Reviews tagging 'War'

The House of Hades by Rick Riordan

16 reviews

elliott_the_clementine's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Death, War, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse and Abandonment

Minor: Racism and Sexism

theintrovertsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Vomit, Outing, Murder, Mental illness, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Death of parent, Deadnaming, Cannibalism, Abandonment, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Grief, Blood, Violence, War, Torture, Body horror, and Animal death

grboph's review

adventurous funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This one took me a really long time to get through, but it was another good installment in the series. I was definitely rooting for the characters all the way through, and I loved Frank's and Leo's character development. I'd recommend this to any fan of adventure stories or anyone who is into this series already.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Gore

chronicacademia's review

adventurous funny slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Sexism, War, Abandonment, Bullying, Death, Outing, and Violence

nellienelson's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Safe to say that Rick Riordan is one of the best authors to ever exist and every book I read of him makes me want to read more. It’s so wonderful how he’s able to creature characters with their own unique and deep personalities and make them work together and towards a shared goal. It’s simply amazing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

Moderate: Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Murder, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

musicalizzy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: War and Death

gabyhs's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Abandonment, Blood, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, War, Death, Torture, and Violence

finnft4's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

It's harder to judge this one since it's SO different from the other books. The books have gotten dark, but nowhere near this book's level. I probably still like The Last Olympian more, marginally - just because I like how final everything feels. As the 4th book of the series? It's great. It's so dark, gripping, and tense that it's hard to believe it's marketed towards such a young audience.

And at this point, the characters are definitely starting to click more for me, now. My favorite is definitely Leo. I like Percy and Annabeth a lot more than I thought I would when I started the series. I think they're a bit boring at times, but this book definitely strengthened them for me.

(I go into spoiler territory below here.)

RANKING
[1] PJO: The Last Olympian
[2] HoO: The House of Hades
[3] HoO: The Mark of Athena
[4] PJO: The Lightning Thief
[5] PJO: The Titan's Curse
[6] HoO: The Son of Neptune
[7] PJO: The Battle of the Labyrinth
[8] HoO: The Lost Hero
[9] PJO: The Sea of Monsters
[10] HoO: The Blood of Olympus

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing, Death, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: War and Murder

Minor: Death of parent

Annabeth and Percy in Tartarus was an insanely interesting plot line. Annabeth's outsmarting tricks were cool at first, but at a certain point it just became unbelievable how gullible the monsters were. Absolutely not a book-ruiner, though.

Bob and Damasen were absolutely fantastic. I didn't get that emotional over their sacrifices, but they were incredible nonetheless, and it was still emotional. Percy and Annabeth reflecting on whether they're really "the good guys" added a lot of moral complexity that I appreciated. The moments where Percy exhibits uncharacteristic violence are surprisingly dark for the demographic. I did read one review for this book that called it his "bully Maguire arc" which made me laugh a lot. Still. The fact that he scared Annabeth into crying was so powerful, and his arc with Bob really makes you question who is "good" and who is "evil." Complexity. And the two of them facing so many curses for all the monsters they killed, man... I didn't think the book would take that route. I'm absolutely not complaining, though. I'm SHOCKED by how dark some of this stuff got.

I'm glad to see my homeguy Leo get some development. Same for Frank and Hazel; they were dope as fuck in this book. Even Jason was more tolerable than usual (I don't have anything serious against him; I just find him boring).

I probably have to mention this, but I was NOT a fan of the Cupid scene. I heard some people mention it before reading, so I knew it was coming, but JESUS CHRIST. I really didn't like it. Though I'll keep in mind that this book was published in 2013. But I'm perfectly fine reading books without OUTING, thanks. Being LGBT+, it was extremely uncomfortable. I get that it's just a product of the times, though, and this was probably a crazy moment when the book initially came out. On that note, I'm glad people were able to find Nico relatable. I mean, I do, to an extent, with his mannerisms and touch aversion. But I don't think the scene should be treated as a super heroic and brave moment for Nico - and generally good queer representation to begin with. He was outed by this dumbass loser of a god (but I thought the message about love being painful was interesting) who refused to give them information if he didn't, while continuously berating him for being cowardly in the process. It wasn't a consensual thing. How Jason handled it was mostly fine, other than the one line he said to Nico about him "not even trying" after he isn't ready to tell other people that was pretty fucked up. And holy shit I wish the fandom would stop infantilizing him 😭

majakrmer's review against another edition

medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, War, Outing, and Blood

Minor: Animal death and Fire/Fire injury

ripxw's review

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War

Minor: Violence