okay I'm as extremely obsessed with percy Jackson as the next girl but this one did not hit upon reread 😅😅 both times I've read percy jackson before this (first read in 2015 and first reread in 2018) I read pretty much all 5 books in like a week-ish and therefore was finishing one book and then immediately starting the next one. reading them each in more isolation has given me a better view on the book individually and this did not hold up whoopsie. i understand the need for the book, like

(SPOILERS incase you still haven't read these lol) seeing percy without annabeth and him being stupid cause he's insecure about thalia so that he can have an actual arc but it was just annoying to me. the lead up to thalia joining the hunters was not there and the prophecy was not as cryptic as the others, like i remember reading it for the first time and being like oh it's obvious what is going to happen whereas for the first book the prophecy didn't make sense until afterwards. i also just love annabeth so much and this book really proves how essential she is to all the quests lol. also why did they meet so many gods this book? usually I like the god + goddess appearances but it felt like too much this book, it felt like they were constantly being saved and getting taken west but random gods rather than making their own way like the first book and the sea of monsters which felt like such a medley of random monsters and actually felt so adventurous. okay onto what I did like: slay nico's entrance, literally love that guy, especially love the part when he finds out about bianca 🥲🥲🥲 would have loved some more development on their love for each other though cause I feel like I remembered it being more, didn't get much from bianca but ig she also died lol. the individual appearances of the gods were also good, i just wish they weren't all in one book (aphrodite and apollo's cameos were my personal faves). the grey streaks of hair #slay (THIS LOVE LEFT A PERMANENT MARK) and also percy realising that maybe he isn't the best person for the job all the time character growth, when he holds the sky to let artemis take over that was so slay. zoë is such a fun character also! and the part when thalia just kicks luke off the cliff is so good. also this book was just really funny, all the books are hilarious but I found this one especially so (apollo's haikus??? the statues that party???? nico at the beginning annoying percy??? and also just so many little moments and off-hand comments that just add to the humour and vibe of the whole book.

anyway this was a partial slay, i definitely understand the need for this book and it did what it had to do but it will go down as my least favourite from the original pjo series. still a 3.75 stars though