Heroes of Olympus, The, Book Four: House of Hades, The-(new cover) (Heroes of Olympus, #4)

by Rick Riordan

The stakes have never been higher. If Percy Jackson and Annabeth fail in their quest, there'll be hell on Earth. Literally.

Wandering the deadly realm of Tartarus, every step leads them further into danger. And, if by some miracle they do make it to the Doors of Death, there's a legion of bloodthirsty monsters waiting for them.

Meanwhile, Hazel and the crew of the Argo II have a choice: to stop a war or save their friends. Whichever road they take one thing is certain - in the Underworld, evil is inescapable.

• ISBN10: 1368051715
• ISBN13: 9781368051712
• Publish Date: 24 September 2019 (first published 8 October 2013)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Hyperion
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 672
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781368051712

Reviews

[alindstadtcorbeax]

Star Rating: —> 5 Stars

FABULOUS RE-READ 18 Nov. 2021 !! .

This will always be my fav PJO/HOO novel.

[Steph L]

I need to give the world of Percy Jackson a break for a bit, but this book was so good!!!! My favorite so far.

[thepunktheory]

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of Rick Riordan's novel and a total sucker for Greek mythology.
I just love how he always comes up with something new and makes it his own. Even though some of the stories are well known, you will be surprised (and often amused) by what he makes of them!
Although this is already the fourth book in the series, it is still super exciting and never gets boring. At times I had the feeling that some tasks were almost completed too easily, I am prepared to overlook that tiny flaw.
The characters are all well written and I love that Riordan writes each chapter from another persons view. Thus, you get to know all of the heroes and kind of bond with each one of them.
You can clearly tell how much effort Rick Riordan puts in each one of his books and it definitely pays off.

So far I've loved all the Rick Riordan novel I laid eyes upon. The House of Hades is no exception! Fast paced, thrilling, exciting. What else could you wish for?

[ellieroth]

"My friends, tell the sun and the stars hello for me. And be strong. This may not be the last sacrifice you must make."

Tengo esta teoría desde que empecé Heroes of Olympus, y es que no puedo quitarme de la cabeza que si Leo Valdez en realidad fuera una chica, esta historia sería mucho mejor.

Explicaría porqué Calixto no habría podido salir de la isla con los otros héroes, más allá de que los dioses se hubieran olvidado de ella

Además no sólo una chica, sino también una discapacidatada, o sea siendo hija de Hephaestus, sería una buena representación del dios. Sin contar que tendríamos una latina, discapacitada y queer. Porque así le daría un poco más de sentido al complejo de inferioridad que suele mostrar Leo.

La historia la dejaría tal y como está, lo que nos daría en un momento un "triángulo amoroso" bisexual.

Supongo que esto es lo que pasa cuando me intereso demasiado en una historia y empiezo a ponerme meta.

[Nessa Luna]

In 2012 I first heard about the Percy Jackson series, a fictional series about the children of Greek Gods (aka demigods). I read the books and fell in love with the characters, the story, everything! Then, I found out there was a sequel series called The Heroes of Olympus, featuring old characters but also new characters. Including the most important: Jason, Piper, Leo, Hazel and Frank. These books feature more Greek (and also Roman) heroes, gods, monsters and much much more!

The House of Hades is the fourth book in the series. It starts off a couple of days (hours?) after Percy and Annabeth fell into Tartarus (which is like the worst part of Hell. It's the place where the monsters come from). The rest of the team doesn't know what to do after losing their 'leaders', but they decide to not let Percy and Annabeth's sacrifice be in vain. They travel from Italy to Greece - with several detours and monster attacks along the way - in order to close the Doors of Death. Meanwhile - in Tartarus - Percy and Annabeth are struggling to get to their side of the Doors, but they get help from some very unexpected companions.

Personally, I like the story of the Percy Jackson series better, but I like the writing style of these books more. The Heroes of Olympus books feel a lot more 'grown-up', or at least they feel more YA than the PJ books, which were definitely books for kids around the age of 12. I did enjoy these books though, because it was more of the Greek demigods which I love, and then with the Romans added made it even more awesome (okay technically, the Roman gods are the exact same as the Greek ones, except they have different names, and sometimes a god(dess) has one or two different 'powers' in Roman than they have in Greek).

My favourite chapters had to be the ones from Percy or Annabeth's POV, mainly because I wanted to know how their journey through Tartarus went. The descriptions of that place were incredibly awful though, and it made me a bit terrified. I probably wouldn't have been as brave as those two if I ended up in a place like that, also I probably would have died almost instantly. But Percy and Annabeth are of course 'professional' demigods, and they know how to fight and survive. Still, I was so afraid for them throughout the whole book, and I was so convinced something was going to go wrong.

The writing was, as usual, very good and I just couldn't stop reading. I guess I finished two/thirds of the story within this weekend, mainly because I hadn't read a thing during the previous week and I just wanted to finish a book. But the writing in THoH just made me want to read and read and read. I just love how Riordan is able to mix drama with humour, I have several quotes marked that just made me laugh out loud. I do believe that demigods have the worst luck EVER, because every time they seem to be safe, they get attacked by something else again. Maybe that's the problem of having such a big book, stuff needs to keep happening in order for it to be exciting. That was the only thing I didn't really like about this book - that a lot of the fights just seemed to be added to fill up the book and delay the demigods even further, ha ha ha!

In the end, I really really liked The House of Hades and I both can't and can wait to get my hands on the last book in this series, The Blood of Olympus. Then, after that I will pick up Riordan's new demigod series; Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard - YES, a book about Norse Goods, woohooooooo!

My opinion on this book in one gif: 

[Mercy]

Al final, el tío Rick siempre nos jode ¿No? En fin, otro buen libro de él :3

[Baroness Book Trove]

CAUTION! THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK ALREADY!!!!!!!

Okay first off I blew through this book in like three days. It was soo good and so totally different. We got to finally see in our minds what Tartarus is actually like. I never thought that Tartarus would actually be a body. Well Tartarus, the god Tartarus's body to be exact, I was happy to see Bob, the good Titan, again. Even if being in Tartarus he got his memories back but didn't return to being evil at all.

We also find out with why Nico is so grumpy and not very talkative with Annabeth anymore like he used to as a preteen. I had my suspicions that Nico might have liked liked Percy throughout the book but they were confirmed in this book by Cupid himself.

This book is really good and we learned a lot. Leo even visited Calypso and we learned what that line in the prophecy about a promise was really Leo promising Calypso to free her from her prison so that one day they could open up a car repair garage/food place.

A lot of the characters developed in this book. Leo's ADHD hasn't been too bad, Piper can charmspeak things to being actual living things while also learning how to fight, and being in Tartarus both changed Percy and Annabeth while growing them more together. Rick Riordan did just a good job on this book that I can't believe that we will only have one last book of Percy Jackson/the Heroes of Olympus books left. It is just so sad in my opinion as I love both book series and I just don't want it to end at all.

To read more of my book reviews please go to my blog: http://baronessbooktrove.blogspot.com

Gah! So good! The action, the characters, the FEELS! And BOB AND DAMASEN! But mostly Bob.
Full review coming soon. In short? Fantastic, like all of the other books.

[Sarah Says]

My Thoughts as a Fangirl:
LOOOOOOOVED IT!!!!! finished reading this book a few days ago and haven’t been able to bring myself to review it. I don’t know how to do this book justice. This book is brilliant. Well done Mr Riordan, you are awesome. I was thrown into a state of emotional shock and haven’t been able to pick up another book and move on yet. In the Heroes of Olympus series this is the fourth book, but if you read the whole Percy Jackson Saga it’s the Ninth. Please Mr Riordan get that final book out as fast as you can, I NEED it. I think I’ll have to reread ‘house of hades’ a few times between now and August to hold myself together.

My Thoughts as an adult (with a son who will be introduced to these books when he is the right age):
Thank You. Thank you for giving us heroes who deserve to be heroes. Thank you for giving us heroes from different backgrounds. THANK YOU for giving us heroes who have been pigeonholed as naughty kids. Heroes that are dyslexic and have ADHD. And THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for giving us a homosexual male hero, who is uncomfortable in his own skin and who feels he doesn’t fit it or belong. If more authors were to slip these things into their books, hidden so well the way you have the world would be a better place.
The story was full of action, adventure, love and accepting the truth. Enemies had to come together and new friends were made. There was comic relief in the form of Bob the titan and Little Bob the cat, which was needed after the intense maturing all the characters go through. A definite pleaser for teen or adult. There were struggles overcome and every one of the heroes shined and came into their own. Riordan has given us heroes to be proud of, all with different talents, all using them working together for the greater good.

Five Stars. Bring on the final instalment!

[Chelsea]

Well this book wasn’t surprising at all. It was as good as I expected it to be. There was lots of action and adventure, the same as always but it was the characters that really got me.

I love how we got to see more of Leo and Nico this time. They never really had any time in the spotlight. Nico especially. There was a pretty cool surprise about him. I found he’s getting better as a character now. Same with Leo. His little trip really helped him grow up a little and I think now he’s in the same league as the other characters. Hazel was a big part of this book too. She learns to use her magic which is was really cool. There’s always something new. I really loved that even though those characters were kind of spotlighted, you still got to see all the other characters. Percy and Annabeth were still around even though they were in Tartarus. Jason and Piper had their moments and even Frank and Hazel had some spotlight time.

The plot was really cool as always. Obviously there was a trip to the House of Hades, but there were a lot of little adventures too. I love that in every book we meet some new Gods and Goddesses. In this book, we met a whole bunch. I LOVED seeing how Tartarus works especially. It was probably the coolest part for me. There was a lot of monsters we’ve seen already but it was a whole new world basically.

I’d recommend this book to everyone! Every book is the same yet different. There’s always a new adventure!