#i cried ...

this was my favorite book during the youth and i reread it the most out of the series and coming back to it and coming back to nico ... felt like coming home. i just love this book

the thalia-percy power struggle!! WHAT we deserve!!!!! i loved every single second of it; their fight after the capture the flag, losing Annabeth, etc.

there was a LOT of foreshadowing of nico and bianca and i just feel like [eye emoji] that i didn’t get it when i was young. nico said in the first few chapters ‘wouldnt it be cool if you could be resurrected after you die and keep fighting’ then bianca banishing the skeleton soldiers then bianca picking out the gold in the junkyard

i once again want to point out the importance of the luke-annabeth-thalia family unit, which drives the whole plot 

when i was little, i didn’t care for or against bianca and i loved her in general but as an adult i resent her for joining the hunt? it felt so. selfish of her? which i can see though as a hades trait as well but still. but her death was also written so poignant. 

same thing with zoe; the whole book focuses on making zoe old (her thee/thy speech, her timelessness, references to immortality, then the fact she knew hercules) that her demise is so...shocking? and everything “i can see the stars again my lady” “live through the stars” how zoe also used to say the stars were clearer...

also the weight of the world was also written beautifully

and i was also really moved by thalia and luke’s fight. the clashes of lightning and thalia’s tears (also motivated by thalia’s want to trust luke / similar interests as she was tempted by bessie). 

THEN when thalia had the chance to kill luke, she hesitated and annabeth stepped in truly showing how broken the family unit between them has become which can later be paralleled to the last olympian climax when percy has a choice, annabeth interferes, and luke makes his choice. 

overall, the climax battle made me shed a few tears with thalia-luke’s battle, the brokenness of thalia-luke-annabeth, percy holding the world, zoe’s death and in addition to bianca and nico’s tragedies which i think is why this book struck me so much today still and as a kid

this book also sets the stage of the seriousness of the overall pjo climax by showing the broken thalia-luke-annabeth family unit 

also annabeth was going to tell percy things (one at the school nico and bianca were at then at the end of book) but idk what they are ? am i dumb 

very well paced and so witty and engaging with emotional ups and downs (bianca’s death to the dam snackbar to thalia’s emotional meltdown) and it’s the first time death is truly introduced in these series which is why it moves the pjo series into another level

ALSO percy’s change from being angry/embarrassed all the time to accepting in the conclusion (angry at sallys new boyfriend to again loving his mom and supporting her)