The Heroes of Olympus: The House of Hades

     This six weeks, I read The Heroes of Olympus: The House of Hades by Rick Riordan. This is the fourth book in the Heroes of Olympus series, copyrighted in 2013 and published on October 8th, 2013, and is a 583 page non-realistic fiction book. The story is about seven demigods (kids who are half-god and half-human) who's goal is to close the Doors of Death in order to stop the giants from awakening Gaea, the earth goddess, who will destroy the gods and mankind. However, the Doors of Death must be closed from both sides in order to be fully closed. The two sides are in two different places; one is inside the House of Hades in the mortal world, but Gaea's forces are already coming out and defending it. The other side is in the pit of Tartarus located in the depths of the Underworld, surrounded by the rest of Gaea's forces. I think the theme of this book is something around the lines of that you should trust one another and work together if you want to complete your goals.

     The story is told in third-person and in two worlds: in the mortal world, and in Tartarus. The book changes places every couple of chapters, starting with the mortal world. In the mortal world, the story is told in the point of view of five different characters, switching off every time the story changes from Tartarus to the mortal world. The characters are Hazel Levesque, Leo Valdez, Frank Zhang, Jason Grace, and Piper McLean. In Tartarus, the book changes point of view to one of two characters, switching off every time it gets back to Tartarus. The two characters are Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase, who are trying to reach the Tartarus side of the Doors of Death in order to close it while the other five close the mortal side of the Doors of Death. The intended audience is for young adults, since it wasn't easy but it wasn't hard either for a thirteen year old like me, but take into account that I read at a college level. The genre is fantasy plus Greek/Roman mythology, and keeps you interested by having continuous twists and turns in the plot, making you want to know what will happen next. Rick also uses a lot of suspense and foreshadowing, which usually keeps people glued to the book. Rick's style is to make the story seem as realistic and believable as possible (minus the Greek and Roman mythology being real) and seem as professional as possible and still be interesting.

   The book didn't really affect me, although it could have, it's just that I'm a very non-emotional person who doesn't change very much. It does relate to me in one way though. One of the seven main characters, Leo Valdez, loves to build and create things, and is pretty good with technology too, just like me. Well, mostly. Anyways, the book did slightly change one of my perspectives in life, and it's that if people are quiet and don't want to talk, they usually have a good reason for it and what time to themselves. This book reminded me of The Enemy by Charlie Higson, since in both books a group of people are working together and traveling in order to complete their goals.

     Rick has done a great job on this book, and his way of mixing mythology, humor, suspense, and terror makes this a great book. I would recommend this to pretty much everyone at the age of eleven or above, especially to those who are fans of Greek or Roman mythology and fiction, or to those who are just fans of Rick Riordan's writing.

Bill Dang
10/29/13
Rating: ***** 5/5 Stars