Alright people, let's kill the lights on this. Unfortunately, Amrutha will not be giving her post of chapters 61-70 (she's lame), but please enjoy my discussion of the end of The House of Hades!
ANNABETH LXXI - LXXII
So Damasen makes his entrance and by this point shit is going down. Hard. This is what we've been waiting for! Percabeth has been going through so much pain and treachery and self-deprecation and finally there's a tiny speck of hope!
Bob and Damasen are absolutely awesome. Not Leo Valdez level awesome, but maybe just a few nuts and bolts below Leo Valdez level awesome. Bob makes the sacrifice and holds the button while our heroes get the Hades out of Tartarus.
And, of course, away from Tartarus (that dude is one scary monster, a culmination of every evil thing we've faced so far packed into one suit of pure unbridled vileness. I particularly like the fact that he's still laughably egotistic, a human trait stretched and exaggerated in every villain. I think Riordan's trying to tell us something).
Bob delivers some amazing philosophical bits, questioning the very mechanics that Grecian mythology and Rick Riordan have set up. Fate? Damasen and Bob spit on that. "Who knows what will be?" Bob says on 527, mirroring the plight of our heroes who have faced the jaws of their fates and fought through anyway. Very Odysseus-like.
Percabeth go through dampening realizations, terrible and dark and very final. In the muck of it, Percy swears to kill Gaia and Annabeth reflects on her dreams . . . very potent while in the Doors of Death.
HAZEL LXIII - LXVI
These chapters are absolutely brilliant. Hazel is busy breaking down in the depths of despair. But Leo is is too damn awesome to have that, and consoles her with kangaroo-related humor, because you can always count on Leo Valdez. Anyway, there's finally closure between the Leo/Hazel thing but who cares about that anyway because Calypseo is my new favorite ship and nothing is coming in between that. Leo's changed after being voted off the island, he has become more considerate, more watchful. He's matured. Ugh <3.
Okay so, Hazel leads us down deeper and we find the Doors, guarded by Clytius the giant and Pasiphae the bitch - I mean witch. She's very reminiscent of Circe and doesn't take shit from males, which is a character trait that is surprisingly abundant in these books considering the mythology behind them.
And then drops the big catch: someone's got to press the button on our side to open the Doors, and Clytius knows Percabeth's coming up . . . so these monsters have to be defeated stat or else Gaia is going to use our heroes as sacrifices.
But it's alright, because we've got Hazel, who has apparently mastered illusions enough to beat the arrogant Pasiphae. Leo's helpless here in Pasiphae's new Labryinth but let's not talk about that. Hazel is really badass here, working her way through with only a fundamental understanding of the Mist. I actually nodded my head in amazement at her clever thoughts, it was very Annabeth though I must apologize for comparing characters often . . .
But then, Clytius. Big bad wolf. Of course, Leo's sexy ability to throw a screwdriver opens the doors.
But still Clytius. Some crazy things happen, some untrustworthyness is revealed, some fire gets played with and Hazel does very awesome fighting that makes me love the way Riordan describes action. It's so raw.
And then the rest of our crew come and smite Clytius like the douchenozzle he is and it's such a good scene. Every painful moment has only delayed this one, where everyone works together to get Percabeth the hell out of there.
"That's my peeps!" says Leo on 562. What a guy. Our peeps teleport out and meet Reyna.
Our lovely, LOVELY ending arrives with:
PERCY LXXVII -LXXVIII
Even Riordan's resolution is full of beautiful things. Reyna tells her story, things happen, exposition that I won't spoil for you, Nico leaves, unfortunately, and our heroes sail off.
Gods this book was magnificent. I don't know how to summarize my love for it. It was incredibly well constructed, it was incredibly well written, it was incredibly baffling, and ugh wow just amazing. Simply amazing.
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