The Blood of Olympus (Heroes of Olympus, #5)

by Rick Riordan

[Nessa Luna]

At the beginning of this year, I started reading the Heroes of Olympus series - a companion series to the Percy Jackson series that I'd read and loved the years before. I didn't fall in love with this series immediately - mostly because I missed the old characters (even though most of them made appearances in this first book) - but I enjoyed it very much. Then, as I read on, I started to love this series more and more. A couple of days ago I finally started reading the last book in this series, and let me tell you: Oh my gods! 

At the end of The House of Hades the group found Percy and Annabeth at the doors of death, and Nico, Reyna and Coach Hedge decided to take the Athena Parthenos to Camp Half-Blood. In The Blood of Olympus we follow both groups as they struggle to get to their destination - being chased by venti, challenged by goddesses and hunted by giants. They need to find where Gaia is being resurrected, but of course - that is not an easy job when you're a demigod.

I personally really loved this book, very very much. The last book in the Percy Jackson series - The Last Olympian - was mostly about the battle in New York, I seriously think half of that book was filled with battle, and it got a bit annoying after a while. BoO is filled with more quests and trouble, and while I also find that a slight bit annoying (so many delays whyyyyyyy), it was also very exciting, because what will happen next - who will they have to find/fight next?

My personal favourite part was the part where they had to find and capture Nike, goddess of victory. For some reason she reminded me of the White Witch in Narnia, on her chariot demanding the demigods fight each other and see who was victorious - Greek or Roman.

The final battle - or well battles, seeing as there were two - where exciting and thrilling and all of the above, I just couldn't stop reading. I was in bed last night trying to finish the book before 12 because I really really needed to sleep before 12 because I had to get up at 7 today. But I hadn't expected the ending to be that sad, so instead of sleeping I sat in my bed sobbing for a while. I won't spoil anything, obviously, and honestly I had seen it coming, but oh my gods it was just so effing sad.

Characterwise, I think my favourites were definitely Leo, Piper and Reyna. I had liked Leo since the first book already, and he just grew on me more throughout the series. He was the comic relief, but he was also more than that. He was the incredible inventor who created so many things, heck he built the Argo II, and Festus and all those amazing things that saved the Demigods' lives throughout this entire series. When he died I got so sad I sobbed for the rest of the book. But I kept hope, and eventually he ended up not being dead. I had never been so happy! Honestly I wasn't that surprised he was still alive, because he had a promise to keep to Calypso, but yeah you know I was a bit afraid. Piper was just so cool, for a daughter of Aphrodite (just kidding); her charmspeak got so much better in this series, she was able to used it on gods and goddesses, something the Piper from The Lost Hero probably wouldn't have been able to do. (They all just grew so much in this series, but Piper's growth was amazing, I loved that battle between her and Khione and those two dudes whose name I kept on forgetting).

And Reyna, oh gods - I didn't like her that much when we first met her, mainly because she just seemed so... cold. I honestly didn't really know what to think of her, but in this book we got to read from her POV, and we got to know more about her past and I just started liking her more and more. It's save to say she's one of my favourite characters in this series now - and that's counting PJO.

I heard from a lot of people that they hated the fact that this book didn't have any chapters from Percy or Annabeth's POV, but honestly I didn't really care. We got to read enough about them in the Percy Jackson series - this series wasn't about Percy, even though all the books said something about him on the cover (I just noticed this and it annoys me a lot). The Heroes of Olympus is about Jason, Piper, Leo and Frank and Hazel. Yes Percy and Annabeth are part of the seven of the prophecy, but they aren't the main focus here. That's the reason the first book wasn't Percy's story, but Jason's. I really liked how Jason, Piper and Leo were the ones to defeat Gaia in the end, because they were the ones that this story started with, and they should have been the ones to end it. Percy already defeated Kronos, and honestly he deserves a break from defeating all the evil people all the time.

In the end, I loved The Blood of Olympus as much as it broke my heart. I will definitely reread the series and the PJO series whenever I can/want, and I cannot wait to get started in another one of Rick Riordan's mythology books - The Sword of Summer! And of course I'll try out his Egyptian series as well!

My opinion on this book in one gif: