The fourth book of the saga is Percy Jackson and The Battle of the Labyrinth, which is my personal favorite. The maturity of the relationships and characters, and the individual and joint conflicts that Percy, Annabeth, and Grover face in this book are shown compared to the first book. The final chapters are like a present for everyone who, like me, loves the way Rick Riordan narrates fighting scenes. All the gods’ important cameos and new, surreal horrific monsters help make the danger of almost inevitable war feel closer and more real than ever. The deepening of characters like Luke, Rachel, and Nico, plus some really good plot twists, and amazing incorporation of Greek myths into the story, is the main reason why this book is my favorite of the saga. 

I’m going to talk about the beginning first because we get to meet Rachel again. If you don’t remember Rachel, she is a mortal (human), cheerful, alternative redhead that saves Percy’s life in the last book (The Titan Curse) when he was being pursued by zombie soldiers. She has the ability that only a few mortals have that lets her see through the mist (a supernatural force controlled by the goddess Hecate that twists a mortal’s sight from seeing monsters, Gods, Titans, and other supernatural occurrences by replacing them with things the mortal mind knows about and can comprehend). Her ability to see through the mist is what helped her notice who humans are and who monsters are in disguise, and what once again saved Percy’s when two dracaenas; half girl have snake greek monsters. They were in disguise as two cheerleaders at Percy and Rachel’s freshman tour, trying to kill him. Rachel warned Percy just in time for him to attack the camouflaged dracaenas.

At camp Dionysus is gone, Chiron, Annabeth, and Clarisse fear an almost certain attack on the Camp Half-Blood by the hands of the Kronos army. Grover’s in danger of being exiled from the camp and there is a new sword teacher, Quintus. I’m not going to talk about Quintus in this review because it would be a spoiler, but I am just going to say that he is a really interesting character. 

Percy, Annabeth, Tyson, and Grover started their first adventure together in one of the most dangerous places ever in Greek mythology, the Labyrinth of Daedalus. All the threats that they face there, and the reasons why they decided to accept this quest are perfect to show their character development and show what things matter the most to them. In the Labyrinth, they find Nico Di Angelo, less cheerful and energetic than the first time they met him. He has a really important role in this book, he has learned to control his power, and he is really powerful now, and even though he has a lot of resentment and grief inside of him, he still has a good strong heart.

Rachel shows up again in the book when Percy and Annabeth need her help to find the workshop of Daedalus, and we get to know her personality and life better, and she is amazing. You would definitely want to be her friend. 

I’m not going to talk in-depth about Luke’s character because It would be impossible to do it without giving spoilers, I’m just going to say that something bad happened with him, and is too much to handle for Annabeth. Luke has been the only person who has been with her since she ran away from home when she was seven till the day he decided to betray the whole camp when she was twelve, she still cared for him a lot.  

The monsters are bigger, more dangerous, and stronger than ever, but the camp also makes new monster friends like the lovely Hell Dogs from the underworld, Lady O’neil,l and Tyson’s old hero Briares, the one hundred hands monster. 

The final battle is amazing and it would leave you needing to go as soon as you finish this book to the closest library or bookshop and start reading the fifth, and last book of the saga, and once again this book is amazing for middle-grade kids, who want to start reading a new series.