My soon to be 14 year old daughter has read the trilogy and I have never seen anything she read prior to these books spark such a passionate response. And I agree totally with you about the underlying message of freedom and the dangers of the liberal authoritarian impulse to centrally plan and control society. After reading the novels for myself and seeing how popular they have become, I find the fact that this message has resonated so strongly with young people to be very reassuring.
My 10 1/2 year old grandson just finished reading the trilogy and loved them. He’s also a big fan of Rick Riordan’s books.