The Heroes of Olympus. 4, The House of Hades

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown Kids Books 4-week checkout	Y Fiction / Riordan, Rick	4-week checkout	On Hold Shelf
Downtown Kids Books 4-week checkout	Y Fiction / Riordan, Rick	4-week checkout	Due 05-17-2024
Downtown Kids Books 4-week checkout	Y Fiction / Riordan, Rick	4-week checkout	Due 05-22-2024
Downtown Kids Books 4-week checkout	Y Fiction / Riordan, Rick	4-week checkout	Due 04-20-2024
Pittsfield Kids Books 4-week checkout	Kids Book / Fiction / Fantasy & Myth / Heroes of Olympus 4	4-week checkout	In transit
Malletts Kids Books 4-week checkout	Kids Book / Fiction / Fantasy & Myth / Heroes of Olympus 4	4-week checkout	Due 04-24-2024
Traverwood Kids Books 4-week checkout	Kids Book / Fiction / Fantasy & Myth / Heroes of Olympus 4	4-week checkout	Due 05-18-2024
Westgate Kids Books 4-week checkout	Kids Book / Fiction / Fantasy & Myth / Heroes of Olympus 4	4-week checkout	Due 05-13-2024

"Greek and Roman demigods from the Prophecy of Seven must work together to seal the Doors of Death--and help Percy and Annabeth escape the Underworld in the process"-- Provided by publisher.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

School Library Journal Review
Booklist Review
Summary / Annotation
Fiction Profile
Author Notes

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

cool submitted by daeho kim on October 20, 2013, 5:41pm it was amazing

Oh, Yeah! submitted by lpetroff on November 16, 2013, 7:45am I haven't read it yet, but my friends have and they say it's awesome. The other books in the series are great, I can't wait to read it!:)
Eva P. Age:10

just extraordinary submitted by vadnala on June 13, 2014, 7:46am Another one of Riordan's great books

Awesome submitted by cordeliar on June 13, 2014, 7:39pm I was so happy when this book came out! It was really good!!

Best submitted by Captain JOJO on June 13, 2014, 7:57pm Best in the series! This was the most important quest in the series!

Really Good Book submitted by Kitty001 on June 14, 2014, 12:09pm I would recommend this book to anybody between the ages of 5 and 50. It has an intricate plot and funny and powerful characters. :-)

amazing submitted by strikerking101 on June 16, 2014, 2:58pm this is the best book i have ever read jk but its a great book

Very Good submitted by PJPMueller on June 30, 2014, 1:34pm I have read all the Percy Jackson books and this was definitly one of the best.

Combination submitted by robotdaniel1 on July 1, 2014, 4:46pm First book in the series that did not favor one of the seven as the main character. (previous examples: Lost Hero-Jason, Mark of Athena-Annabeth). It was definetly the best in the series. cannot wait for the blood of olympus

good submitted by chioma on July 7, 2014, 6:38pm I haven't read this book yet but my friends my brother and my sisters have. They encourgae me to read it. I'm sure it's good!

GREAT submitted by peterflorence on August 5, 2014, 9:55am This is a MUST READ!!!!!

Most of you don't know me well... submitted by sumnera on September 30, 2014, 3:38pm Most of you don't know me well yet, but one of the first things people find out about me is that I'm a total nerd. I geek out about a great many things, one of which is mythology. I LOVE MYTHOLOGY! Needless to say, when Rick Riordan started publishing his Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, I was ecstatic! I fell in love his characters, his sense of humor, his modern twist on Greek Mythology, his voice, and the way he made his books accessible to younger kids. Up until now, I've pretty much worshiped the ground Riordan walks on. However, I am very sad to say that I don't think The Heroes of Olympus series has stood up to my (admittedly high) expectations.

For starters, it is very hard to tell who this story belongs to. In previous books, we followed Percy through his adventures, seeing the story through his point of view. Riordan knows Percy's voice very well and uses it effectively. I would literally laugh out loud in public places reading his first series. (And yes, I got some strange looks!) But in The Heroes of Olympus series, Riordan tells the story from seven different points of view! It makes it hard to tell whose story you are actually reading, and I think Riordan's sense of humor and voice greatly suffered from it. He knows Percy well, but the other characters' voices come across flat, and the humor forced.

I also had a problem with the length of this series. The original series was five books, but they were only a couple hundred pages each. This helped reach a lot of young adults that weren't big readers. It made the books accessible and kid-friendly. This second series is also five books, but they are over 500 pages each! While Riordan might be counting on his fan base to follow him, I think the length factor alone will cut out a lot of new readers and a lot of younger readers. The House of Hades is book four, and (though it kills me to say it about one of Riordan's books) I am kind of bored. It is so long that I've lost interest in the story. Sure, there are exciting moments that help pull me back in, but they are few and far between. It just has a sense of monotony. This story could have been told in the same amount of pages as his last one.

Now, don't worry! There are some redeeming qualities about the book. One thing that is gained by lengthening the book and making it from multiple points of view is character development. In The House of Hades especially, there is a depth of character that we didn't see (with the exception of Percy) in the first series. Riordan has added some serious plot twists and hard sacrifices to mold and shape his characters, making them more dynamic. I don't want to spoil the big surprises, so I won't go into too much detail, but even some of the characters from the last series are shown in a new light. This, along with adding some unexpected allies and a small social commentary on some major topics of today, does help to pull this book up to an enjoyable level. And I am curious to see how Riordan will end it all in the fifth and final book of the series: The Blood of Olympus.

Rating
Overall, I give this book a 3 out of 5 hearts.

wonderful submitted by catgirl12 on November 5, 2014, 2:53pm a burst of awesomsomeness! P.S. the blood of olyumpus is out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The House of Hades submitted by jingyan_zhang on June 12, 2015, 6:03pm This is an awesome book and I would definitely recommend this to a friend

Love it! submitted by happySeed78910 on June 12, 2015, 7:21pm Can't believe that this series has ended already...
Good book though!

Great Book!! submitted by i'm a blobfish on June 13, 2015, 11:56am I really like this book!

Great Book submitted by banbanps246 on June 15, 2015, 12:33pm This was a really great book that I enjoyed reading!! I can't wait to read the next book in the series. Thank you

Awesome submitted by prashantar on June 26, 2016, 1:35pm I think this book was really neat because it showed views from each side, literally.

Amazing submitted by Sa05k on July 27, 2016, 6:53pm This is a great book that brings Greek mythology to live.

House of Hades submitted by Margaret Florence on June 21, 2017, 3:22pm I really enjoyed reading this book. It made me stay up too late at night.

Best Book submitted by Santiago Fiori on July 14, 2017, 10:02am I've gone through and read all the other 4 books of the series, and this one was the best. Even the Blood Of Olympus wasn't better than this one, and that's the last one, so it should be the best just like in the last series. I love mythology, so these books are for me. All 10 of these books (the last series and this one) are must-reads. Especially this one.

iT Be Go0d submitted by Zaneeba on July 1, 2018, 11:04pm this was one of my favorite books of all time

My go to series submitted by huntfamily2017 on August 3, 2018, 10:47am No matter what, I can always reread Rick Riordan. His books are timeless

Another great series in the Camp Half Blood world! submitted by Xris on August 27, 2018, 11:24pm I love that there are more books to read about this universe!! I like that they bring some Roman mythology in to go with the Greek mythology. In this book, the kids from the prophecy have to fight to reunite. A couple are stuck in the underworld trying to get out, and the rest and trying to find a way in to help them.

Great submitted by yingfeng on August 30, 2018, 9:24pm Great

The house of Hades submitted by c_zhang on June 21, 2019, 1:36am I really enjoyed how many perspectives there were.

Good book submitted by jasonc1177 on July 31, 2019, 7:50pm this book is great
!~!~

Funny, Suspenseful Must-Read submitted by purplekitty on June 12, 2020, 10:11pm This is the fourth book in the Heroes of Olympus series, which functions as a kind of a sequel series to Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I was a bit late to reading Rick Riordan's work, and I've been missing out: Riordan's characters and novels are a gem not limited to childhood. Like the other books in HoO, House of Hades tends to be a bit darker or more weighty than PJO - its characters are more mature, and the stakes are higher - but it still manages to have fun; the jokes are frequent, and the action is suspenseful. The book itself is highly engaging, but especially towards the end. The first hundred or so pages are by no means boring but, like many other of Riordan's books, the action and suspense sharply increases towards the end of the book, and it becomes nigh impossible to put down.

The book is written from multiple perspectives (Hazel, Annabeth, Leo, Percy, Frank, Piper, and Jason all get their turn), with each character getting a chunk of chapters at a time. Though some voices are definitely more unique and pronounced (Percy probably gets to be the narrator with the most depth, for instance), each character gets some kind of an arc. This type of narration does lead to several mini-cliffhangers, however; the gang is split up into at least two groups for pretty much all of the book, and Riordan is not afraid to leave one group in peril before shifting narration. The gap is never too long to be annoying, and, overall, the read is impressively cohesive considering the seven distinct narrators.

All in all, I highly recommend this book: it's funny, the world's rules are clear and vivid without excessive and clunky exposition, the characters generally to avoid being one-dimensional, and, especially towards the end of the novel, this book is a real page-turner. If you haven't read the previous books in Percy's universe, however, I would recommend you do so first- they're entertaining and there are frequent references to the events of past books. However, even if this is your first look into Rick Riordan's works, you'll still be able to enjoy it: Riordan is excellent at providing exposition in such a way that it's not obvious that it's exposition, and, though there's never an "exposition dump," you should be able to know enough about what's going on to enjoy this book even if you haven't read the other books in the series.

House of Hades submitted by JHermanowski on July 16, 2020, 9:37pm Great read! Exciting story line with lots of great references to Greek/Roman mythology. Looking forward to the next one

Neat series submitted by nirmala on July 27, 2021, 9:38pm Entertaining story line

A bit darker submitted by KatieD on August 6, 2021, 3:44pm Although I think all of the Heroes of Olympus books are a bit heavier and mature than the original Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, I think this one was the darkest of all. Percy and Anabeth travel through Tartarus and face their darkest fears. I think this book illustrates that Riordan is not afraid to do a darker book and he still does it excellently. It is not all Percy and Anabeth though. The other heroes of the series get chapters as well. Throughly enjoyed this book!

They really stress on their time limit submitted by sumisood on July 31, 2023, 10:39pm With Percy and Annabeth gone, the first part of the book is them feeling lost and not knowing what to do