Book Report

The House of Hades by: Rick Riordan

Report by: Vikram Ruppa-Kasani

Setting
This book is a book in which the author switches the point of view every chapter this is why the
setting switch very rapidly. In this book there are seven main characters. For five of them the
main setting is the Argo 2 a ship built by Leo Valdez one of the seven. They use the Argo 2 to get
to place where a few of them usually 3 go on mini quests to find information about their big
quest. Some of these mini quests take place in Italy while others take place in magical islands
there are many. The other main setting is the one the other 2 main characters are stuck in. This is
Tartarus; these two characters come to many unique places in Tartarus such as the shrine to
Apollo (a Greek god).
Main Characters
Frank Zhang
Frank is a very dynamic character in the book he is one of the chosen 7 for the great prophecy.
Frank is the son of the Roman god Mars the god of war. He has the rare power to shape shift
into any animal of his choice. He is the boyfriend of Hazel Levesque, and he is a Chinese
Canadian. At the start of the book Frank feels like he is the weakest of the seven although many
of friend do not feels like that. In Italy when Frank kills over 100 katobleps (huge rhinoceroslooking creatures. He becomes a lot more confident in himself, and he received the blessing of
Mars which made him buffer and stronger. This gave him a big change in confidence which
makes him a very dynamic character
Hazel Levesque
Hazel is the daughter of the roman god Pluto and she is the sister of Nico di Angelo Hazel was
dead until she found a way back to the real world. She is now one of the 7 chosen ones. She is
also very dynamic character in the book. Hazel has the rare power to summon cursed gemstone
out of the ground. At the start of the book Hecate the goddess of magic warns Hazel she must
learn how to change the mist or in other words use magic. At first she is very nervous and she
cannot see how she could ever do it, but after a magical pirate invades Argo 2 she manipulates
the mist and defats the pirate. She then becomes more confident in her abilities, and in the end
she is able to defeat the evil sorcerer. This is why she is also a very dynamic character.

Nico di Angelo
Nico is a very dynamic character as well. Nico is the son of Hades the Greek god of the
underworld. Like his sister Hazel, Nico is also from an earlier period. At the start of the book
Nico is very grateful that the chosen 7 saved him form a terrible giant. He promises that he will
lead them to the human entrance of the doors of death and he plans to help them defeat the
giants. This all changes when he and Jason Grace the son of the roman god Jupiter. Go on a quest
to retrieve arthimedes spear. While getting the spear Cupid (the god of love) forces Nico to admit
he is gay. This makes him embarrassed, and he promises to leave and never return even if the
others still like him after they find the doors of death.
Exposition
Three roman demigods and four Greek demigods are forced to go on a quest to save the world
from the hands of Gaea. Percy, one of the Greek demigods is the son of Poseidon. He has the
ability to control water, breathe under water and communicate with animals. He is the boyfriend
to Annabeth Chase. Annabeth, another one of the Greek demigods is the son of Athena. Annabeth
is very smart and is a good planner. She is the girlfriend to Percy Jackson. Jason Grace, one of
the Roman demigods. Jason has the ability to fly and control lightning. He is the boyfriend of
Piper Mclean. Piper, one of the roman demigods is the daughter of Venus. She has the ability to
charm speak or will people into doing something with words. She is the girlfriend of Jason
Grace. There are 4 more characters like this Hazel, Nico, Frank, Leo. The start of the book starts
off with an attack right after people are thinking about how Percy and Annabeth are doing in
Tartarus. The group had been trying to get to the doors of death, but every pathway was blocked
by Gaeas minions.
Rising Action
The rising action in this book is when the group finds more information about what they have to
fight. For example when Hecate tells Hazel that she must fight an evil sorcerer using magic, and
she must win if they were ever going to find Annabeth and Percy. There is also rising action
when they are in danger. An example of this is when Khinoe almost destroyed their ship when
they were invaded. As they grew closer to the doors of death and the horrors that waited inside
the rising action grew, and when they were being attacked the rising action spiked and then went
down.
Climax
The climax of the story occurs when 6 of the demigods are fighting the giants of magic which is
Clytius with Hecate. Clytius is one of the most powerful giants. Even with all of them fighting
Clytius he seems to not be hurt at all even though he is constantly getting hit. They only manage
to kill Clytius when Hazel uses magic to distract Clytius, and Leo torches Clytius with fire his
only weakness after that Hecate finishes him off.
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Falling Actions
After they take down Clytius they meet Reyna who talks about bringing the statue to camp halfblood. Nico and Coach Hedge go with her. The rest of the chosen head to Athens where they will
eventually try to stop Gaea form rising. The falling action is very short in this book because the
story continues in book five of the series.
Resolution
The conclusion is definitely open-ended in this book. Like many of the previous books in the
series, there is more to be done. The only closed book will be the last book as it the last of the
series. Even though this is definitely an open-ended conclusion it still has a neat part to it. The
neat part is that the characters have to get to Athens, but it is open-ended because they dont have
a set pathway to take in order for them to get there.
Conflict
The conflict is external in this book. Although there is a lot of option that the characters can take
that requires internal conflict, the majority of the conflict is external. For example when Hazel
knows she has to face the evil sorcerer she spends a lot more energy fighting instead of thinking.
This is common with almost characters. In fact, there are only 3 characters that have a good
amount of internal conflict, Hazel, Nico, and Coach Hedge while every character has external
conflict.
Theme
The overall theme of this book is teamwork. This book shows that anything is possible. For
example when the small demigods were up against an almost invincible giant they still beat him
as a team. The book also shows that they cover each others weaknesses so together they are
unstoppable. For example when their ship got invaded by Khinoe Piper saved them, and when
they had to get Hazel cured, Frank saved them. This is why I think teamwork is the theme.

Summary
I think the book was very good, and well written. The author goes into the characters
very deeply, and he interprets their each and every move perfectly. He also builds the story up
and he lets out suspense very profoundly and sagaciously. The plot of the story was also well
developed, and he switched point of views with ease. He never left out information when he
switched, and he always had me into the book.
What I really loved about the book though was how the author could think of little
obstacles. For example, when the two dwarfs stole their stuff, and Jason and Leo had to fly after
them was awesome. He also connected the mini conflicts. For example, when Jason and Leo
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caught the dwarfs they found things that led them to Italy. I thought this was a very good book,
and I would recommend it to everyone of all ages.