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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 Half of his dialogue is some sort of outdated pop culture reference.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: Body shaming, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder
Minor: Child abuse
bookishmelissaa's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
funny
lighthearted
medium-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
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse and Death of parent
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: Emotional abuse, Gore, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting
greatexpectations77's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
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
4.75
This book is so much fun, and I totally see why everyone loves Rick Riordan. I'll be reading many more of his books in the future, but I want to wait a bit to savor them. What a beautiful book for young folks to read with nary a terf in sight.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Bullying, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Car accident, Death of parent, and Abandonment
Minor: Vomit
Would recommend as LGBTQ positive!livelaughomo's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Death of parent and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Body shaming and Vomit
limiwh's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Violence, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
jabberwalky's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse and Gaslighting
Moderate: Death of parent and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Grief
actualophelia's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Vomit
Moderate: Child abuse and Emotional abuse
Minor: Death and Death of parent
fiveredhens's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
i don't want someone's godly parent to have the hots for ppl the same age as their child. i also don't like singing but that's because i'm a downer
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent
Minor: Pedophilia
luluslittlelibrary's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Islamophobia, and Death of parent