useless to you.
Next book is The Blood of Olympus. I have no theories other than my paranoid fear that Reyna and Nico will not make it to the end, but I'm sure there are some good ones out there already.
Sincerely,
greenconverses and the rest of your fandom
Might as well get the tl;dr portion of this post out of the way, since the rest of this post is probably going to be long, long, long. There is just so much to discuss! I still don't think I've processed everything that went on in this book - I'm probably going to have to do a re-read this weekend just to get it all straight in my head. So much character development, so many great scenes, so much to digest and talk about.
House of Hades is probably the best book out of the series. I'm sure I say that with each book that comes out and I'll probably keep doing that as long as Riordan's writing keeps improving. The pacing was a little fast because he had to fill in so much information, but it never threw me off. He didn't fall into some of his usual narrative tropes in this book, although I wish he would find some other way of handing down exposition and showing what's going on outside the narrator's POV aside from demigod dreams. It's gone from huh, interesting characteristic! to a bit of a lazy writing crutch, honestly. And there was less heavy handed foreshadowing this time around, probably because he already put his characters in hell! Ahahaha. Ha. Haaaa.
I wish I didn't burn through these books so fast so I could examine his writing style a little bit better; maybe I'll save that for the re-read. I do like that we keep seeing an improvement and change in his writing style over the course of the series, because he could be phoning it in at this point, but he's not.
Anyway, that's not what I'm here to talk about.
I'M HERE TO TALK ABOUT HOW RICK RIORDAN NEEDS TO STOP DESTROYING ME EMOTIONALLY.
I'm going to organize this post like I did with my Mark of Athena react post where each character will have their own section. I wasn't sure how well RSquared's use of the seven POVs would work and how cohesive it would be, but he pulled it off! I don't think there would've been as much character growth without all those POVs and BOY WAS THERE CHARACTER GROWTH. Some of them had smaller than arcs than others, but they all got screentime and a chance to shine, and I loved it. I also liked that a bunch of characters got paired off differently, so we got to see how they interacted with almost everyone else on the ship.
Most of my ~feelings~ for this book center around Nico, Leo, Annabeth and Percy, so forgive me if I don't have much to say about some of the other characters aside from ILU.
So, let me begin with Piper: Piper is still not my favorite, but I appreciate how much she's changed since The Lost Hero. There was also, thankfully, not a lot of mooning over Jason in this book, which I don't think I would've minded as much as before because now there's PLENTY to moon over Jason about. But we'll save that for later. She didn't get as much pagetime in this book compared to others (and only one POV from her!) but when she was there, she was effective and awesome. I loved seeing that she and Hazel had become friends, and that they were learning from each other about their different mystical powers. The ladies were the boss and plentiful in this book, yo.
Reyna: Speaking of boss ladies, I CAN'T HANDLE THIS BOSS LADY RIGHT HERE. She is fabulous and fierce and all those great adjectives we use when describing this woman. She crossed the Atlantic by herself after trusting the word of someone she'd been wary about and thought betrayed her, found her way to the Argo II with no support, volunteered to bring the Athena statue back with Nico, and is probably going to rip out Octavian's throat when she gets back to New York. You don't ignore her orders and live to tell the tale, dude.
Plus, we learned her last name. Officially calling her Ra-Ra from now on.
Hearts in my eyes for Reyna. I need an entire side story of her and her adventures.
Jason: Let me tell you about how much I love Jason Grace after this book, you guys. I've always been sort of ambivalent about him. He never got past cardboard cut-out stage for me in Mark of Athena, and I figured I needed a POV from him with his memories actually restored to get a better judge on his character. Wish granted!
His identity conflict between being Roman or Greek was interesting, and I'm glad he chose what fit right for him. I liked seeing some of the little tidbits about Jason trying to change tradition at New Rome and not everyone going for it. I still want to know what New Rome and Camp Jupiter was like during the Titan War. WRITE A SHORT STORY ABOUT THAT, RICK, C'MON.
Jason Grace gets the highest of fives for the way he behaves around Nico and after he learns about Nico's secret. Like, all the points to you for being a good friend to this kid and recognizing he needs someone at his side. I need these two to become bros after the series ends. Also, I lol'd about Jason's initial, "...idgi" reaction to the West Wind being gay.
JASON. DO YOU KNOW WHO YOUR DAD IS.
DO YOU?
Why are you surprised, bro. Silly kid.
The Jason/Piper, Jason/Reyna resolution: Glad this didn't take up much page time and was addressed swiftly. Jason was pretty blunt about not liking Reyna Like That, wasn't he? I honestly didn't have much stake in either of these ships, so it wasn't that big of a deal to me.
Hazel: Continuing the line of badass women if this book, is Hazel Levesque. Having her team up with an Underworld goddess like Hecate and learn how to manipulate the Mist was great. I need more women bonding and then combining their strengths to defeat evil. I hope all three of these girls get together and go kick ass next book because it will be GREAT.
I really really liked Hazel's scene with Pluto, and, yeah, whatever, he's trying to justify being a deadbeat dad just like Poseidon tried to back in TLT, but UGH, the part where he tells her he doesn't want to see her go back to the Underworld aklsjdlakjdlajs. I had a lot of Underworld siblings and family feelings in this book. Hazel and Nico's relationship is still so new, and yet they're trying with each other, and it's great.
Frank: After Mark of Athena, I was kind of meh on Frank. It was the same reason I was meh on Jason - not enough time from his POV. In MoA, he became the bumbling, butt-of-jokes character and didn't do a lot to get my attention compared to everyone else. Having the helpful explanation that he had his dad's voices arguing in his mind the entire book made a lot of sense and put things in perspective though! But he really grew and came into his own in this book, and I need him to turn a cuddly bear so I can give him a hug. He had great moments with Nico, Hazel, and Jason, and it's awesome that he's still the same guy, even after getting his dad's blessing and becoming praetor. I thought it was super interesting that Jason, our archetypal white dude hero, stepped aside and passed on leadership responsibilities to Frank. Makes me think that Jason and Percy aren't going to be ones who end up having the Final Moment during the showdown with Gaea.
Still can't get into Hazel/Frank because of the age difference (why couldn't you have just made Hazel 15, Riordan, why) so not much to say on that front.
Leo: Leo was the reason had to start liveblogging while reading this on tubmlr. I was doing well until I reached his second POV set, and then I could not keep my feelings to myself any longer. I had to speak about what was happening. And what was happening was Leo/Calypso.
LEO AND CALYPSO.
CALYPSO AND LEO.
LOE NDA ALCAPSkajsdkljaldkjalskdj WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME RIORDAN.
I'd seen some rumors that Leo/Calypso was going to happen in this book, and I was initially Not Cool with it because it seemed, well, unnecessary? I was still against it until it was happening and then I was a mess of emotions I didn't know how to deal with. This was my favorite part of the book (not something Percy/Annabeth or Annabeth-related, SHOCKING I KNOW) and it hit me right in all the right spots. The instant Calypso was a brat about him not being the type of hero she wanted and the phrase Leo dislike her instantly appeared, I was a fucking goner.
A-and then he started fixing things for her and they started to work together on projects and bond and denying they had feelings for each other and - and MAKING PLANS TO OWN A MACHINE SHOP TOGETHER.
And then he had to leave. But he promised to come back and I CAN'T DEAL WITH IT.
How dare you give me this OTP and take it away like that, Riordan. How dare you.
Nico: So, we didn't get a Nico POV in this book, but we got the Nico scenes and characterization we've been waiting for. Nico needs a hug, hot chocolate, and friends after this book, y'all.
Where to even begin with this kid? I suppose it has to be the big revelation, which is that Nico is queer and had a crush on Percy and probably STILL loves that stupid boy because he is in so much pain about it. OH NICO BABY, WE'RE HERE FOR YOU. I've had a week to cope with the Percy/Nico spoilers, and I knowing it was coming in advance made all of Nico's blink-and-you'll-miss-it reactions about Percy all the more painful. The scene toward the end where Percy was trying to thank Nico for being a geniunely good person was made even worse and Percy why are so oblivious to all the people who love you. You know when Percy finds out about Nico's crush, he is going to try so hard to be that ally and take him to pride parades and Nico will be fuck off with those rainbows I hate you.
So much of his standoffishness comes from being afraid and self-hatred, and it just explains so much of his personality beyond grief over Bianca's death. I hope he reconsiders what he said to Jason about leaving forever, and starts to warm up to the other characters. There were glimmers of it when he was being affectionate with Hazel, and maybe once he learns to accept himself and his feelings, he'll finally be at peace and can open up. I think Jason's acceptance has started him on a road to healing.
I'm probably not the right person to talk about how much of a big damn deal it is that Riordan wrote a character like Nico, the fan favorite, as canonically queer and did so in his super popular middle grade novels, but GOD, what a big damn deal. I've always been pretty skeptical that RSquared would actually acknowledge the queer aspects of Greek mythology in HoO and, if he did, it would be for a minor, adult god character and it'd be a brush off moment. So I was shocked that he did do it and it was one of the kids instead. Snaps for representation, Rick Riordan. Now just don't kill off the queer kid, and we'll be good. (Anyone else suddenly worried that Nico and Reyna will become the sacrifices to Gaea? No? Just me? NOW YOU WILL BE.)
AND CAN I JUST SAY that I love that a lot of fandom's response is, "NICO/PERCY/ANNABETH HAS TO HAPPEN!" I thought he was trying to crush my OT3 in Mark of Athena, but now it's back and BETTER THAN EVER. Except Nico seems to really dislike Annabeth or maybe he likes her too but likes Percy more and hates that he wishes she'd go away and why can't he have both of them and YOU'RE NOT TAKING MY OT3 AWAY FROM ME LEAVE ME ALONE
Other things about Nico I liked? Learning more about his history (Nico speaks Italian, it's canon!) and seeing how he interacted with the other characters beside Hazel. And all the references to Nico sneaking up on people and generally being a little creep. My headcanon is that Nico's "creepiness" all the characters talk about is his Hades powers reflecting that he's pulling away from the living and identifying more with the dead. Once he turns around and accepts the living, the creep factor will get turned down a lot more. At least I hope so!
Percy: Percy's character arc throughout this series has been incredibly interesting to watch, and he just seems to get broken down and built back up again book by book. There were a lot of things I liked seeing in Percy in House of Hades - darkness, regret, ineffectiveness, and hope in spite of everything.
Percy's most interesting scene definitely came when he was being attacked by the arai, and had a bunch of different curses inflicted on him. That scene tugged on my heart strings so much. I was handled most of the Tartarus scenes fine because Percy and Annabeth were together, but when Percy doubts himself, everything hurts.
Some criticisms of Percy's character I've seen throughout the series is that he never "lost" everything and that he got to be a hero with none of the downsides. I don't think that's strictly true, since he almost always dies in every book, had to come to terms with possibly dying and failing to save the world at 16, and then got kidnapped by Hera and had his memories wiped, but he is one of the few characters who has a happy home life (now that his stepdad's out of the picture) and hasn't something majorly tragic happen to him. And I both liked and hated the arai scene because it showed Percy how much misery he's inflicted on others (even if they were monsters) and how he's actually no better than the heroes of yore that he sneered down his nose at when it comes to his treatment of characters like Bob, Calypso, and Nico. He may not be a giant toolbag like the original Jason or Theseus and he has a good heart, but he still has some of those characteristics and a tendency to forget about people who aren't in his inner circle, I suppose. As much as I like Percy, he can be a total ass which, conversely, is what I love about him because he's NOT 100 percent good all the time. Vicious cycle.
In addition to seeing Percy get knocked down a peg, I LOVED seeing the dark side of Percy's personality coming out in this book. He had to be close to snapping after all the shit he went through, and then he did snap and it was scary enough that Annabeth was afraid. But she brought him back to himself and ughhh, my babies. Gosh, I need more dark!Percy in my life. GET ON THIS, FANDOM.
Also, Percy continues to be a total doofus. HOW DID YOU NOT KNOW RIPTIDE COULD ACTUALLY BECOME A PEN, STUPIDFACE. AND YES, OF COURSE YOU WANT TO TAKE UP SURFING IN COLLEGE. I HATE YOU. but not really
Annabeth: I joke that this book should be called Annabeth Chase and That Time I Saved Percy's Life a Million Times but it really should be called Annabeth Chase and That Time I Saved Percy's Life a Million Times.
I have said this already, but if anyone tries to tell me that Annabeth is whiny for wanting Percy at her side or completely dependent on him after this book, I will eat their young. Annabeth is a badass queen of everything, and she is positively brilliant and beautiful. She figured out how to communicate to the other side, set a plan in motion, and instinctively trusted that Rachel (forever crying about the blue hairbrush) would communicate to Reyna and the other leader would listen to her and get shit done. And the scene where she's trying to convince Damasen to help them out? Ugh, Annabeth, you are the actual greatest. You are the heart of this book, and the true leader.
P.S. I need to write fic from her POV while she blind and Calypso's curse was on her because OUCH MY OTP FEELINGS, OUCH MY ANNABETH ABANDONMENT COMPLEX.
Percy/Annabeth: Tartarus was terrible, but it actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be? I hope Percy and Annabeth have a bit more PTSD-related incidents in the next book because they're going to need it after going through all of that together.
And instead of waxing poetic about my OTP for the millionth time, I'm just going to post all my favorite pieces of dialogue and scenes between these two. There was SO MUCH Percy/Annabeth I didn't know what to do with myself. They are brilliant.
No, Percy, you don't get to be the self-sacrificing hero. ANNABETH KNOWS YOU TOO WELL TO LET YOU PULL THAT SHIT. And when are we going to get an I love you from Percy, huh? Annabeth has said it a million times and this kid just will not say it back, even though earlier he was all...
HE'S THINKING ABOUT HAVING HER BABIES. Christ, Percy, wait until the world is not ending to think about your future curly haired babies.
Just... leave me here to sob forever about Percy/Annabeth, you guys. I am useless to you.
Next book is The Blood of Olympus. I have no theories other than my paranoid fear that Reyna and Nico will not make it to the end, but I'm sure there are some good ones out there already.