I had been so excited to finally get Riordan’s House of Hades at the beginning of the month I dashed all the way to the bookstore in town, only a few minutes after its opening, to get the first copy available (nearly dying upon returning to my dorm, as I was trying to read the first chapter while walking across green lighted crosswalks, nearly crashing into a variety of telephone poles). After a year of waiting, left with the most absolutely frustrating cliffhanger known to man from the previous novel in Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus series The Mark of Athena, I could not help but have a rather embarrassing fan-girl moment when finally having the chance to return to the mythological world of Percy Jackson and his fellow demigods.

As always, Riordan did not disappoint with this newest installment, which follows the demigods’ journey as they race to close the Doors of Death in Tartarus. It is funny, fast-paced, adventurous, clever, shocking, heartbreaking, and triumphant. I loved every minute of reading House of Hades. The greatest aspect of this book, if I were to narrow it down, would have to be the character development. The twists of back-stories and just the overall character growth of each of our favorite demigods are just fantastic. These characters just feel so real. Reading their various perspectives from chapter to chapter broadens the novel as a whole and really manages to keep you locked into a truly fantastical world that I, personally, did not want to leave so quickly.

If you have never picked up one of these books before, I highly recommend that you do so. You definitely will not regret it.