ellaellaellaetc's Reviews (494)

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 

I LOVED this book. this is just such an amazing continuation of the story; the adventure is exciting, it continues on logically from the past few books and you can feel the tension and the stakes slowly starting to rise, we get the first battle and some more half-blood deaths, we really start to see Luke's point of view more and it sets up the final book fantastically. this was also just so funny! like this is nothing new but I always forget just how funny these books are until I reread them. petty bitchy annabeth is so fun to see and the development of her as percy's relationship is just...🤭❤️🤫🫶😚❤️‍🔥💅🥰🤪👍😌 had me giggling and swinging my legs! 

also I totally forgot about this but when she reveals the end of the prophecy "and to lose a love worse than death" it was actually about luke but she thought it was going to be percy?? when they split up?? and she kissed him😭😭😭 also all the pan stuff was better than I remembered and also the lead up to it (particularly when percy is cleaning up the horse shit from the ranch lmao) was nice to see upon reread

. always love to see tyson and moody nico and more of my fav mortal girl rachel. the flow of this story was also just amazing, it was just so tight and never felt clunky which is a problem I've been having recently with some books (cough cough sarah j maas). there was some random elements that didn't age well (harriet tubman being a daughter of hermes that used the labyrinth as the underground railroad?? what😭😭😭) and 

the part where percy goes to the forge and sees those telkhine dog things and the teacher randomly just explains exactly what they are, what they're doing and there evil plans by going "what do we want? to kill the gods!! and who do we serve?? Kronos!!" like that was laughably unsubtle I feel like there could have been a better way for percy to get that information lmao. also I love the addition of calypso and her story! and the ending with nico is great too (and his entire arc/storyline is fantastic) especially cause I know what he's talking about in that final scene.

  4.75 stars 

 okay lowkey this flopped😭😭 sorry😭😭 rick you know I love you but this is not your best work, and I don't just think that because I'm a percy and annabeth groupie!! this is the first book in the heroes of olympus series (next set of 5 books after pjo) and follows 3 new demigods piper, leo & amnesiac jason as they go on a quest to save hera to hopefully get questions on why the gods have been silent/if it's connected to percy being missing. reading this as an adult really opened my eyes to this being flop central. I still remember reading the first chapter of this on a plane in 2015 and being soooo confused and thinking that I bought the wrong book on my kindle but cause we were in the air I couldn't buy the real one😭😭 nonetheless I still enjoyed it. now on the other hand... I didn't find leo hopelessly falling in love with every girl he saw for more than half a second to be charming. I didn't find the plot device of jason passing out after every conflict to be engaging. I didn't find piper's major not-like-other-girls syndrome to be all that feminist. much like the kane chronicles, I think rick riordan/publishers misunderstood what people loved so much about pjo. the people want a slow burn. we want action and we want to see everyone slowly growing to care for each other. I think piper and jason's half-baked relationship was a great concept but executed so poorly, them just pining after each other the whole time was so boring. these guys didn't really feel like good friends in the same way that it did in the og series. everything was just a speed run.

also this is technically a spoiler but not really, the whole roman god stuff was so so obvious and the gang kept running into very obvious traps😭😭 I know that this also happens in the og series but idk maybe it's just more believable because the characters are a lot younger in the first series? idk. 

definitely worth it to read so we can get to mark of athena and house of hades but ngl this was a bit of a snoozefest and when I inevitably reread this series again I will most likely skip this book. 3 stars. 

 the mark of athena is just that girl I'm sorry I don't make the rules!! this is the third book of the the heroes of olympus series and once again I'm not going to explain what this is about I'm just going to review with full spoilers.

ahhhh I love this!! this was my favourite book of all time for quite a while and it's definitely my favourite of rick riordan's (it's also number 3 on my list of the top 100 books of the 21st century!!!)

this book is for the annabeth chase stans!!! finally getting annabeth pov after all this time is just... like I'm not kidding when I say that I reread the first few chapters of this book at least once a year, usually more😭😭 you get to know annabeth and watch her grow up with percy for YEARS and you slowly understand more of her backstory and the way she thinks. while percy really understands her, he's kinda stupid so getting a peek directly into her mind is just😭😭 like I can't even describe how much she means to me, I love this character 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹 

this book is just such a step up from the first two in the series! this was the first time I've read the books NOT immediately one after the other and I ragged on tlh especially because of that. reading this reminds me where everything was building up to!! (doesn't mean that the lost hero had to suck though... he still could have made it a good book...). seeing everyone interact once you've gotten to know the groups separately was such tea!! i remember being so gagged by the leo/sammy thing and all the drama it creates the first time I read it omgggg. and the moment where both percy and jason both try to sit at the head of the table before giving it up to annabeth? cinema. 

and guys.... the reunion scene?? I don't even think I could possibly explain my emotions in words. I have reread it many times over the years and the giggles that it still manages to ellict from me are not okay.

I think all of the sidequests/shenanigans that they have to do are peak in this book as well. narcissus + echo cameo with mcshizzle is obviously a classic, percy v jason possession fight is fucking sick, percy, frank & coach going to the aquarium (with frank turning into a goldfish) is comedy gold, the girlies having tea with aphrodite is such a slay, "oh no, frank is turning into a crazy dolphin" pirate robbery is cool, finally meeting hercules was fun and him being lowkey chill until he finds out that they were chosen to to the quest because of hera and makes everything really difficult for them and of course, the HBIC, the mark of athena quest itself. 

seeing annabeth on her own and problem solving is just so so sick😭😭 guys I love annabeth 😭😭😭 this is such a haunting quest and is such an in-depth look into her mind!! fuck she's awesome!! arachne is terrifying and annabeth doing her thing and tricking her to be the first child of athena to successfully complete the quest 🥲🥲🥲🥲the whole thing with the non-chinese handcuffs is such a cool callback and such smart idea (for both rick riordan and annabeth). 

this is probably just because I was rereading and knew what was coming but when she is rescued (or should I say when the statue is rescued) I could physically feel the relief in my body but also the slow sense of dread because you know that something horrific is about to happen😭😭 let's just say that I am so glad that I read these for the first time in 2015 and all the books were already out so I didn't have to wait a year to read house of hades😅😅

to me, this is a near perfect book for what it is and my only complaints are really stuff that are complaints about the series as a whole which are: piper is very not like other girls and annoying, the couples should have been slow burn/there was too much emphasis on the relationships, leo's behaviour around women makes me uncomfortable and coach hedge unnecessarily causes so many problems to the point where it gets really annoying. also this last one isn't a series critque but this book is set literally immediately after the son of neptune and frank all of a sudden has complete control over his powers??

final great things that didn't make it into my review to finish up: 
- the romans chasing them makes for a fun background conflict 
- reyna and annabeth conversation was great!! I love reyna in general and seeing these together was great!!
- annabeth's initial discomfort to percy fitting in with the romans SLAYS
- the argo II is such a cool ship!
- riordan humour is still there ladies and gentleman!! this is a funny book!!

 

I think that's all I can be bothered to say rn but if you want to talk to me about this pls lmk and I will monologue at you for as long as you allow me to. 5 stars 

 oh god. um. okay. so. in my head, mark of athena only narrowly beat out this book as best rick riordan/pjo verse book but um. yeah. upon reread this actually did not hit unfortunately. trust me, no one is more disappointed than myself. I don't even know how to explain it guys but it's just the truth :/// like I was just eagerly waiting for it to slay and then it just didn't. (SPOILERS AHEAD BUT YOU KNOW THAT ALREADY)

for one, slogging through the the seven not in tartarus was highkey boring but I lowkey expected that. what I was not expecting was to be lowkey bored during the percy and annabeth povs😭😭 huh😭😭 sure, there's a bunch of really cool and memorable moments in the book but for the most part I was a bit let down. idk if it's cause my expectations were just too high but idk. was not super impressed :// 3.5 stars