The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan | Book Review

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

The Heroes of Olympus #1
First Published: 2010
Paperback & Kindle
Young Adult, Mythology
Rating:

Jason has a problem. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up on a school bus holding hands with a girl. Apparently he has a girlfriend named Piper. His best friend is a kid named Leo, and they’re all students in the Wilderness School, a boarding school for “bad kids”, as Leo puts it. What he did to end up here, Jason has no idea — except that everything seems very wrong.
Piper has a secret. Her father, a famous actor, has been missing for three days, and her vivid nightmares reveal that he’s in terrible danger. Now her boyfriend doesn’t recognize her, and when a freak storm and strange creatures attack during a school field trip, she, Jason, and Leo are whisked away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood. What is going on?
Leo has a way with tools. His new cabin at Camp Half-Blood is filled with them. Seriously, the place beats Wilderness School hands down, with its weapons training, monsters, and fine-looking girls. What’s troubling is the curse everyone keeps talking about, and that a camper’s gone missing. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist they are all—including Leo—related to a god.

You might be a bit surprised I'm only reading this now. In actuality, this was a re-read because I've finally decided to commit myself to the whole series but I can't remember all that went down in the first couple of books.

I feel kind of sad I don't have a review for the original read because it's a bit harder to compare the two experiences, but The Lost Hero fared a lot better than my re-read of the Percy Jackson series, which took months on months to happen.

The first thing I noticed, which may have gotten past me the first time around, was how smart it was of Riordan to start this series with these heroes. The first time I remember wanting the comfort of my beloved characters; Annabeth, Percy, Grover... But that's precisely why Riordan had to start the series this way. He had to first disconnect it from the Percy Jackson series, and second... make us want the next book (PERCY) like an addict needs his next fix.

What I really enjoyed in this re-read is noticing all the puns, all the play-on-words, all the little hints Riordan throws around all the time. It was discovering a new layer to the story. It was in a whole other level than PJ, I'll tell you that.

So what is the Lost Hero about? The worst enemies of the gods are stirring. And as usual, the gods need their children to do their dirty work. Which is how Jason finds himself in a school bus without any memories, with Piper and Leo who claim they're his best friends.

Jason, Piper and Leo must go on a quest to return Jason's memories, save a father and a goddess. This is the beginning of the Prophecy coming into fruition, and the enemies they're about to face are many and versatile. They will need to use all the weapons in their arsenal - beauty, brains and a whole lot of winging it - to succeed.

So how are these new heroes compared to the OGs?

I love love love Leo. He's honestly one of my favorite characters in this whole universe. He's quirky, funny, and so so lovable. The only thing I can't figure out is how many godly creations are going to tell the guys Leo is super important before everyone figure out that LEO IS NOT JUST A SIDEKICK DUMB-ASSES!

Piper is pretty cool. I adore the name because of Charmed (best tv show eva! haha) and Piper is a good character by the power of character growth alone (and other elements). She grows up a lot throughout the gang's short journey, finding a sense of confidence and comfort in herself that she lacked at first.

Then we have Jason. Jason to me is the Captain America of this series. This is not a good thing, as it took me about four movies to finally like Cap as a character, and Civil War for me to actually love him. To me, Jason is a little too perfect, which makes him boring. It wasn't until Cap was put in a test of his morals and loyalties divided that he became interesting. Jason, at this point, is just not interesting to me.

The gods and the monsters we encounter throughout the novel are top notch, as always. Riordan still manages to breathe fresh air into the mythology, with twists and turns and gods awful descriptions that you can wrinkle your nose at.

All in all, a really strong opening to a series.