In The Mark of Athena, 16 year old Annabeth Chase has been under a lot of pressure lately. For one, she’s discovered where her boyfriend who has been missing for months is. That sounds good, right? Thing is, he’s in a rivaling camp. And I don’t mean camp olympics rivals, I mean cause earth-shattering wars rivals. That tends to happen when the half-god children of the Greek and Roman gods hold a grudge for thousands of years. Now, Annabeth is faced with the monumental task of making both camps buddy up. If that isn’t enough, she also has to deal with a magic coin that could possibly lead to the destruction of the world as we know it. Does that sound like a little too much for one girl? Well, she also has seven friends to help her on her quest. Piper, Leo, Percy, Jason, Hazel, Frank and coach Hedge are there to help her along the way. You think failing a test is the end of the world? Well, if these eight teens fail, that’s exactly what it’s going to be.
Rick Rioridan fans won’t be disappointed with his latest installment in the Greek and Roman series. He still manages to keep you in suspense while you laugh your butt off. The characters, unlike many I have read about lately, are neither under developed nor over developed. He gives the characters good backstories without going too crazy (trust me, I’ve read some backstories that make Hazel coming back from the dead seem as normal as walking down the street) and the powers are never unjustified. Frank’s amazing powers are foiled by his clumsiness and sometimes lacking common sense. Leo’s ability to summon fire is foiled by his overactive emotions, and Hazel’s ability to pull precious metals from the earth is foiled by her trouble dealing with the past. No character is perfect to the point where you hate them, and no character is flawed to the point where you hate them. That’s a hard thing to do, and Rick Rioridan never fails to do it.
There’s a little bit of everything for everyone. If you like romance, there’s plenty of that. Action? Are gigantic squid monsters good enough for you? There’s mystery, drama, mythology, and my personal favorite, humor. That’s right. When they aren’t fighting for the sake of the world, they are cracking jokes or making some sarcastic comment about the fact that they could die at any second. One of my personal favorite moments is when Leo describes a huge sea monster as “a shrimp with evil nose hairs.”
With so many characters, you’re bound to find one you can relate to. They’re all around the same age as most of the people who are reading, so they’re going through some of the stuff their readers are -- relationship troubles, figuring out who they are, and family troubles. Then, of course, they fight mythological monsters returned from the dead. If you do that, then this might be a bit boring for you. But for most of us, the book is interesting and really puts the characters’ personalities to extreme tests that will show that under all those magic powers and godly relations, they’re really just teens going through what we are. Maybe you’ll be able to slip into Hazel’s shoes the easiest, or maybe Jason’s. With so many characters, there’s someone for everyone.
Rick Rioridan is great at blending ancient myths and modern day life. The gods and monsters have all adapted to the times, like how Hercules became your stereotypical “too cool for school” teenager or how Narcius became like a celebrity that millions of girls have posters of in their rooms: stereotypical pretty boys with perfect hair, perfect eyes, and a nice bodies. If you can imagine a better modern adaptation for a man that fell in love with his reflection, be my guest.
I think my favorite part of The Mark of Athena is that it keeps me guessing more than any other book by Riordan yet. Multiple times, my mother had to pull this away from me and hide it so I could go too bed. Almost every single chapter leads into the other so well that you just can’t help but want to read on. The chapters are bite-sized, so you’ll find yourself saying “...one more chapter. Then I’ll go to bed,” for the millionth time. The only thing I didn’t like about this book was it kept me up late reading, and I ended up dragging my feet the next day.

To sum it up, The Mark of Athena is an amazing page-turner packed with twists, turns and cliff hangers that will keep you guessing. The characters are great, nothing is rushed, and the only thing I could complain about is not having enough time to spend reading it.

If you loved Percy Jackson, be sure to pick up this amazing sequel.