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_ren's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Child abuse
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Mental illness
Minor: Death of parent
swiftie_bookworm's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
slow-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? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Car accident, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Death, Gaslighting, Murder, and Death of parent
jasmineslibraryy's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
reread 🤲
apollo is a little annoying but he’s also funny as hell and he would love taylor swift. also WILL + NICO <3 and i forgot how much i love meg
speed run finishing the series before i get my goblin hands on the sun and the star 💫
apollo is a little annoying but he’s also funny as hell and he would love taylor swift. also WILL + NICO <3 and i forgot how much i love meg
speed run finishing the series before i get my goblin hands on the sun and the star 💫
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Vomit, Physical abuse, Murder, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Torture, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death of parent, Death, Child abuse, and Animal death
Moderate: Kidnapping
Minor: Child death, Cursing, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Colonisation
all the traditional percy jackson warningsmengzhenreads's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
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
4.0
This is honestly the funniest series out of the Riordanverse. Something about Apollo's self-centered narration and the haikus at the beginning of every chapter just make this book golden, and really makes his development as a character really heartfelt. It's not nearly as iconic as Heroes of Olympus or Magnus Chase, but it's still pretty damn good.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Death of parent and Murder
finnft4's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
This one was silly. After reading the whole book, that's the one word I can use to describe it: it's just ridiculous. It's not as corrosive as some of the reviews had me believe, but it's just so tiresome.
I mean, it's very similar to how I felt about Blood of Olympus, which I already don't like. It feels like this book was written shortly after that one, in a not great way. They both have very similar issues.
Apollo as a narrator is a bit fun. Then it gets tiring. Half of his dialogue is some sort of outdated pop culture reference. Some people complained about his bisexuality being preachy and overdone at times, but it only felt really intolerable at maybe one certain passage. Some other times felt unnecessary, but they were negligible. And I appreciate the effort. As for his personality, he sort of goes back and forth between being a narcissist and then 180-ing into feeling completely worthless, neither with cool-down. His sudden care for other people that springs out near the middle of the book feels very fast, especially with how comically high his ego was at the start. But not to worry. A couple of throwaway "I'm still the best" lines solves that problem immediately /s. Apollo is egotistical, but not in a particularly entertaining way. And this isn't an archetype problem either. I love egotistical asshole characters; one of my favorite characters period is Emperor Kuzco from the cultural masterpiece ENG. The difference between the two is that Kuzco, even though he displays very similar behavior to Apollo, is extremely entertaining without being annoying. Kuzco also has lower depths of assholery than Apollo (that he still BELIEVABLY grows from), who just occasionally thinks back on the times when he had little regard for mortal lives and then goes, "that was a bad thing to do". Such moral complexity /s. Apollo has his moments, but he failed to be a super engaging character to me. Because of that, I really didn't care about the story (which is not solely his fault, either: story and its characters are just boring).
It's strange. I don't hate the book. I dislike it, I guess...? I just have absolutely zero feelings on it solely because of how disengaged I was with it. I didn't care for any character. Most of them act the exact same. The only time I did was when a character was being especially annoying. Those were the two personalities in this book - nothing or obnoxious. There were some fun comic relief moments between the campers occasionally, but it's not enough to save anything lmao. Honestly, a meteor could've hit Camp Half-Blood and killed all the major characters in this book, and I would have absolutely no reaction. I was completely stone-faced most of the time while reading. The villain is also a Redditor, which is really the nail in the coffin.
Plot-wise, nothing particularly interesting or notable happened in this book. Everything felt like something I've already read in another book - a book that did it in a better, more interesting way. There were some moments that were a bit funny (a lot of the moments intended to be funny felt annoying), but it mostly felt like that hazy feeling you get when zoning out. Which I did a lot while reading this. For such a short book, I took a lot of breaks from reading it. The main thing that kept me going was the fact that my next book is a Magnus Chase one (I LOVED the first one, so thinking about this helped tremendously) and the hope that the rest of this series will be better. I don't really care to finish it, but I will, just because I bought the rest of the pentalogy. It’ll probably get better based on the general trend of the ratings but as of now it’s mediocre. And I suppose you could call me ridiculous because I'm a 17-year-old criticizing a middle-grade book, but I'll remind you I'm one cynical POS and this is just my nature. I still think the author's good, and overall his books are some of the best I've read - they're all fun, even the weaker ones. I just enjoy things by picking them apart lmao. Anyway, after my MCGA break is the Dark Prophecy, which is rated even worse than this. So jazzed /s
I mean, it's very similar to how I felt about Blood of Olympus, which I already don't like. It feels like this book was written shortly after that one, in a not great way. They both have very similar issues.
Apollo as a narrator is a bit fun. Then it gets tiring. Half of his dialogue is some sort of outdated pop culture reference. Some people complained about his bisexuality being preachy and overdone at times, but it only felt really intolerable at maybe one certain passage. Some other times felt unnecessary, but they were negligible. And I appreciate the effort. As for his personality, he sort of goes back and forth between being a narcissist and then 180-ing into feeling completely worthless, neither with cool-down. His sudden care for other people that springs out near the middle of the book feels very fast, especially with how comically high his ego was at the start. But not to worry. A couple of throwaway "I'm still the best" lines solves that problem immediately /s. Apollo is egotistical, but not in a particularly entertaining way. And this isn't an archetype problem either. I love egotistical asshole characters; one of my favorite characters period is Emperor Kuzco from the cultural masterpiece ENG. The difference between the two is that Kuzco, even though he displays very similar behavior to Apollo, is extremely entertaining without being annoying. Kuzco also has lower depths of assholery than Apollo (that he still BELIEVABLY grows from), who just occasionally thinks back on the times when he had little regard for mortal lives and then goes, "that was a bad thing to do". Such moral complexity /s. Apollo has his moments, but he failed to be a super engaging character to me. Because of that, I really didn't care about the story (which is not solely his fault, either: story and its characters are just boring).
It's strange. I don't hate the book. I dislike it, I guess...? I just have absolutely zero feelings on it solely because of how disengaged I was with it. I didn't care for any character. Most of them act the exact same. The only time I did was when a character was being especially annoying. Those were the two personalities in this book - nothing or obnoxious. There were some fun comic relief moments between the campers occasionally, but it's not enough to save anything lmao. Honestly, a meteor could've hit Camp Half-Blood and killed all the major characters in this book, and I would have absolutely no reaction. I was completely stone-faced most of the time while reading. The villain is also a Redditor, which is really the nail in the coffin.
Plot-wise, nothing particularly interesting or notable happened in this book. Everything felt like something I've already read in another book - a book that did it in a better, more interesting way. There were some moments that were a bit funny (a lot of the moments intended to be funny felt annoying), but it mostly felt like that hazy feeling you get when zoning out. Which I did a lot while reading this. For such a short book, I took a lot of breaks from reading it. The main thing that kept me going was the fact that my next book is a Magnus Chase one (I LOVED the first one, so thinking about this helped tremendously) and the hope that the rest of this series will be better. I don't really care to finish it, but I will, just because I bought the rest of the pentalogy. It’ll probably get better based on the general trend of the ratings but as of now it’s mediocre. And I suppose you could call me ridiculous because I'm a 17-year-old criticizing a middle-grade book, but I'll remind you I'm one cynical POS and this is just my nature. I still think the author's good, and overall his books are some of the best I've read - they're all fun, even the weaker ones. I just enjoy things by picking them apart lmao. Anyway, after my MCGA break is the Dark Prophecy, which is rated even worse than this. So jazzed /s
CURRENT RANKING
[1] PJO: The Last Olympian
[2] HoO: The House of Hades
[3] HoO: The Mark of Athena
[4] MCGA: The Sword of Summer
[5] PJO: The Lightning Thief
[6] PJO: The Titan's Curse
[7] HoO: The Son of Neptune
[8] PJO: The Battle of the Labyrinth
[9] HoO: The Lost Hero
[10] PJO: The Sea of Monsters
[11] HoO: The Blood of Olympus
[1] PJO: The Last Olympian
[2] HoO: The House of Hades
[3] HoO: The Mark of Athena
[4] MCGA: The Sword of Summer
[5] PJO: The Lightning Thief
[6] PJO: The Titan's Curse
[7] HoO: The Son of Neptune
[8] PJO: The Battle of the Labyrinth
[9] HoO: The Lost Hero
[10] PJO: The Sea of Monsters
[11] HoO: The Blood of Olympus
[12] ToA: The Hidden Oracle
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting
Moderate: Death of parent, Murder, Body shaming, and Violence
Minor: Child abuse
pertinent_sonder's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
It's fascinating to me how Rick Riordan manages to make me laugh even in the most tense parts of his books.
Apollo's character is really interesting. In the beginning he's pretty stuck up and self-centred. Soon though, he comes to terms with the mistakes he's made and the defects in his character. It's a pretty face-paced book and is only the first of a series, so I'm eager to see how this character arc proceeds.
All I can say for Meg right now is that she's cute and I hope she finds lovable people at CHB!
Apollo's character is really interesting. In the beginning he's pretty stuck up and self-centred. Soon though, he comes to terms with the mistakes he's made and the defects in his character. It's a pretty face-paced book and is only the first of a series, so I'm eager to see how this character arc proceeds.
All I can say for Meg right now is that she's cute and I hope she finds lovable people at CHB!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, and Murder
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