Book 238: The House of Hades (The Heroes of Olympus #4) – Rick Riordan

In this, the penultimate novel of The Heroes of Olympus, Rick Riordan sets the scene for a HUGE finale in the last and final book. I’ve had my name on the wait list for this book since I finished The Mark of Athena back in February or whenever the library first let me add my name to the list and I will do the same thing with the final installment, The Blood of Olympus.

This book picks up right where The Mark of Athena left off and keeps filling up details and providing more and more tension before everything snaps between Gaea and the demigods and gods. To be fair the series could end with this book and I wouldn’t be mad as there was a pretty succinct ending to this novel versus many of the other cliff hangers I’ve read before like that at the end of the last novel. This one although much sadder, the characters and readers of the series are growing up, was much more encapsulated.

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS so if you plan on reading these books, I would not recommend reading after this point. There might not be any for this book, but there may be for earlier books in the story, but no promises – this is the fourth book in the series.

Something that Riordan has done, I believe consciously, is to increase the diversity of the characters in his series. From Carter and Sadie Kane in the Kane Chronicles to Leo, Hazel and Frank in The Heroes of Olympus Riordan has added significant color and socio-economic diversity to his series, but with this book Riordan added a new twist on an old character and I have to say I was very excited to see it! About 2/3 of the way through this novel we find out that Nico di Angelo hasn’t loved Annabeth through all of these books, but was actually in love with Percy! OMG yes, there’s a gay demigod and the way Riordan revealed it was so matter of fact that I can’t wait to see, and hope there is a good, resolution of the story.

Apart from this what I really appreciated in this book was Riordan’s creativity in describing Tartarus. The fact that what’s beneath the underworld is actually the deity and not just the pit as described is fascinating. It takes a while for Annabeth and Percy, and the reader, to realize that they’re actually walking through Tartarus’ being and it was incredibly creepy as the reveal became more and more understandable. And then in contrast to this the journey of the others and the hilarity of what they encounter as well as the terror of Hazel’s learning the mist were great.

Recommendation: Definitely read this series. Riordan has done a great job of building up the new character while continuing the character development of the others. I cannot wait to read the last book in the series and this is I think Riordan’s best series! Plus there were multiple references to the short stories Riordan wrote in this same universe.

Opening Line: “During the third attack, Hazel almost ate a boulder.”

Closing Line: “The Argo II sailed into the night.” (Whited out.)