“Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what's left and live it properly. What doesn't transmit light creates its own darkness.”

Stars (Out of 10): 8/10 Stars

Overall Thoughts: I am officially in love with these series, and now both Magnus Chase and this series are tied for my favorite Riordan series. Almost everything I disliked about having the conceited Apollo as a narrator was changed in this novel, and I completely feel and cheer for Apollo now, rather than kinda being eh about the whole thing like I was for book 1. If anyone felt put off by parts of book 1, I heavily recommend to at least read this next book and see if you still dislike the series, as this was definitely a step up from book 1 and made me really enjoy the series.

The Good: Holy character development, this series is a fantastic example so far of how to properly make your characters change and learn. Additionally, love the hints at the old crew, had a super interesting plot, and also seemed to really well weave into current events (mentions of Pokemon Go + exploding Note 7’s made it truly feel like these demigods are in our world.)

The Bad: I wasn’t always the biggest fan of the silly jokes (such as ones related to farts and other body related humor), but I guess it is middle grade! But this book did see an increase in other humor, which I enjoyed more.

SPOILERS BEGIN HERE

The Characters: While in the beginning I wasn’t the biggest fan of how “weak” or useless everyone felt, and how much everything seemed to be based on pure luck, that ended up changing quite early on as more characters with combat based skills entered the scene, and as Apollo himself became more useful in other ways (and in combat more as well.) But my most favorite thing was definitely the character development we saw in Apollo, and how depth was added to both his backstory, and to Meg and the rest of the side characters as well. Overall, there was just tons added to all the characters, and they feel more real with more real relationships (realistic romantic issues, deep back stories that seem to actual matter in the character’s later personalities, etc.)

The Plot: I actually loved the plot more than some of the plots of other Riordan books, even though it does share the trait of impossible situations somehow being solved that sometimes makes the plot unrealistic, I liked the actual attachment the hero had to the villain. It always makes a battle mean more when it creates a struggle within the hero, and we saw that with the prior attachment Apollo had with Commandus!

The Favorite Character: Apollo grew to be my fav in this book (+ Lit, wanna see how he grows from his evil ways.)

This review can also be found on my blog: https://paragraphsandpages.wordpress.com/