I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure about this one when I started it. It doesn’t work as a standalone book as the beginning makes no sense unless you have already read The Lost Hero. However, if you have read The Lost Hero first, then there is no suspense about why Percy Jackson has lost his memory or whether he will regain it.
In fact a second book in a row where the hero has amnesia is tedious in places. Camp Jupiter is also less welcoming than camp Half-blood, which makes it harder for the reader to invest in the characters. I can’t help but feel that the first two books in this series would have been better had the events happened simultaneously so that they could have been entwined in one book.
Fortunately, Frank and Hazel from this book are strong enough to win the reader over, and the second half of the book is enjoyable. There are also enough teasers at the end to promise that the third book, The Mark of Athena, will be a good one.