SPOIL-FREE SUMMARY
After a mission to rescue two new demigod kids, Percy and his friends run into the goddess Artemis and her hunters. But when Artemis goes missing, there is a quest to rescue her.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Percy's anxiety is a big part of this story. Because either he or Thalia could be the one who fulfills the prophecy. Also, he feels lonely without Tyson around which I though was sweet. As well as unsure about his father as he hasn't seen him since they first met. I thought his jealousy towards Thalia and Zoe made him seem rather childish. And it was never really resolved.
Annabeth is only in the beginning and the climax. She still seems to have feelings for Luke.
Thalia is a tough, leather jacket wearing girl. She can be hard to read and often loses her temper. Because of that, her and Percy end up clashing a lot. Supposedly, it's because she is a daughter of Zeus and Percy is the son of Poseidon.
Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, appears as a young girl. Her and the hunters live forever (unless killed in battle) but must give up living with men. She can be rather sexist and seems to have a grudge against the leaders of Camp Half blood. She also kills any male who finds her camp.
Nico de Angelo isn't shocked to find out he is a demigod, as he loves a trading card game about mythology. Instead, he thinks it's awesome. He is naive and doesn't understand the danger associated with his heritage.
Bianca de Angelo is more mature then her brother. This translates to her skepticism and anxiety about the revelation of her heritage. Her main goal is to stay safe.
NO BACKSTORY
I think Riordan wanted to jump right into the action but it didn't have the desired affect. I felt like I was jumping into a book but I had not read the previous one in the series.
When did Thalia become friends with Percy? How did people react to her return? How was she treated at camp?
No history is ever mentioned. That bothered me. I thought it should have been important information. He could have at least inserted some flashbacks.
A COMPLEX RELATIONSHIP?
Since Thalia, Luke and Annabeth all stayed together and eventually made it to Camp Half blood, they were really close. So Thalia should have been shocked about Luke. But we never see her first reaction. We also never gain insight into Luke's character from her.
How did Annabeth and Thalia get on? Especially since both seem to have anger issues.
How does she feel now that years have passed and yet Thalia is the same age? Has that changed their relationship dynamic?
There is no acknowledgment of any of these questions. Instead we witness Thalia crying over Annabeth, and we just have to assume they are close. Because we've never seen it, only been told that they are.
AN IMPORTANT DECISION-SPOILERS
In the beginning of the story, Bianca decides to join Artemis and her hunters. This means she will live forever, never age, and live with the all female group. She joins without any thought or hesitation.
I didn't understand her motivation at all. From what I knew of her, it made no sense. Why would she leave her brother, who has been her only family her entire life?
Not only that, I thought it should have been a shocking decision. But since I didn't really know her character, it had no impact on me but confusion. She later says she thought she would be safe with them, but this just made her seem selfish. She would leave her brother so she, alone, could be safe? She barely knew Percy, and she knew no one at the camp.
Percy too thinks she is selfish at first, then later, for no reason at all, says whatever makes her happy is fine. There is no development of knowledge, no relationship formed. He just changes his mind for no reason.
APHRODITE SAYS ANNABETH
Aphrodite shows up and tells Percy she helped him in his quest. She hints that he is in love with Annabeth, even though Percy isn't quite sure of his own feelings. I found her annoying, especially her pushing one's desires above all else. I wish Percy would have given her more push back although at least he notes the love story she tells is an awful one where innocent people die so a pair of lovers can be together.
It was like he was being told what to do not just by Aphrodite, but Riordan as well. He was making it really clear, if you didn't get it by now: Percy loves Annabeth.
A DEATH
A character we barely know dies and it effects Percy, because this character dies for him. But the reader barely knows the character at all, so it felt awkward. I felt like I should have got to know this character, or at least the character should have gotten close to Percy. Then the death could have made sense, and actually evoked the emotion it was trying to.
But then again, when another character learns of the death (at the end of the book), they freak out and I got the sneaking suspicion that the only reason for this death was so that a character could react to it. Basically the character wasn't important, their death was.
MOM OF THE YEAR
Percy calls his mom to ask for his advice, and she tells her son to do whatever he wants to do. Because...she says he is too old for her to tell him what to do. At fourteen. Right.
She says “follow your heart”. Because that's not generic or dangerous advice. This scene was so badly written and it made little sense. It's not as if he called his mom when he wasn't chosen for a quest to save Grover but went anyway. He suddenly feels guilty about breaking the rules? It wasn't consistent at all.
RANDOM HISTORY
Percy is ready to sneak off when Dyonisus stops him. Then, for some unknown reason, the god reveals his personal history, explaining why he hates heroes. I found it interesting but I didn't understand why it was shared. Mr. D then lets Percy go, and was most likely never going to stop him anyway.
Perhaps the scene was meant to induce sympathy for Mr. D. It didn't really. Yes, he has a wife waiting for him, but the whole adultery thing Percy notes and that Mr. D shrugs off, doesn't really do him any credit. I think the intention was good, to reveal information about Mr. D, but it just made no sense as it wasn't earned.
They should have spent some actual time together, like helping on a quest, or Percy going to him multiple times for advice or something. Instead we got one short interaction and are supposed to believe some respect has magically formed between them.
Later on, Mr. D saves the kids lives. I think that first scene was supposed to make this one make sense. As if somehow Percy had earned his respect. But it wasn't believable.
PERCY PROVES HIS METTLE
Percy ends up saving those on a quest and earning his spot. He is at a space museum so she runs into the souvenir shop. He rips open a bag of space food and tosses it into a monsters open mouth.
It's hard to believe that the monster was at the angle to put it in; didn't turn at the last minute; didn't just spit it out or cough slightly. Or that the small bag was enough to do any damage to a huge monster.
I basically thought the whole thing was a bad joke. Maybe it would have been fine in something less important, but Percy proving himself to the hunters was kind of important.
SIDE TRIP
Percy and company are on a quest to save Annabeth, and they see the hoover dam. Annabeth likes architecture, so they postpone the quest to save her and go sightseeing. It would be respectful to her to stop and sight-see. And disrespectful to continue on the quest to try and save her.
That is the actual logic used. I am not joking. It's “on the way” to go into a huge dam and take a tour.
I think Riordan needed a scene to happen here, because Percy meets a mortal who can see through the mist, and then uses some statues near it to escape. But again, the logic was so laughably bad.
ANNABETH'S FAMILY
Percy and his friends end up getting help from Annabeth's dad, and meeting her stepmother. Both seem like nice and caring people. So was Annabeth lying about what she told Percy before? About how her step mom wanted her gone and her father didn't care? Or have things changed since then? If so, it would have been nice if the stepmother had taken Percy aside and told him to apologize to Annabeth for her.
It could easily make sense. As a child, Annabeth overreacted or misunderstood some events that happened to her. It would only take a sentence or two to explain it, and yet it's forgotten.
A TWIST
Near the end, a character joins the hunters. I don't know if this was supposed to be a shock, but I just found it annoying. After all, there are no hints throughout the story that this character was leaning that way (if anything, they despised the hunters more than most and desired to be mortal more than others).
It was just so another character who was suspected of joining, could be let off the hook. It was red herring. But it just felt like lazy writing.
It shouldn't have been out of the blue, it should have made sense. But it didn't. Instead, it was like, Percy can keep a character he has gotten to know well and get rid of this other one, who he doesn't really get on with anyway.
Also, it felt like running away. As the prophecy can't happen to this character now. It falls on Percy. No one even acknowledges this, as if it's not something horrible for him to have to go through.
ZOE THE HUNTRESS
Zoe is the huntress on the quest. Percy eventually finds out that she was betrayed by a hero, which is why she mistrusts them. She had her heart broken and then got kicked out her family and became a huntress. The problem was, I just never got to know her. Just like Thalia, she was two dimensional. Arrogant and pushy. But a victim, so that's explanation enough. Again, just like Thalia.
CLIMAX-SPOILERS
Annabeth and Artemis are saved. Thalia confronts Luke, but it's rather underwhelming. Unlike Annabeth, she has no qualms about trying to kill him. One character dies, another becomes a hunter. I didn't really care about either. I felt it was tossing away of a new character without little thought.
CONCLUSION
The story itself isn't bad. The pacing is good and Riordan tries to resolve things with Annabeth and her father. But big events of the story are awkwardly written. Mainly a character we barely know making a life changing decision that makes no sense and then dying just so someone can freak out about it. Not to mention the easily tossing away of a new character with little thought. Two characters die and I felt nothing for them. A sign of shallow characters. I give “The Titan's Curse” two stars.
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