Review: Olympian Challenger by Astrid Arditi

Olympian Challenger by Astrid Arditi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

[I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley for review purposes.]

I don't intend this to sound mean, but it may. I liked the book, but I didn't, so my review is mostly my problems with it.

I'm somewhat torn on this book. In pretty much all ways, it's extremely formulaic. Girl with home issues gets sucked into an adventure she doesn't want, she needs to beat out a whole crapton of other people who are better at everything than she is, somehow she makes it to the actual competition, and eventually she wins. I can't term this as a spoiler, because it is GLARINGLY obvious from the first page that she is going to win this thing. Even though she has no skills to help her through the competition, her "pure" heart and love are enough to beat out a bunch of other teenagers.

Along the way, she makes friends with a couple of people, hates and loves her teachers, and falls in love with a god. (This also isn't a spoiler, because from the second the guy is mentioned it's clear he's meant to be the love interest.) By the end they're whispering sweet nothings to each other and making out like horny teenagers (and at least one of them still is a teenager...).

This book is so meta that it even mentions The Hunger Games. In one scene Hope thinks that she has read that series and that's what this competition feels like to her. Well, it was. Really. I was reading The Hunger Games on Olympos. Even the government conspiracy comes into play because it's revealed at one point that the gods have their own sinister motivations for all of this. Next, I assume her job is to take down the gods/government and free the people (the demigods/heroes/earth) from their tyranny.

And Hope, as a character, is pretty bland. She's only concerned with getting back to her mother, she gets rescued a lot because her heart is so pure, she is the favorite of everyone to win except the actual gods, and she doesn't make mistakes ever. She's the perfect Mary Sue character - she can do no wrong (except that one time she tried to forfeit and then did the darn thing anyway). And she's annoying for it. Even when she can't do something herself, her mysterious powers come to the rescue. The scene at the end with the Pythia really sealed that for me. Her love conquers all! Her weakness has been turned into a weapon! It could not get any sappier.

Anyway, despite all of that, I did find myself liking the mythology, and some of the writing. Most of the characters were trope, and the time limits on some challenges didn't make much sense, but otherwise it was an okay read. So if you don't mind a rehash of The Hunger Games and all the similar books that have come out since (and before, since a lot of people argue that The Hunger Games was really just Battle Royale), and you don't have anything better to do with your time, you could give this one a whirl. I wouldn't buy it, and probably won't seek out book 2, but it was an okay read. I'm giving it three stars instead of two because I loved Gabriel so much.

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