Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Celestial Monsters by Aiden Thomas

31 reviews

abby_can_read's review against another edition

adventurous funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

📖
I had a wonderful time reading this book. It was great. There were parts that had me laughing and there were some where I needed a tissue. I adored the characters and their relationships. There were some characters interacting that made me laugh. I thought the pacing was good and the writing style was good. I loved the worldbuilding. I really wanna see more in this world.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Genocide, and War

crafts_and_coccinellids's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I really liked this book! The characters and their dynamics were fantastic and the plot was engaging. I thought it was a good follow up to the first book, though I liked that one slightly better. The ending was very emotionally effective,

though I do wish that the dioses had actually worked to make the world better instead of leaving everyone else to deal with the consequences of their mistakes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Blood, War, and Classism

Minor: Deadnaming

solson5212's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I loved this book, the story, the characters, all of it! My only gripe is that the ending felt rushed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

rizky's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I loved the Sunbearer Trials and I also loved this sequel! 
Overall, I really enjoyed the dynamics between the characters, Xio's character development, the blossoming romance between Teo and Aurelio and getting to see a more vulnerable side of Niya. I would have loved to see more of Dezi in particular (especially because he was hinted at so much in the beginning!) and would die for a Dezi spin-off (I guess I'm just a real big Dezi fan).
I also appreciate the queernormativity and the nonchalance of queer couples, trans people and pronoun usage of this universe! I'm tired of reading about queer trauma in fiction over and over again, there's so much of it in real life and it feels so so good to be able to escape into a world in which queerphobia just... isn't a thing at all.

My main criticism of Celestia Monsters concerns pacing: with the book starting off right at the end of the first one and being so action-packed, it felt like there wasn't a lot of room to breathe, neither for the characters nor for the reader. Sometimes it felt like running from one battle into the next into the next into the next, and instead of the focus so heavily being on fighting, I would have loved to see more dialogue between the characters in general and particularly Teo and Niya instead to better understand how they were processing the whole situation and how it affected their friendshpi.

Super solid story all in all though, definitely recommend!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

bookcaptivated's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Torture, and Kidnapping

Minor: Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury, and War

redpollrory's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Genocide, and Grief

Minor: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, and War

teddie_valetine98's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny inspiring sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death

cj13's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, and Grief

Minor: Child death and Excrement

hannahnj17's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Violence, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Classism

flyinglark's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Aiden Thomas brings the reader back to the Mexican-inspired queer normative world of El Reino de Sol. The book almost immediately picks up after the conclusion of the prior novel. The road trip during an apocalypse was fun. I was worried about not being in the demographic anymore, but it was pleasant to read. Teens are acting like teens, and this is going to be a given in a YA.  

Regarding the characters, we get to see the POV of Teo and Xio. Younger readers may resonate with them. A highlight of this book

was the deconstruction of the society they were raised in. The first book started the conversation about how the trials were a pretty horrific idea. The world is not as ideal as they were thought.

Xio especially struggles with

who they are, and who they should align themselves with within a society that views them as a “monster” and lies told to them. The characters are slammed with different truths, but they can all coincide with each other.

I wasn't a fan of the ending after the main battle.

The whole buildup is that the society will change and it did, but did the Dioses need to also "die" to kick start human independence from them? They go from one extreme of Dioses' constant presence to only once a year. But overall the characters do have work to do, but they also find their happy places.

Other than the ending, I enjoyed the sequel, a nice conclusion to the Sunbearer Duology. 

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(Not All) Content Warnings:

Ableism - Loss of Ability to Communicate between Deaf Characters via Hand Binding, Animal Attacks, Blood, Confinement, Death of Parent/s (Mentioned, Depicted in Ch 31), Drowning, Fire Injury Detail, Genocide (Mentioned), Grief - Missing Sibling, Dead Parent, Injury Detail, Suicidal Thoughts (Self-Sacrifice for Ritual Purposes), Violence

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

POV: 3rd Person - Dual  

Format: Audio - Single Narrator

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Genocide, and Suicidal thoughts