The House of Hades by Rick Riordan

Percy Jackson and the Olympians The Lightning Thief #1 The Sea of Monsters #2 The Titan's Curse #3 The Battle of the Labyrinth #4 The Last Olympian #5

Heroes of Olympus The Lost Hero #1 The Son of Neptune #2 Mark of Athena #3 (not reviewed) The House of Hades #4 The Blood of Olympus #5 (2014)

~~ may contain spoilers for the previous books ~~

At the conclusion of The Mark of Athena, Annabeth and Percy tumble into a pit leading straight to the Underworld. The other five demigods have to put aside their grief and follow Percy’s instructions to find the mortal side of the Doors of Death. If they can fight their way through the Gaea’s forces, and Percy and Annabeth can survive the House of Hades, then the Seven will be able to seal the Doors both sides and prevent the giants from raising Gaea. But, Leo wonders, if the Doors are sealed, how will Percy and Annabeth be able to escape?
They have no choice. If the demigods don’t succeed, Gaea’s armies will never die. They have no time. In about a month, the Romans will march on Camp Half-Blood. The stakes are higher than ever in this adventure that dives into the depths of Tartarus.

The House of Hades won Goodreads Choice Awards 2013 in the category "Middle Grade & Children's" and oh boy was it well deserved.

Like all Riordan's books it pulled me straight back into the story and kept me hooked. It's very well written, the characters are everything I want them to be (and mostly busy being heroes rather than being teenagers and all the drama that usually brings in books) and the plot kept on moving. All the characters get their time to shine and work together to fight all the bad guys and I just loved it all.

For me it's incredibly hard to review books this deep into a series (I have no clue why I didn't review the one before this (it got 4 stars)). House of Hades is effectively book 9 of the Greek/Roman series and Riordan has created such a universe, such a magnitude of characters and stories and backgrounds and I cannot sum it up and do it justice. I love these books, some are of course better than others, but all in all it's a new classic and something I'd want my own brood to read.

	The House of Hades The Heroes of Olympus #4 by Rick Riordan ISBN13: 9781423146728 597 pages / published in 2013
	Review by Iben Jakobsen, BoB, 2014