Bookworm Blurbs

IT'S NOT EVERYDAY YOU FIND YOURSELF IN COMBAT WITH A HALF-LION, HALF-HUMAN.

But when you're the son of a Greek god, it happens. And now my friend Annabeth is missing, a goddess is in chains and only five half-blood heroes can join the quest to defeat the doomsday monster.

Oh, and guess what? The Oracle has predicted that not all of us will survive... (source)

And now I am officially over halfway through the Percy Jackson and the Olympian series! I'm still very much enjoying it - and kicking myself for not getting to it sooner! I liked this book as much as The Lightning Thief, but not quite as much as The Sea of Monsters.

This book is pretty different from the first two in the series. For one thing, it takes place during winter break rather than summer break, so the atmosphere isn't quite the same. Also, Annabeth is missing and a whole slew of new characters are introduced. I had mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, it set this book apart from the others, which I think is important in a series that follows a pattern like this one does. But I missed Annabeth and I didn't really connect with any of the newer characters. Thalia made me angry 90% of the time (which I think was what was supposed to happen, but still - she is NO substitute for Annabeth!), and while I think Zoe and Bianca had interesting back stories, Riordan didn't develop them as fully as I felt that he could and should have. 

This book did have a good amount of plot twists, especially towards the end. I saw the twist with Nico coming shortly before it occurred, but not anywhere near as early as I had predicted some of the twists in The Lightning Thief, which is a good thing. As had happened in the other books, the ending left me anxious to start the next book in the series, The Battle of the Labyrinth. 

I'm so glad that I'm finally reading this series. I'm glad that Riordan is keeping up the momentum that he started with in the first book and that, even though I'm reading these very fast, I'm not sick of them, haha - that definitely could have happened! And now - on to the next!