A review by divyatejas_venkatesh
The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? No

5.0

 This book is unlike the previous books. This is little slow paced compared to the previous books. But it is also has more descriptions and background stories and emotions. The background stories are the best in this book. It is like we are waiting to see the background stories of the characters and also the stories are not disappointing like some books. Humour in the book is the best so far i have read in the series. Coach Gleeson hedge is the humourous character created by Rick Riordan. The Jason-Percy duo is the best, in both terms of fun and action. I totally loved the book. This is the best of the books i have read by Rick Riordan all the stuff like thrill,emotions, humour, sentiment,backstory,adventure all are in appropriate proportions, which makes the book very spellbinding to read

  I hate it when the author gives spoilers. The biggest spoiler is given in the cover page of the book itself, though i love the cover page. It clearly shows that annebeth is going to have a fight with a spider. Even when percy hears in the shadow there is not much revealed, we know it is going to be spiders annebeth is going to fight against but knowing completely how it looks is really disappointing. Though the image given in the cover page is inappropriate as it has only two eyes but in story Arachne has four eyes(which is a major wrong by the design team).One more biggest drawback this series is that we know that any of the main character is not going to die whatsoever, which itself makes us not needed to be brace ourself for what is going to happen as no one is going to die whatever big challenging enemy pops out and surprises them. They will be knocked out and they will have some ambrosia and necter and they are ready to go for the next fight. Only thing he killed is dragon Festus, but that is also deemed to die from the beginning as it is so damaged from the start. The end was amazing I didn't expect they will fall into tartarus pit. I thought they would come out of the quest vitorious as usual. That twist is the reason i am rating this book 5 or else i would have rated it four stars. Coach Glesson Hedge's character is the most interesting of all the characters in the book, his character is the most humourous creation by Rick Riordan in the books so far.