Reviews tagging 'Classism'

Celestial Monsters by Aiden Thomas

12 reviews

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

legalplanner's review against another edition

adventurous 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

I have put off reading this because I knew it was going to be the end (it’s a duology so yeah I totally knew) and I wasn’t ready to leave this world that was created. 

The mythology, action, unapologetically being themselves, and love drew me in so quickly. We lost no momentum from the first installment to this one. I very much enjoyed seeing Teo and Xio fighting for what they believed in. While h the is was about fixing a wrong it was about so much more. And honestly it got me at the end. I was crying like a baby. I was not prepared for that. 

The audio of this book is just as magnificent as the actual written word version. The narrator brought the characters to life and made you really feel like you were there. I hope we get more stories like this from the author because this was such a well built world and story. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Death, and Classism

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

theirgracegrace's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

4.75

Celestial Monsters takes the powerful foundation of the Sunbearer Trials and goes even further in daring to imagine a more equitable world. With the Obsidian dioses freed from their prisons, they are going to take their revenge and plunge the world into eternal darkness unless Teo, Niya and Aurelio can free their captured fellow semidioses and reclaim the Sol Stone. What struck me the most was how the Obsidian people are described in this book; we're introduced to them in the context of the history given in the Sunbearer Trials being a history written by the victors who committed genocide against them. The story of

Suerte and how Xio redeems themself through returning to being his child

is also an incredibly powerful subplot that reaches its culmination at the climax of the action. The characters remain loveable, flawed and often ridiculously silly. I can easily see myself reading and re-reading this duology in the years to come. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism

Minor: Sexual content, Medical content, and Dysphoria

kays_reading_journal's review against another edition

4.5

Content Warnings: There’s a full list at the bottom but I wanted to elaborate on something: there is a deaf character whose hands are restrained therefore he looses the ability to communicate.

Aiden Thomas is the author that got me back into reading after college and is the author that just got me out of a slump. 

He pulls the perfect amount of emotion out of a reader while balancing it with humor. 

I won’t lie tho I don’t love all the characters. I adore Teo and Aurelio so much, but Niya just gets on my nerves. 

I’m all for redemption, but I wasn’t a fan of how it ended up being handled here. Kind of tied into this, I feel like the horridness of how the characters were treated was glazed over.

I mostly mean I cannot believe that the semidioses forgave Xio so quickly, when they barely apologized (if it happened, I don’t remember it). More specifically, Dezi is treated absolutely horrendous. Taking away his ability to communicate for himself and with others. Especially when his power revolves around touch, it was unnecessarily cruel.

I watched a three hour recap of the first book on YouTube before picking up the sequal, and I think if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have enjoyed this so much.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Torture, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Bullying, and Blood

embersbooknook's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad 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

5.0

DAMN I really adore these characters, this world, and how queer (yet it also isn’t the plot) that the setting is.  The plot was excellent, twisting in directions I wasn’t expecting.  I thought this was a fantastic sequel, even better than the first.  

I REALLY DIDNT WANT SUERTE TO DIE THOUGH Y’ALL😭😭  I really came to love his character in this book.  And Fantasma?! What a queen🥹  Xio’s character growth was really well done and felt authentic and unforced, which I appreciated.  Niya was hilarious as usual, and Tea & Aurelio were soooo adorable🥹😍🥹

I really enjoyed the theme/idea, and its exploration, of how the gods can’t save us.  Like…idk, it was strangely empowering to me - a reminder that the things we put on pedestals as a society (politicians to name a big one very relevant at the moment🫣) can’t really save us.  We save ourselves and each other but having community, working together, and taking care of each other.  More than ever, a poignant and powerful theme. 

As a nonbinary person it is so moving to be represented at all, let alone in such a wonderful cast of characters😭🥹  Also this book made me HUNGRY - all the descriptions of the delicious food😋  Made me nostalgic too, as a Latine reader. 🥹  I need to be more like Aurelio and cook more😄  This weekend might be time to whip up some sopapillas and café de olla I’m thinking….😌☕️  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Genocide, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Classism

The war/genocide theme is from mentions of something that happened way in the past. Not graphic but the thread is there, so I felt it worth mentioning. None of these are overly graphic but all themes are present.

erikagibson126's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Blood, Death of parent, and Dysphoria

robinks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.75

Ahhhh I was so excited to finish this duology, and Thomas did not disappoint! I loved spending more time with such a colorful cast of characters, and the semidioses grappled with some really tough issues. I want to see a movie of this series!!

The ending was sad but satisfying, and the epilogue warmed my heart. I love Teo and Aurelio! My only critique is that I wish we got to see a bit more of what the new world is like for everyone.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Genocide, Suicide, Torture, Xenophobia, Blood, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Child death, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

nikki_flowers's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

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

5.0

Look, I’m a simple lad, give me childhood friends to enemies to lovers (and a queer/trans normative world!!!!!!) and I’ll eat it up EVERY time

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Gaslighting