Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Last Olympian – Ch 7

Grover stops hitting the snooze button and everything goes to Hades! All this and more on the seventh installment of Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Last Olympian, or as Riordan called this chapter…

My Math Teacher Gives Me A Lift

This one’s another react-as-I-read entry, so hold on to your butts. Before I even start in, from that chapter title I’m immediately expecting…oh, what was her name, anyway? From the first book, she was an erinye/fury. I keep wanting to say Mrs. Davenport, but that’s my seventh grade math teacher.

A mysterious guy in black making everyone exceedingly drowsy? My immediate guess is that it’s Death’s brother, Sleep. Ya know, given how everyone is falling asleep and such. (That’s not exactly a Holmes-ian deduction, however, I won’t congratulate myself too much on this one if I get it right.)

Well, phooey. It’s just Sleep’s son, Morpheus. Now I feel silly, especially as the narrative had previously named-dropped Morpheus as joining Kronos’s side. (Okay, so I may be a little too fixated on Sleep/Hypnos due to plot ideas I’m fiddling with for the Zeus Is Dead follow-up.)

But yikes, Grover’s been asleep for two months? Bummer. (He could have used that time to binge-watch Doctor Who or something.)

“I couldn’t imagine how much Drano we’d need to un-stick a hellhound wedged halfway down a tunnel to the Underworld.”

My initial reaction here is to think that Drano would be exceedingly bad for the hellhound’s skin, but then hey, what do I know about hellhound dermatology? (The answer I’m looking for here is “very little.”)

Mrs. Dodd’s, that’s it! (Hey, I got the D right.) And at long last, I get to find out which one of the Eryines she is! Alecto! (Bummer. She felt more like Tisophone to me, but that’s just based on my own characterizations, so I’ve no complaints about Riordan’s here.)

But moving on… !!! Nico’s whole plan has been a trap?! A trick? A ruse? GAH! (And I STILL don’t even know what it is.) Geez, Nico, I used to like you. But I’m wondering if it’s entirely a trick, or an actual legitimate plan that they’ll wind up doing anyway. Speaking meta, here, if it were entirely a trick, it would have already been made clear to the reader, no?

Way to keeping me guessing, Riordan… 🙂

“So this whole quest was a lie. Nico brought me down here to get me killed.”
“Oh, no,” Hades said. “I’m afraid Nico was quite sincere about wanting to help you. The boy is as honest as he is dense. I simply convinced him to take a small detour and bring you here first.”

Aha! I guess I didn’t have to wait long, huh? *reads more* …Except Hades certainly has no intention of letting the mystery-plan come to fruition. Dang, Hades, that’s cold. (I mean, entirely in character, but… cold.) Poseidon AND Zeus are going to kick his ass.

I mean, ya know, if they survive.

So Percy’s kinda screwed, trapped in Hades, and pretty much everything just went down he tubes  in terms of planning. I’m not yet sure how he’s going to get himself out of this, but my immediate guess is Mrs. O’Leary will be involved. I do want to stop and make one more Zeus Is Dead comparison, since Demeter has shown up. Have we seen her before in these books (beyond a sentence or two)?

“That boy needs to eat more,” Demeter grumbled. “He’s too skinny. He needs more cereal.”
Persephone rolled her eyes. “Mother, enough with the cereal…”

Riordan’s Demeter is a bit more stern than mine, but I like her so far. For my own take on Demeter, I’d decided she’d gone a bit…eccentric over the years, and pushed her toward more of a good-naturedly oblivious nurturer type. So rather than criticizing Hades here, the Zeus Is Dead Demeter would likely just be trying to have everyone get along and play nice, albeit while still pushing the cereal.

Join me next time, when I’ll (presumably) see how Percy gets out of this one! 😀