A review by katymul
The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan

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? It's complicated

5.0

Like all of the books in the Heroes of Olympus quintet, this book is doing a lot, and I'm continually impressed by how well it all works together.

The boldest move is probably turning the heroic pair (you can't say trio with Grover deep in the background of the story) from the first quintet, the central relationship and moral core of the Riordan-verse in many ways, PERCABETH THEMSELVES, into a minor plot about their respective and shared PTSD from Tartarus (and everything else). Letting ANNABETH AND PERCY be openly broken (not completely, never completely) at key moments and have to rely on others felt like a really powerful statement. They were still useful, and they were still wonderful, and they were even moreso heroes. But they felt truly scarred for the first time in ten books, and that felt important.

Also, and this may just be me being weird but

were Annabeth and Percy actually in The Seven? The words of prophecy mention seven half-bloods answering the call, but mostly Annabeth and Percy were just trying to get back to each other, right? And "To storm or fire the world must fall" is definitely Leo, Piper, and Jason (and their tragically faked-by-Hera friendship being the key to this is just...so tragically lovely), but the last two lines are "an oath to keep with a final breath" (which kinda gets Hazel and Frank as well as Leo depending on how you look at his stick and her resurrection, right?) "and foes bear arms to the Doors of Death" which yes, references Damasen and Bob...but also Annabeth and Percy? Like, they are definitely part of the prophecy, but what if they are only referenced in the last line and it's Reyna and Nico who make up the seven? Don't they better fit definitions of Answering the Call? And they are way more important in this book but...okay I'm gonna stop being weird now.

There were a lot of fight scenes (as usual) and bigger than ever before by the end (in every way), but most of this book actually hung on the complicated emotional work being negotiated by the demigods along the way. Everything was set up for the trap on Gaia

(and Octavian)

, and that was enjoyable to watch, but the difficult sacrifices willingly made are set up over a series of harrowing choices and unlikely bonds between a Greek echo of an old friend and two Very Roman leaders; between a lonely child of Hades and a girl with even more ghosts than he can handle, who managed not only to unite the Amazons and Hunters of Artemis but

to earn the blessing at once of Athena and the war goddess Bellona who replaced Athena's warlike aspect in the Roman Pantheon

. And then the Hera-inflicted relationship and friendship of Piper, Jason, and Leo prove its mettle under literal fire, forged strong despite their Mist-y origins into a true and unbreakable bond...

Well done, Uncle Rick. Again.