Book Review and Writing Lessons: The House of Hades by Rick Riordan

At the conclusion of The Mark of Athena, Annabeth and Percy tumble into a pit leading straight to the Underworld. The other five demigods have to put aside their grief and follow Percy’s instructions to find the mortal side of the Doors of Death. If they can fight their way through the Gaea’s forces, and Percy and Annabeth can survive the House of Hades, then the Seven will be able to seal the Doors from both sides and prevent the giants from raising Gaea. But, Leo wonders, if the Doors are sealed, how will Percy and Annabeth be able to escape?

They have no choice. If the demigods don’t succeed, Gaea’s armies will never die. They have no time. In about a month, the Romans will march on Camp Half-Blood. The stakes are higher than ever in this adventure that dives into the depths of Tartarus.

Series: The Heroes of Olympus (Book 4)
Genre: YA Fantasy
Publisher: Disney Hyperion (October 8, 2013)
Page Count: 605 pages

At long last, I have discovered the book with the infamous dedication page meme. I should have known it was Rick Riordan. XD But it was the worst cliffhanger, man.

The Plot

I really like that this is a book focusing on Annabeth and Percy again. I missed them though dang Rick Riordan puts them through the ringer! Escaping the underworld is no easy thing to do! The poor things literally go through hell as monsters they’ve defeated try to wreak vengeance on them.

The Characters

The characters really begin to blossom in this book. They’ve come so far and learned so much and all of that was fertilizer for these seven children of Olympus to burst into their full potential. Frank, the shy pudgy boy in the first book, becomes freaking epic. He becomes his own version of a child of Mars and embraces his abilities. It’s an awesome character arc. Piper discovered the true meaning of Charmspeak, Hazel is tasked with learning how to control the mists, and Jason’s powers level up exponentially.

Leo is hilarious as ever and at last is beginning to find his place among the seven despite what others have said about him.

Hazel: Not monkeys. I think those dwarves are …
Leo: Stealing my stuff!

Speaking of those Kerkopes I about died laughing when Jason assigned them to sabotage the Roman camp and one said, “I love harassment!”

(About a butt-naked statue of Neptune)
He didn’t really need to see a godly groin this early in the morning.

There were also a few new characters like Bob the Titan Janitor and his skeletal kitten Small Bob, Gale the farting polecat (so much lol), and Damasen the cursed kind titan. When Small Bob smelled something bad then scratched at the ground trying to bury it I chuckled. And I liked the Couch Hedge got some added depth. Don’t get me wrong he’s hysterical. But I liked seeing a gentle side to him too.

Nico also came in though I wished the book focused on more about why he feels rejected by Camp Halfblood and not coming out as gay. It just didn’t feel important to the plot. I also didn’t like that Jason was defending Diocletian a man who heavily persecuted Christians and it was brushed off as “Oh but he was a great leader.”

The Setting

All of the different locations are quite dynamic. Some of the characters are in countries like Malta (If you want to know more about this cool country check out my interview with a Maltese woman!) and Croatia while Annabeth and Percy are in the Underworld. Hard to top that.

The Underworld setting was so creative. I’ve always pictured the underworld as portrayed in King’s Quest VI where the environment is this sinewy body and I really like how Riordan described Tartarus as something similar.

The Theme

One theme I liked was when Annabeth had to admit to herself that she can’t solve everything by herself. Sometimes she needs help.

Now she realized that the hardest test for a child of Athena wasn’t leading a guest or facing death in combat. It was making the strategic decision to step back, to let someone else take the brunt of fanger—especially when that person was your friend.

Epic Things

Rick Riordan really knows how to nail epic battles, man. I also like how he included the goddess Hecate.

Content Cautions

This is a Rick Riordan book so there’s only really violence.

What We Can Take Away For Our Writing

Describing Things By Alluding to a Character’s Experiences – In one scene when Hazel is pulled into an illusion, she thinks back to when she was given ether to have her tooth pulled.

How this applies to our writing: It really helps a reader to connect to your character when you describe things by using a character’s past experiences. In the case of Hazel, she was born in the 1930s so ether is something unique to her past as opposed to others.

Expanding Powers – Some spoilers here, but Jason learns to literally harness wind spirits, Percy at one point controls poison because there is water in poisons, and Piper learns how to really manipulate people with her charmspeak. Their powers level up as the characters discover how to use them in even more powerful ways.

How this applies to our writing: Don’t forget to level up your characters’ powers. This not only makes them more awesome but levels up their character development like how Thor learned to wield his lightning without his hammer in Thor: Ragnorok or how Toph learned how to use metalbending in Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Use Different Words for How Different People Speak – Though most of the other characters are American and think of measurements in inches, feet, and miles, I love how Riordan gave the added detail of having Canadian Frank measure distances in meters.

How this applies to our writing: To add even more depth to a point of view, use words the character would use whether it be measurements, biscuits instead of cookies, mate instead of buddy, or many other words.

Conclusion

This book had to be my favorite of the series. Just so much happened!