The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson & the Olympians #4) by Rick Riordan

Reviewed by Jennifer

Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

Ratings Explanation

Language: “Thanks the gods” used as an exclamation.

Violence: Empousi, monsters that are half vampire, exist to feed on the blood of young men. Percy slashes through one with his sword and she explodes. Another weird, disturbing monster, who is half woman and half dragon, attacks Tyson with poison swords. Percy battles a monster with 3 chests. He shoots an arrow through all three hearts, killing him. Monsters throw hot lava on Percy and his skin starts to burn. King Minos is completely bound with string and dies. A centaur is stabbed in the chest with a javelin. Percy is put in an arena to fight for the entertainment of monsters. He kills one monster and then fights another half-blood boy. He has the boy at sword point, but lets him go. He then fights another monster, killing him. Kronos’s army launches a full scale attack on Camp Half-Blood; there is a lot of fighting and many monsters die. A few campers are also killed in the battle.

Sexual Content: Annabeth is the the daughter of Athena and a mortal man. Athena was born out of Zeus’s head; born literally from thoughts. As Annabeth explains to Percy, “I was a brain child. Literally. Children of Athena are sprung from the divine thoughts of our mother and the mortal ingenuity of our father.” That’s as far as the explanation goes. Annabeth kisses Percy.

Adult Themes: Nico, son of Hades, summons the dead. His dead sister appears to him.  He also summons an army from the underworld to combat the monsters attacking Camp Half-Blood.

Synopsis

This 4th book in the series starts with Percy scoping out another new school at orientation. He is attacked immediately by two monsters masquerading as cheerleaders, but with the help of his new mortal friend, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, who can see through the Mist, Percy escapes unscathed to Camp Half-Blood.

When the camp discovers that Luke is leading Kronos’s army there by way of Daedalus’s legendary labyrinth, Annabeth is called on a quest. She is to find Daedalus’s workshop, enlist his help and stop the progress of the advancing army. The quest team, consisting of Annabeth, Percy, Grover and Tyson, must first learn how to navigate the constantly changing labyrinth. Enlisting help in some unusual places, they find Daedalus, but it is too late; Luke’s army beat them to the workshop by an hour. Now the race is on to see who will reach camp first. Will Annabeth and Percy arrive in time to sound the alarm and help defend Camp Half-Blood? Or will Luke and his army destroy the camp as they have promised?

This has been my favorite book yet in the series. Percy is a flawed hero, bumbling things up regularly, but he is always loyal; he never wavers in his allegiance to what he sees as the right cause. He is unfailingly true to his friends, and never blood thirsty or vengeful.

©2010 The Literate Mother