The Titan's Curse
This book was fun to read, just like the two first ones, but it left me a bit wary.It kinda feels like Riordan is trying to push a romantic triangle. If that is the case, I'm gonna be so disappointed. I mean, really? Is that the only thing you can think of? There are two boys and a girl, there has to be a romantic triangle? And it wouldn't even fit! The suggestions towards it in this book, showing, supposedly, Percy's "developing feelings" for Annabeth and her "long-lasting infatuation" with Luke were so grotesque and out of character that it looks like, after the books was done, he tried to shove the roots of a romantic triangle in it.
I really hope that's not what happens. So far, I was loving the relationship between those three characters. Percy and Annabeth were genuine friends, with pasts that, although not exactly the same, were similar enough for them to identify with each other. Plus, they have a shared history of fighting side by side. Yes, there were a few suggestions of feelings for each other, but they were so awkward that it could be discounted as a simple reaction to growing up beside someone of the opposite gender. Annabeth's feelings for Luke were more like the development of the hero worship a little girl would feel towards her protector in a world full of monsters.
I might be wrong. Riordan's writing in this book is, just like in the first two, way too obvious when it comes to the characters' feelings and motivations, and very clumsy when it comes to character development. Maybe I'm just reading it wrong, and that's not what it means at all. The whole thing is told by Percy's point of view, and it's painfully obvious that the books' narratives are contaminated by a teenager white boy world view, so maybe it's actually a really smooth and subtle way of showing their development. Percy doesn't know how to react to the things happening around him and to how much Annabeth means to him, so he confuses it with romantic feelings.
Yes. Please, let it be so. Oh, I so hope I'm wrong!