Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Celestial Monsters by Aiden Thomas

15 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

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

zombiezami's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful

4.5

A fun time. I didn’t really get why

the gods had to up and leave completely to make amends for ignoring humans’ needs

at the end.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Cursing, and Torture

Minor: Child death, Death, Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, and Dysphoria

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

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

warlocksarecool21's review against another edition

4.0

this was a solid conclusion to the duology! I had a fun time with the characters and I think Thomas did a good job at exploring their personality and motivations in this book. Xio’s arc was so heartbreaking to read, but I loved their development in this book!! Teo and Aurelio were so cute as well! And Thomas’s side characters are always so fun. 

As for the plot, I thought it was good but the pacing felt slow in some parts (which I said about book 1 as well). But there were enough action scenes throughout the book that it didn’t drag. I think this book handled the themes of oppression and privilege in a way that is very suitable for the intended YA audience. Overall, I think this duology was super fun and I’m sad it’s over. Excited to see what Aiden Thomas writes next!!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Violence

Minor: Cursing, Genocide, and Injury/Injury detail