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batbaby's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
First of all I want to just add a note about the previous title “The sunbearer trials” my main gripe with the previous novel was a non binary character Ocelo who used they/them for the entirety of the book was he/himed on two pages. And on the last page the first diose Sol was he’d, one of the characters made a point to say how it was cool Sol was non-binary.
In this book Ocelo only uses they/them pronouns which leads me to think it was a mistake missed by the editor. And Sol was he/himed 3 times at the end of this book so maybe make a point to clarify they use both he/they? Overall I did enjoy Celestial monsters and I think more than the previous book. This book has more of the high-risk high-stakes atmosphere that I missed in the sunbearer trials. I enjoyed the fight scenes/battles a lot more. I did find a few times that as a reader I felt a few too many steps ahead of the characters with the solution to the fight and it was almost annoying waiting for them the catch up. I would’ve liked to get to know Yucca and Paz a bit more but I understand the time restraints with that. I really loved the deaf/disabled representation of Dezi but he wasn’t in the forefront of this book. The romance between the mc and romantic interest was a bit meh unfortunately, they were on an adventure so it didn’t need to be a priority but it felt like they’d lost all chemistry/pining from the last book. Spoilerwould’ve liked to see more anguish/remorse from Xio because the flip-flopping wasn’t super in character from what we know of them. there were a couple of over used phrases too like the previous book but honestly a second editor would easily fix this issue.
#ad This book was gifted to me as an arc but my opinions are entirely my own.
#ad This book was gifted to me as an arc but my opinions are entirely my own.
Graphic: Death, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cursing, Torture, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Toxic friendship