The House of Hades (Heroes of Olympus, #4)

by Rick Riordan

[KitsuneBae]

This review is also posted on my blog at Thoughts and Pens.

Disclaimer: This review has no spoilers.

Guys, brace yourselves. This is gonna be a messy review. I am still winded from the ride-to-hell-and-back-again this book has put me through. My heart is still thumping, my brains woozy, and my limbs weak from everything that transpired in The House of Hades. Where should I start?

Of course, I could start with the fact that I was like a mad woman checking Amazon and BN back and forth whether the e-book edition is already available. Or that I missed bath and lunch because I couldn’t stop checking the two sites. Or that I failed to walk my dogs because any moment, the e-book format would be up for grabs. The House of Hades has stressed me a lot that I was feeling thankful and sad after reading it. Thankful that I’m finally delivered from the clutches of obsession and sad because…who wouldn’t be sorry to see the last page of this AWESOME piece of art?

Seriously, I dove into this book without too much hope because… I don’t know… I guess that the past days have finally taken its toll on me. Before The House of Hades, I finished nine books without taking a break and only three of them made it on my Super Duper Superb list. That fact didn’t help my morale so I was pretty down when I went into The House of Hades. But things immediately looked brighter while I was reading the first chapter as Rick hurled me back to Argo II.

The House of Hades immediately picked up where it left off from the Mark of Athena. Our 6 demigods, though mournful about Percy and Annabeth falling into Tartarus, were striving hard to reach Epirus, Greece where the House of Hades is located. Meanwhile, Percy and Annabeth are barely managing to survive the void of Tartarus. For a 500 pager, I thought this book will seriously bore me to death. Honestly, when I was reading the synopsis, I was like “594 pages? What would Rick cover in this story that I haven’t yet read in the first 3 books? Maybe major info dumps? Fillers?” But gods, NOOOOOOOO! Rick Riordan spun an amazing modern Greek mythos by combining the right amount of action, humor, heart, romance, mindblowing revelations and of course, greek mythology.

First off, I was bombarded with unsettling revelations here which I really want to shout out to the whole world but I can’t because it will ruin your reading experience. Until now, I can’t still wrap my mind over what Rick Riordan has unveiled in this book. I swear my heart just momentarily stopped after…after…I can’t even. I can only say that Rick took a big risk with those but he managed to pull them off gracefully.

Second, the character development in this book is just phenomenal. Normally, things would gone awry if the book is told from seven POVs that it was hard to distinguish one from the other. But The House of Hades didn’t suffer from that. Rick ensured that all the characters even the secondary ones in this book have their unique voices. But I have to say that Leo, Hazel, Nico and Frank have outshined everyone. Even Percabeth. And by the gods, I just wanna give Leo and Nico a big crushing hug.

And did I mention that you’ll be meeting some old characters here...like really old from the Percy Jackson and the Olympians era? NO? Better be ready because there will be a lot of surprises that will jump at you at the least expected moment. I was all sh-t, sh-t, and damm-ts. Enemies became friends. And then a seemingly forgotten character became a love interest. How good is that? I am so tempted to fistbump myself right now.

And just when I thought that Rick is already running out of gods and goddesses to feature, I was immediately disappointed. Rick introduced another set of gods and goddesses in this book. I didn’t even know that they were part of the Greek mythology. Goes to show that my knowledge on the subject is already rusty and that I have to study more.

As if the above things weren’t enough to make me hyperventilate, the romance had me biting my lower lip, my nails, and curling my toes. There were two romances in this book that had me swooning. Finally, I got my secret wish. And nope, it’s not Percabeth. I guess I’ll leave you to keep on guessing about these two romances. One is unrequited… One has the chance of a happy ever after but as of now, it’s doomed. Just read the book now please so we can fangirl over it.

The setting can also be a reason to fall head over heels in love with this book. After the Rome escapade, Rick teleported me to Tartarus, the Adriatic Sea, Venice, Croatia and finally, Greece. Although I missed Camp Half Blood and Jupiter like I am missing home, I was still delighted that I was able to visit these various places.

The plot of House of Hades outperformed those of the first three books. It’s tightly woven with plenty of action that will have you reeling endlessly. The whole time I was reading this book, I was restless. I was pacing back and forth, clutching my heart, sitting on the sofa then standing up again to go and lie down on my bed, then drink some water, then tinker something like figuring out how nail cutters work…it was horrible. I instantly became an ADHD. It’s like if I sit still, I would be consumed by the awesomeness of House of Hades. What I really love about Rick is that he never makes life easy. Instead of using the shortcut, he makes things really complicated for our characters. Thus, House of Hades=Hell. And that’s the reason why I am so invested with his books. Everything will snowball at first but at the end, everything will make perfect sense… like looking at an abstract painting and finally understanding it.

If there are two things I regret about The House of Hades, it would be; not seeing Sally, and arriving at the last page because that means, another year of waiting for the final book to be released. Argh!

There’s just no way I can really describe my feelings for this book. I could go on and on. But I bet you don’t have time reading a pathetic 1000-word review. So I will take my leave now with these words: Read this drug at your own risk. Just know that there's no cure after you're hooked. If it’s any consolation, there are no major cliffhangers here so half of your heart will be spared.

This review first appeared on Amazon.