Reviews with content warning for Death - The House of Hades

Reviews tagging 'Death'

The House of Hades by Rick Riordan

49 reviews

caitcosentino's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

This might be my favorite one yet in this series. (It's a tie with Son of Neptune.) This one really rolled back all the lame character undevelopment in the last one (Mark of Athena).
Frank finally had a personality again, Leo wasn't annoying, and even Coach Hedge developed.
I think it worked well that Annabeth and Percy had a separate storyline from the others. It allowed for everyone to have more significant screentime and not fall into background characters.

Truly adored Bob and Damasen.

The scene with Jason & Nico where Nico confesses his crush on Percy was heartwrenching and beautiful and powerful.

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bexi's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny 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? It's complicated

4.25

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limiwh's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-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

4.5

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ellenisntcool's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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dottiewankenobi's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense medium-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

3.0

This wasn’t my first time reading this book but I can’t recall how I’ve previously rated it. I’m giving it a 3 stars rating this time because while I found certain things entertaining and have a lot of lines that I enjoyed, on the whole I didn’t have a fun time rereading. This addition to the series is very formulaic — a bad guy comes and threatens the characters. Immediately, at least 2 are knocked out or otherwise incapacitated during the fight so that this time, X and maybe Y can show their skills. (Jason especially is collecting TBIs.) Only, oh no! The bad guy is so powerful our characters can’t possibly defeat them by themselves! Time to come up with some witty stalling method (special favorites are: calling the baddie stupid names, catering to what they want to hear, saying something stupid like “your shoes are ugly!”). Then they outwit the baddie, have 15 minutes of rest, and then the cycle starts over.

It got very frustrating to say the least.

Another note is that while I love the seven and their related characters, there’s just too many of them.

There are large parts of this book where Piper is lucky to be mentioned in the background. Jason is finally getting characterization in book 4. Leo’s whole (contrived, annoying) love story has to happen and be believable in 4 chapters (it isn’t). Coach Hedge sure is there… in the background, only getting characterization that isn’t “die monster scum!!” when it can be shoehorned in. Percy and Annabeth spend the whole book depressed and suicidal, and like, that’s it. Nico is the Scary One until he’s outed and after that, he’s just hopelessly and bitterly pining for Percy. Frank is useless, and then his dad is incapacitating him, and then he’s kind of useless again, and then he’s not. I did find Hazel interesting thank god.

I really prefer the first series in this way, because each of the characters are given time to breathe and grow and feel real. In this series, every piece of them we get is forgotten or taken too far as soon as we switched POVs. (Seriously someone please describe Leo as anything other than heartsick after he returns. We get it. Also does anyone remember by the end that Piper has been feeling insecure in herself?)

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