Review: The Lost Hero

Title:  The Lost Hero
Series:  The Heroes of Olympus
Author:  Rick Riordan
Publisher:  Hyperion  Books
Pages:  557
Format:  Hardcover
Source:  Bought

Jason has a problem. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up in a bus full of kids on a field trip. Apparently he has a girlfriend named Piper and a best friend named Leo. They’re all students at a boarding school for “bad kids.” What did Jason do to end up here? And where is here, exactly?

Piper has a secret. Her father has been missing for three days, ever since she had that terrifying nightmare. Piper doesn’t understand her dream, or why her boyfriend suddenly doesn’t recognize her. When a freak storm hits, unleashing strange creatures and whisking her, Jason, and Leo away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood, she has a feeling she’s going to find out.

Leo has a way with tools. When he sees his cabin at Camp Half-Blood, filled with power tools and machine parts, he feels right at home. But there’s weird stuff, too—like the curse everyone keeps talking about. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist that each of them—including Leo—is related to a god.

My Review:  I have very mixed emotions about this book.  There was a lot to take in and a lot I was expecting.  I wasn't sure how I would like it because the characters from Rick Riordan's other books - like Percy, Annabeth, and Grover - weren't going to be the stars.  It's always hard having a new set of characters come in a take the spotlight away from the old ones and I think I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if I hadn't been comparing all of the characters in this new book to the ones in the previous series.

Jason has a lot of promise.  He has a really interesting background and is a bit of a mystery that we slowly have to piece together.  I enjoyed that aspect of his character a lot but besides that, I felt like it was really hard for me to connect with him.  He was a good guy but it felt like he was so hard to relate to and understand because we didn't see anything about his past until we were pretty far into the book.  Also, he was portrayed as the leader of this group but he didn't pull his weight at all, really.  He helped them once or twice but the rest of the time, it was all Piper and Leo.  I felt that they were sort of leading Jason and getting him out of tight spots instead of the other way around.  We kept being told that he was a super scary, awesome warrior but we were never shown that.  

As for Piper, I am very wishy washy with her.  I thought it was really cool to be able to see the camp from a different cabin and how everyone in said cabin responded to one another.  She had some really useful powers, too.  I enjoyed delving deeper into what it meant to be a daughter or son of ________.  But she frustrated me to no end.  I was so upset with her in this book because she was keeping such a big thing from the people who were supposed to trust her!  I wanted to just shake her and tell her to spit it out already so they could help her.  Leo has to be my absolute favorite part of this entire book.  He was funny and so easy to connect with.  He didn't think he was perfect and he thought badly about himself a lot and I just wanted to give him a hug, especially when we learned about his past.  He was such an important part of this quest and he did amazing.  I cannot wait to see more of him in future books!

While these new characters didn't quite do it for me, I did really enjoy the plot and being back in the world of Half-Bloods.  It was neat to see some new perspectives and to learn more about what has been going on since the last book in the Percy Jackson series.  I hope that the next book will help me connect better with the characters because I really think that if I had that understanding and connection with them, I would like this book so much more than I did. 

Four Cards