The House of Hades... (Deathly Boring?)

So normally, I only blog about books that I really like or that are really popular. This is one of the popular ones.... that I don't necessarily LOVE but like. I had extremely high expectations for "The House of Hades," but idk, they kinda fell short. Personally, I guess I should cut Rick Riordan some slack (for writing this decent book in an year), and I do not like people who complain about how "slow" these books come out. Like, seriously. If you're going to complain about that, then try writing a book the same size in a year, and if it's half as good, I will be impressed (no seriously, try). However, I digress. The review:

The Book (since that's all I can talk about):
It was good. Just good. Not great or magnificent or anything. Good, that's it. I totally freaked when it came out but after reading about the first quarter of the book, I was already kind of disappointed. Most Riordan books contain lots of humor, but the jokes in "The House of Hades" let me down. Most of the "funny" scenes are fueled by Leo's wisecracking... and really, most of the time, it's to insult someone. Then, add the lack of humor to lots of kissing (and yes, I mean a LOT), and boom. Story. It wasn't all negative, I'll give it that. Although the beginning was pretty slow and slightly boring, the middle of the story really picks up the pace. What really shocked me was the Nico DiAngelo confession scene. It was, to say the least, totally unexpected. I mean, when does Riordan decide to insert a piece like that? Which only goes to make me lament even more. I really enjoyed the Percy Jackson series; it had that kind of witty humor that only goes with a book like that. However, I feel like Riordan has really made the characters grow up. I mean, we all knew that someday Percy and Annabeth were going to get older. But I think what really made the original series such a hit was that it was narrated by a teenager, a kid learning to cope with his abnormal parentage and normal teenage problems (bullying, raging girlfriends, etc.) I'm not saying that this series isn't good. In fact, it still rings of Riordan. However, its more grown up now, and less childish/kid's perspective, which isn't necessarily the best thing ever (at least for me). But overall, quite nice.

Positives right? So it's boring in the beginning but definitely starts to climb. I personally like to believe that the official start of action is at the part where Nico confesses. That brings everything that we've known about the kid before to a stop. It's pretty interesting though, and Riordan drops a few hints about Nico's feelings throughout the book before the scene. It's evident that he's "lonely," has no one that really loves him (his sister, Bianca, died), and is kinda secluded and socially awkward. However, after this revelation, the plot starts to really get intense. I especially liked the ending, and I cried when I found out Bob and Damasen (you'll find out who they are when you read the book)  sacrifice themselves for Percy and Annabeth (that darn Tartarus!). Anyways, without revealing too much, the ending was very well written, with many surprises and twists.

Overall, good book! Just good, remember? I'm actually anticipating "The Blood of Olympus" very much, since "The House of Hades" left an extremely exciting cliffhanger. Good book, good cover art XD, good as a whole. Liked it, and would deserve 4 sparkles out of 5. I'd definitely recommend it. As of now, Keep on Sparkling!