Reviews with content warning for Outing - The House of Hades

This is my least favorite Rick Riordan book. The two big issue I had were Percy and Nico. For a while Percy starts to shows signs that he's beginning to become like Luke. He scared the crap out of me and this is never addressed in this book or the finale. Then there's Nico. Where to start? Well, first there's the fact that he suddenly lost the ability to interact with people who weren't Percy. In the previous series we've seen him get along ok with others. Him suddenly becoming a creep made no sense to me. The there the "big reveal", which is that he's gay. This part was awful. He is forcibly outed by a god. I know that it's shown as a wrong thing for Cupid to do, but that is a bit lost when it feels like the whole reveal of him being gay was meant to shock readers. NO! I might not like Nico as a character, but this was just wrong. The rest of the book was ok, although I didn't care for the part where Leo ends up on Calypso's island. Oh, and I don't get why Calypso would curse Annabeth. She had no hostility towards Percy in the end, it also just makes her seem petty. Percy wasn't the first guy she fell for that would have ended up with someone else. Not by a mile. So did she curse the others too? Also, if she's willing to stand up for the Olympians, the very people who imprisoned her in the first place, then why would she do that?
Ok. . . NOW my little rant is over.

Content Warnings

hales_1243's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

finnft4's review against another edition

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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

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 😭