Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

Celestial Monsters by Aiden Thomas

17 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

eddieboy's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, and War

Minor: Ableism

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

zeros_and_ones's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful fast-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide and Violence

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

quinnyquinnquinn's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Death of parent

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Genocide

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

saphfics's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Genocide, Slavery, and War