Thursday 15 January 2015

Review: The Blood of Olympus

Hello Everyone, 


I have finally got my hands on the last of the 'Heroes of Olympus' series, and I have to say I loved it. It was a remarkably adult finale to the series considering its firm position in the children's section of the bookshops and libraries. The story line, although fantastic, is not the starring point of the series. That is reserved for the development of the characters. I will outline my favourite and my most problematic characters that I found throughout the series. 

Looking back on the characters of Percy and Annabeth, who are the only ones to continue to this series from the last in any major capacity, Annabeth is the only one who is not allowed as much development space as the others. Percy on the other hand remains an incredibly relate-able character for young boys wanting to branch out their reading to some more adult books. Annabeth's lack of development for me was because she was not allowed as much text space as the others.

Jason was a bit of a hit-or-a-miss character for me. Most of the time he seemed a bit unrealistic, there was too much confusion in everything he did. He simultaneously had too much responsibility, and too little. The only times I truly appreciated him as a character was when he interacted with both Percy and his girlfriend Piper. In these moments, he was really vulnerable, letting his walls of 'Roman-ness' you could call it, down. His relationship with Percy was founded in the fact that they were both sons of the 'Big Three', meaning that a lot was expected of them, which I related to the most.  

The most intriguing character has to be Nico DiAngelo. He represents that dark questioning insecure part within ourselves that we all have. He is truly a tragic hero that I have ever read about. He gives us the truest message in the entire series. In acknowledging yourself for who you are, warts and all and accepting it, you will push past the darkness of despair, and other will accept you too.

The entire group reflected any group of friends in the modern world with all the different dynamics and histories. There are the couples of course, with all the stresses that causes . And the girls, being the minority group, are especially close as only girls can be. In fact, the boys are more clique-ey than the girls, with district groups, but with more camaraderie that guys have. They rag on each other more and jesting insults, hiding their feelings. Going between all the groups is Piper- smoothing feelings and working through it with her peace making abilities and empathy and love for everyone involved. (Every group has to have one person like that).

Leo, the most likely to be in trouble (also the most likely to get out of it) is the best character. With an upbeat sense of humour, and his inability to let anything go, he is the highlight of the group. His ending leaves more questions than answers (and with Percy and Annabeth heading to college in New Rome, so out of the picture for a while) so is Leo going to be the future for the Percy Jackson universe? Or perhaps Reyna, the Roman Praetor with a mysterious past who must look past the camp's boundaries to find love.

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