Reviews with content warning for Suicide - The Blood of Olympus

For the most part, I loved this book. Especially getting to read from Nico and Reyna's POVs. Also this is the first time I've ever laughed out loud at some joke in a book (the Nike one), so points for that.

A spoilery rant on the few parts I didn't like:

My biggest complaint is that it's supposed to be "bigger than the Titan War" and yet nobody dies?? Well, none of the main seven anyways. Miss Mother Earth wakes up for like 5 seconds and goes back to sleep when she hears a lullaby. It just felt really underwhelming. I'm not a big fan of the resurrection trope and it was used here -- which I wouldn't have minded if Leo and Calypso had any actual chemistry but noooo insta love. They should've stayed friends imo. Leo could've still sworn on the Styx and rescued her without them being in a relationship. And then in the upcoming months when they explore the world outside Ogygia together, trying to find their way back to CHB, and they develop feelings for each other, then maybe that would've been much more believable.

The final battle with Gaea should've been all seven together, it's "seven half-bloods shall answer the call", not three. And why did it happen to be Jason, Piper, and Leo, who are also my least favourite characters out of the seven? Frank and Hazel were pretty much useless after the Son of Neptune and I hate that because they're such cool characters. But why was Annabeth left out of this? I get that Percy needs to learn to step back and let others be at the front line but come on-

The inclusion of Percy and Annabeth's POVs would've saved this book for me but alas. I really wanted to know how those two were keeping up after Tartarus.

I admit I was a bit sceptical about Solangelo in this one but spoilers for Trials of Apollo series: since they end up being so cute in ToA and also become one of my otps, I don't mind it.

This series had potential, especially with how House of Hades became one of my all time faves, but it feels like potential was more or less wasted solely because of the climax. The character dynamics weren't as great as PJO either. Overall, I felt a little bummed after reading five huge books to witness an ending that made be go "...that's it?" But hey, I'm a big sucker for anything Rick puts out so I loved it. Except the ending.

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madflatt's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

rayne_1906's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

4 hours 24 minutes - I cannot even describe how I am feeling after finishing this book. I haven't felt this sort of strange emptiness after finishing a book in a long time. The book started off a similar way to the others in this series, a sequence of discrete events in an overall quest. However, like the previous book, the POVs followed two separate groups of people, which created greater tension. It also introduced two new POVs, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed. I was slightly disappointed that Percy didn't get a POV but I think this may have been a good decision in some ways. If too many characters were given POVs in a single book, the plot would have been harder to follow, and by omitting Percy and Annabeth, it sort of became less of the 'Percy Jackson show' and more of a found family, which is something I always really love. By the middle of this book, I was completely hooked, and I couldn't put it down. When I was approaching the very end, I didn't want it to end at all. I wanted to keep reading and reading, and I felt so attached to all of the characters, it felt really emotional. And that final chapter, and the very end was such an amazing way to finish an action-packed series. I would say this is the best book in the series.

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