A review by natdeve
The Blood of Olympus, by Rick Riordan

adventurous

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Spoiler

i have never in my life written a full book review but i have no choice here i simply have too many things to say

the more i think about this book the more annoyed i get because the main conflict of gaia waking was built up for 5 whole books just for the resolution to be a few lines of charmspeak from piper telling her to take a nap and then it Works?? what happened to the if-gaia-wakes-up-the-world-is-over plot?? she woke up and then all it took was piper saying "hey bestie u look tired maybe u should go to sleep"

and WHY did only 3/7 of the seven demigods have a pov?? i love reyna and nico but whats the point of introducing two new povs in the fifth and final book? if we were meant to know more about their backstories i feel like we should've done that 3 or 4 books ago lol. and nico's backstory is already pretty much known from pjo so making his arc in this series just "im gay and i have no friends" feels so mean especially since no one's ever even pushed him away or resented him for anything so there was really no reason for any of that anyway

this series is clearly supposed to be about the seven demigods in the prophecy so why were they all sidelined in this ???? i get that percy and annabeth had huge roles in MoA and HoH but they had NONE in this one which is even more annoying considering that the series capitalizes off of percys popularity from pjo with the cover literally saying "percy jackson's final battle begins"?? he doesnt even have a pov in this how is it HIS battle ? sally jacksons son doesnt deserve this treatment

hazel and frank had almost no role in this series after son of neptune and it makes me so sad bc i love them. frank's whole arc of him connecting his family's circle by going back to greece and then we don't even get to see it happen is so ?!?!?!!! and the only info we get on it is that his family is racist?:??/? HUH??? and i know that hazel had her magic/mist stuff in HoH but it wasnt even important in this book except as a crutch for everyone else to fall back on in battles

and another thing!!!!! WHY was the last chapter about LEO AND CALYPSO/??? the series is called heroes of olympus and surrounds the prophecy of the SEVEN only for them to be completely forgotten bc the only arc rick could think to give leo was straight horny teenage boy. very SJM-esque in the sense that the author couldn't go without making every character end up with someone and it was painfully obvious and out of place. it also feels so disrespectful to the rest of the seven that leo and calypso didnt even plan on going straight home after leaving ogygia while everyone at camp half blood is literally MOURNING his death

the only reason im complaining so much is bc i loved this series as a whole and the fact that i hated the finale so much makes me so :((( i really wanted this to end on a huge note but every time i picked up the book it took everything in me to get to the next chapter because it was so boring and the only thing keeping me going was that i assumed the ending would be huge but then That was boring too :(

i think i would probably give this 1 star but the percabeth "the rivalry ends here" scene at the Parthenon lives in my brain and 1 star would be disrespectful to them