Book Review: The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan

Title: The Blood of Olympus

Series: The Heroes of Olympus, #5

Author: Rick Riordan

Summary: Though the Greek and Roman crewmembers of the Argo II have made progress in their many quests, they still seem no closer to defeating the earth mother, Gaea. Her giants have risen—all of them—and they’re stronger than ever. They must be stopped before the Feast of Spes, when Gaea plans to have two demigods sacrificed in Athens. She needs their blood—the blood of Olympus—in order to wake.

The demigods are having more frequent visions of a terrible battle at Camp Half-Blood. The Roman legion from Camp Jupiter, led by Octavian, is almost within striking distance. Though it is tempting to take the Athena Parthenos to Athens to use as a secret weapon, the friends know that the huge statue belongs back on Long Island, where it “might” be able to stop a war between the two camps.

The Athena Parthenos will go west; the Argo II will go east. The gods, still suffering from multiple personality disorder, are useless. How can a handful of young demigods hope to persevere against Gaea’s army of powerful giants? As dangerous as it is to head to Athens, they have no other option. They have sacrificed too much already. And if Gaea wakes, it is game over. -Goodreads

Review:

*Non-Spoilery Section

Today I am here with my review of The Blood of Olympus, the fifth and final book in the Heroes of Olympus series, by Rick Riordan.  We’ve been waiting for this book for a long time, guys, and it was so exciting to finally be able to have it and read it.  And despite my enjoyment of the book, I have very conflicted feelings about it, especially taking a day after I finished it to reflect on it when I wasn’t as emotional.

I feel like it’s very difficult to write a phenomenal series finale.  Suzanne Collins couldn’t do it.  Veronica Roth couldn’t do it.  And, sadly, despite loving his other finales, Rick just didn’t satisfy me with this book.  I didn’t get enough time with some of my favorite characters, and I feel like the book was focused too much on characters I wasn’t fond of.  Reading the dust jacket, I had an idea of whose POVs we’d be getting in this book, but it wasn’t enough.  I remember continuously flipping back to the summary flap to reread it, just to make sure I wasn’t missing any characters, but no.

I did love the character growth in all of the characters that were focused on.  I have to say, though, I can’t really connect with Piper.  We got a little more insight on Jason, Reyna, and Nico, though, which was fantastic.  I really love Nico, but thinking about him now makes me want to change a past statement of mine about him (see spoilery section).

To wrap up this non-spoilery section, The Blood of Olympus had a lot of potential.  There were so many storylines that were explored throughout this series, but Rick left us with a lot of loose ends.  I felt like there was no closure.  I’m hoping that was intentional, because I hate being disappointed at this book.  I hope Rick is going somewhere with this ending, possibly in his upcoming Norse mythology series.

Nevertheless, thank you for a fantastic journey.  I won’t forget it.

*Warning: Spoilery section!

I didn’t take notes while reading this because I just wanted to enjoy the book.  I’m hoping I remember everything I wanted to remember, though.

As stated above, I was a little disappointed with how things turned out.  Let’s talk about some of those things first, just to get them out of the way.

POVs: I think this is probably one of the things people were the most disappointed with.  In The Blood of Olympus, our last journey with these lovely characters, we got to see through the eyes of Jason, Piper, Leo, Reyna, and Nico.  The reason why people have been so disappointed with this character selection was the lack of Percy, and even Annabeth.  We didn’t get any chapters with these characters, and while I understand why Rick finished off the series with these characters (especially Jason, Piper, and Leo), I still feel that we should have gotten at least one chapter with Percy and Annabeth.

I feel like Jason, Reyna, and Nico grew in this book.  We really got to go in depth and see everything that was going on with them.  Leo and Piper didn’t seem to get much character development in this book, though.

Jason: I know a lot of people aren’t Jason’s biggest fan, but I think he was pretty good in this book.  I really grew to like him a lot more in this book.  At first, I thought Rick was doing that intentionally, making everyone become more partial to all the characters to suddenly kill them out of nowhere.  But that wasn’t the case.  Jason definitely had some good moments, and though I like him more than I did in the rest of the series, he’s still not a favorite.

There was something in Jason’s POV that had bothered me.  It was when he was thinking about how he used to try to change his fate, like by befriending the least-popular kids at Camp Jupiter.

Whoa, whoa, whoa—hold the phone.  Those sound like selfish reasons to make friends.  I really didn’t like that.

Piper: Ah, Piper.  I really can’t relate to her at all.  Just thinking back on her character, I draw a blank.  I know I definitely liked her a bit better in this book, I just don’t know why.  Maybe because it’s the end of these books, and I was sad.

Leo: I feel like there were too few Leo chapters, and he was very different in this book, it seemed.  The characters have gone through so much, but Leo was startlingly different, and we didn’t get much time with him, or so it felt.  I also felt that Calypso wasn’t a big part of this book (literally—we only saw her in the last few pages of the book, which I now understand, since she didn’t have a POV).

I knew he wasn’t dead, especially since the hints being dropped toward his “death” were so apparent.  I was really confused by his plan, too.  I knew he wouldn’t be dead, even though it was stated he was dead, and it wasn’t a big shocker when our last chapter was a Leo chapter, especially with Nico saying, “His death felt different than others.”  If we were going for shock with that last chapter, it most definitely could have been executed better.  I did cry, though, but I knew Leo wasn’t really dead.

But what really got me was that ending.  As stated above, I felt no closure with The Blood of Olympus.  In the end, Leo found Calypso, but… they didn’t go back to Camp!  Or, it’s not something that was shown.  How could you leave us with such an open ending?!  They just ride off into the distance?!  NO!  And what’s worse is that nobody really knows that Leo’s alive.  They want to believe he’s alive, but they don’t really know it.

Reyna: Reyna was truly amazing.  I love how she was portrayed in this book.  She’s such a strong character who’s been through so much but still came out okay.  I really liked her group, with Nico and Hedge.  That was definitely an unlikely bunch, but I feel like they each contributed so much in getting the Athena Parthenos back to Camp Half-Blood safely.  Reyna was a brave hero.

Nico: Nico, Nico, Nico.  I feel like I’m saying this about all the characters, but it’s justified: He’s been through a lot.  He had a lot on his shoulders.   I love his newfound friendship with Reyna, and how they were able to relate a bit.  I loved their bond, how Reyna was constantly lending him her strength and energy.  I feel like Nico grew a lot, and I’m really happy that he decided to stay at Camp Half-Blood.

Finding out that Nico was gay was rushed, thinking back on it.  It was too sudden, but I guess I’ll have to go back and read PJO again before I can state an opinion.  I shipped Will Solace and Nico after I finished the book, because my feels were hurting, but after thinking it over, I would be happy if they had a friendship.  When I read the book at first, I hadn’t realized that a romantic relationship between the two had been alluded to, but after someone told me about it, I kind of liked the idea.

Now, I just want Nico to find some friends, and he did.  He has Reyna and Coach and now Will, and I’m sure he’s going to find a lot more.

I really loved how Nico told Percy about his crush, and I think Annabeth was amused by Percy’s reaction.  I mean, he was so oblivious and confused, and Nico was like, “I mean, you’re cute and all, but you’re not my type.”

And Percy was like, “I’m not you’re type?”  Gold, guys.

Other Characters: There are a few other characters whose eyes we didn’t get to see through: Percy, Annabeth, Hazel, and Frank.  Though I’ve never been too big on Hazel and Frank, I do want to discuss Percy and Annabeth.

Percy and Annabeth: With each book in this series were different central characters.  In this book, they were the characters listed above.  Yes, Percy and Annabeth did have their own places in the series, but with everything that happened in The House of Hades, you’d think we’d get to see what was going on with these two.  I mean, everything they went through opened doors to some major character development for the two!  They literally went through hell and back.  Did they suffer any PTSD?  I feel like that was hinted at a bit, but I wish Rich had explored this.

► Percy: The ending with Percy really bugged me.  I get that he wasn’t a big character in this book, but you’d think he’d visit his mom after all this, or at least mention in passing that he’d just been to see his mom.  I wanted a Sally reunion, I wanted a Grover reunion, a Chiron reunion.  Maybe even a Clarisse reunion!

► Annabeth: I had no idea that Annabeth and Piper had been so close.  I don’t remember that in the previous books, but maybe that was a thing.  That scene with Annabeth and Piper down in that hole-maze place, though, kind of showed Annabeth’s fear.  I feel like, after Tartarus, she was more prone to flashbacks during her time there during a battle, and that kind of happened down in that hole place (I can’t remember the details).  And then there was that whole Annabeth being the “logical” fighter/strategist and Piper being the “emotional” fighter/strategist.  I thought it was nonsense.  I didn’t like that whole Piper thing, but I did like hers and Annabeth’s friendship.

Another thing I wanted to bring up was Magnus Chase, who people are speculating is Annabeth’s cousin, who she mentioned in the book.  She said she had an uncle in Boston, but there was a rivalry between the uncle and her father.  I’m pretty sure the Norse books are based in Massachusetts, so there’s some clever foreshadowing there, which totally flew over my head until I read some speculation.  Does this mean maybe a little more Percabeth in later books…?  I’m very excited to know what’s going on here!

► Frank: I really expected something to go down with his firewood.  I expected something, anything, but I feel like he wasn’t even a big part of this book!  I mean, he went through this whole transformation (I feel like it was mostly physical to make him more attractive), and yet… nothing.  He understands himself now, and what he’s capable of, which is awesome, but I feel like he didn’t develop enough emotionally.

Though I didn’t want any characters to die (and I had a feeling no one would), we were told that someone would.  Leo’s death didn’t even count, because he was resurrected.  Ugh, I don’t know.  I don’t know how I felt about that.  (Spoilers for City of Heavenly Fire: I feel like the whole book was very reminiscent to City of Heavenly Fire.  It was a good read, interesting and all, but in the end, no one extremely important died.  End of spoilers.)

The Final Battle: I feel like the final battle was a bit anticlimactic.  Gaea’s rise wasn’t all too impressive, and throughout the whole book, Leo and his plan was pushed a little too hard.  That bugged me a lot.  And, like I said, there were no deaths.  I’m glad none of our favorite characters died, but this was really misleading.  I had no idea all it took was blood from a cut on Annabeth’s thigh and a nosebleed from Percy to awaken Gaea.  THAT WAS VERY ANTICLIMACTIC.  A NOSEBLEED?! 

The Second-To-Last Battle: I really liked how all the demigods paired up with their godly parents while fighting those giants.  Percy with Poseidon, Annabeth with Athena, Zeus with Jason, Frank with an overenthusiastic Ares, Leo and Hephaestus, Piper and Aphrodite.  Hades wasn’t present, but he was helping Hazel from the Underworld.

The thing is… Did Athena ever acknowledge what Annabeth achieved?  What she went through?  I didn’t really care about Zeus and Jason’s interaction, what about Athena and Annabeth?

The End: I knew that there wouldn’t be an epilogue a long time ago, due to Rick Riordan’s Twitter, and I was cool with that.  But, since that ending, I wish there had been an epilogue.  I didn’t even have to be something that far into the future!  Just something to let us know that Leo was reunited with his friends.  They could have had a picnic at the park or something stupid like that, but it would have meant a lot and would have made the book ten times better.

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Recap: The last book in a series is always going to be hit or miss.  I feel like The Blood of Olympus was somewhere in the middle.  There were some things I liked about it, like Reyna, Nico, and Hedge, and the familiar humor, but there were things that bothered me.

I really loved that some of the characters got some development.  We didn’t really get to see much of other characters (who were more like side characters), so I can’t really say if they had a significant amount of development.

I really expected more of Frank, Percy, and Annabeth.  Rick could have gone deeper into Percabeth’s experiences in Tartarus, and the aftermath and how those experiences changed them.

This book didn’t knock me off my feet.  The Last Olympian was fantastic, from what I remember.  But this… it kind of fell flat.  I think that, with a series you really love, you have to give it time before you form opinions, because you’ll be too emotional to say you didn’t like some parts.  That’s what happened with me.

The Blood of Olympus was an enjoyable read.  It wasn’t my favorite in the series.  When I first finished it, I gave it a 5/5, but I feel like I have to bring this book down a star.  It makes me really sad to do that, because I love these books.

So, 4/5 stars for this book!  I had a fantastic time reading it, regardless.  I loved all the hype surrounding the book, and I’m so glad I got to be apart of the hype.  I started the Percy Jackson books when I was ten, and now it’s all over.

I’m really looking forward to the Norse books, though.  Bring it on!