Percy and Hera's Problems are Intertwined in The Lost Hero

           I'm currently reading The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan. It's the first book in The Heroes of Olympus series. I'm not a big fan of Rick Riordan's books, but I decided to read it because I did like the Percy Jackson series, and this book is sort of like a spin-off series of that. Basically, the book is about three people--Jason, Piper, and Leo, who get sent to Camp Half-Blood because they're children of gods. Jason doesn't remember anything before he woke up at a wilderness school for troublemakers. Piper is positive that Jason is her boyfriend, but doesn't know why he can't remember anything, and Leo is a boy with ADHD who is positive that Jason is his best friend and Leo can control fire. All three of them have to go on a mission to rescue Hera, the goddess of gods. Also, Percy Jackson, a well known half-blood has been missing from camp for a long time and people are out looking for him. I think Percy Jackson disappearing has something to do with Hera being captured.

          The reason I think that it's connected is for a bunch of reasons. The first is that one of the 3 main characters thought they were connected, and whatever the main character says in the book is always right in Rick Riordan's books (He's so lame like that). I can't find the exact quote, but either Jason or Piper said that Percy being missing and Hera being captured are somehow connected. Rick Riordan always makes the main characters really special in some way, with some special power that no one has, and they are generally right about things. The way Rick Riordan writes makes things very predictable, so it's kind of clear that this is true.

          Also, the fact that Hera was captured and Percy disappeared seems like a big coincidence, so they have to be connected somehow. I think Percy is either also captured by the same person who captured Hera, which could be very possible because Percy is very powerful, and whoever captured Hera might have done it for her power, he might be fighting whoever captured Hera, because Percy Jackson is really powerful and goes on dangerous missions a lot, or he might have been the one who captured Hera. The last option is highly unlikely, but it would make the story a lot more exciting, and it's possible if Hera was trying to do something bad (because she has kind of a bad personality), Percy is a do-gooder, so he might be trying to stop her. These were all possible reasons I thought of that might be a reason that Percy being missing is connected to Hera being captured.

          This is why I think that Percy being missing is connected to Hera being captured. This is really important in the book, because Percy going missing and Hera getting captured are two problems that need to be solved, and if they are connected, then that would be a big part of the storyline.

Sophie Accepts Her Inner Demon in Demonglass

          I'm currently reading Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins, which is the second book in the Hex Hall series. The main character, Sophie, is a demon. Her father is the head of the Council, and Sophie will become the next head when she's older. Until recently in the book, Sophie wanted to go through the Removal to get rid of her demon powers in case she accidentally goes all demon on someone and kills them, which is what happened to two of her ancestors. That was the reason she stayed at the Council Headquarters for the summer: because she wanted to go through the Removal. I think Sophie is finally learning to accept her demon powers and not look at herself as an evil monster just waiting to kill everyone she knows.

          When Sophie's dad explained to her why she shouldn't go through the Removal, at first Sophie didn't care about what her dad said and just didn't want to accidentally hurt someone. Her dad told her that if she went through the Removal, there was an extremely high chance she could die, and it's not just ripping her powers away, it's like ripping part of her out of her body. Sophie's dad said to her:

"It's not just that you won't be able to do magic anymore. You will be destroying a vital part of yourself. The Removal gets into your blood. It rips out something that's as much a part of you as the color of your eyes. You were meant to be a demon, Sophie, and your body and soul will fight to keep you that way (75)."

Sophie was convinced that there was a possibility she could kill someone, even if it was infinitesimally small. She didn't consider until later that her demon is part of her, and she shouldn't just rip it out of herself.

          Later, Sophie's dad realized how much power she had. He asked her to break one mirror in a room full of mirrors with her powers, and she accidentally broke every mirror in the room! Her dad taught her how to focus her power after that and said it would decrease the risk of Sophie going crazy and killing someone. I think Sophie realized after that that she wasn't ready to risk dying to lose her demon hood and she could control her powers so she wasn't likely to hurt anyone. Sophie doesn't consider herself a monster anymore, which is good. I think she finally learned to accept her inner demon.