Goodreads Choice Awards Book Club discussion

Here is the place to discuss Mark of Athena, the Goodreads 2012 Award Choice Winner in the Middle Grade Children's category.

When you have finished reading, let us know if you would have voted for the book to be a winner in this category. (You can see a list of the nominees here: http://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards...

What was your favorite character?
Which character, if any, did you struggle with?
What did you like/dislike about the story?
Did this book interest you enough to read other books written by
Rick Riordan Here's a link to him and his other books: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...

This is next on my list :)

I just started!!

Rick Riordan did an amazing job as always, I can't wait for the house of hades :)

Almost done! Enjoying the plot.

Read it...happy that they kept certain characters together and can't wait for the next read -- he kept the action going and the interaction was great!!

Very good job by Rick Riordan. I love his characters and the way he introduces adult topics in such a subtle way that one has to really be looking to find them. He remembers his followers are not only children, but include adults as well.

I just finished and I loved it. I think it was better than the second one with all the demigods together. The only thing I was a bit tired of is (view spoiler)[all the whining: "no one loves me", "I'm useless"... (hide spoiler)]

I also finally finished, and I really loved this part, definitely it is better than the previous one in my opinion, but I got a little bit tired of the structure of the book, after reading three parts in a row, most probably. All in all it was great fun to read it

Loved this book! Although he left the evilest cliffhanger (still have to wait 'til October) (view spoiler)[ It should be interesting to see the gang with Nico and without Percy and Annabeth. I wonder what he is going to do with it (hide spoiler)]

Vanessa wrote: "I just finished and I loved it. I think it was better than the second one with all the demigods together. The only thing I was a bit tired of is [spoilers removed]"

I agree, that started to get a bit annoying after a while. But it was still great.

Sophia wrote: "Loved this book! Although he left the evilest cliffhanger (still have to wait 'til October) [spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[ I think he is going to unwind the story in two pararell subplots until the two parties meet at The Doors of Death. I can't imagine the story without Percy and Annabeth (hide spoiler)]

I just finished it, I really liked it. :-) I can't wait for the next book!

I just plugged my kobo in to charge...I'm going to finish this today!

Yea Joanne! :-). Let us know what you think of it, your favorite parts, characters, etc. :-)

I didn't finish it :( I got distracted by Les Mis. I did read a good chunk of it, they've just finished with Heracles/Hercules. I have to say that I'm not liking Percy in this one. I likes him in Son of Neptune but he's irritating me in this. Kind of like Harry in HP and the Order of the Phoenix! I am liking Hazel/Leo/Frank. One question though, how old are middle school children?

Joanne wrote: "I didn't finish it :( I got distracted by Les Mis. I did read a good chunk of it, they've just finished with Heracles/Hercules. I have to say that I'm not liking Percy in this one. I likes him in S..."

I think (not sure) that they are between 8 and 11 years old.

Aren't they like from 12 to 15?

I just don't get how this is a middle school book, it seems to be crossing a line between kids and YA. Like when (view spoiler)[ Percy and Annabeth get in trouble for falling asleep together in the stables, and they say all they did was sleep. I could see my grade 5 kid wanting to know what else they could have done! (hide spoiler)] So basically, I don't think I would categorise it as Middle school for that.

I finished! Woohoo! My reading mojo came back....I guess I took an extra long lunch...oops!

Did you enjoy the book Joanne? How did you feel about the ending?

I did and I didn't, I couldn't get in to it at first and the first two I read in a matter of hours. But having said that, I couldn't get in to any book for the last week or so. I liked the ending, I did see it coming, well at least the Annabeth part. I did find it was getting a bit Twilightish in parts. Mostly with Piper and her thoughts about having Jason as a boyfriend, it reminded me of Bella and bugged me...there was a line, I can't remember it now, but when I read in I thought seriously?! Is it bad that I want one of the couples to break up?! I liked the Leo/Sammy connection and I also liked Leo and Frank bonding over the fire thing. I don't like that Leo is the seventh wheel or that there's some weird triangle with him, Hazel and Frank. While I liked the Annabeth solo storyline I HATE SPIDERS!!! I have nightmares about them constantly and I'm blaming the people who voted for this book if I have nightmares tonight!!! When I figured out where Annabeths story was going I wanted to scream...by then I was into the book but SPIDERS...ARGH!!!! I gave it 4 stars, but I really wanted to give it 3.5. I preferred the first two books but again it could just be because my reading mojo was awol!

Or it could have been because of the SPIDERS!!! (I don't like spiders either!)

I had issues before they appeared. I tried to skim those pages, so I wouldn't take in too much imagery...I hope it worked!!!

I hope it did too ☺

To answer the questions at the top of discussion, here is what I think.

When you have finished reading, let us know if you would have voted for the book to be a winner in this category.
Probably! I think Rick Riordan is an amazing writer (2 of his books were nominated) and I really liked the series so far. However, I can't really tell since I haven't read any other in the category. Talking about category, Middle grade, really? I found this link and it said middle grade was from 8 to 12 years old. The content was very mature for this age group (I think).

What was your favorite character?
Leo even despite his constant whining.

Which character, if any, did you struggle with?
Maybe Piper who was too insecure about Jason.

What did you like/dislike about the story?
The whining, otherwise I thought the plot was great.

Did this book interest you enough to read other books written by Rick Riordan
Oh YES!!!

Vanessa wrote: "To answer the questions at the top of discussion, here is what I think.

When you have finished reading, let us know if you would have voted for the book to be a winner in this category.
Probably!..."

I agree with a lot of what Vanessa said. I don't think it really falls in to Middle School, some of the content just wasn't age appropriate. There was too much whining, I get plenty of that in my day to day life...I don't want to be surrounded by whining kids in my book world too!!! There was a few times in the book where I wanted to yell at them or tell them to suck it up!! I will read the next one when it comes out and maybe I will read the Percy Jackson series at some point to.

One thing that I don't get is the ADHD thing...while it's a cool way to make a large group of kids not seem to weird, I have one of those kids and if she was given a quest in which the fate of the world depended on her completing it? Well....we're doomed!!!!

Joanne wrote: One thing that I don't get is the ADHD thing...while it's a cool way to make a large group of kids not seem to weird, I have one of those kids and if she was given a quest in which the fate of the world depended on her completing it? Well....we're doomed!!!!

ROFLOL!! Yeah, these are certainly well focused ADHD kids in Riordan's books.

I, too, struggled with getting into this one at first. I had to put it down for a couple of months and come back to it when I was more in the mood for a Percy adventure. I flew through it this time around! The one character I do find kind of annoying is Coach Hedge. It's because I loved Grover SO much and I'm having a hard time with Riordan's satyr replacement. I'm hoping he brings Grover into the last 2 books somehow...I miss him and his interactions with Percy! Otherwise, I loved this last installment and cannot wait for the next!

I liked it, excited for the next one!