Reviews with content warning for Grief - Celestial Monsters

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.

Content Warnings

kays_reading_journal's review against another edition

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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.

Content Warnings

embersbooknook's review against another edition

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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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gdulecki's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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

Aiden Thomas you did it again I am in SHAMBLES!!! I have been eagerly awaiting the release of this book, and it did not disappoint. I adored the whole story and the ways each of them navigated deconstructing what they have all been taught to believe. The ending was beautiful and tender and somewhat predictable, and I think it was a great way to end this duology.

Content Warnings

nikki_flowers's review against another edition

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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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midnightmoon_dreamer's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious 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

4.5

Loved this book, just like the first one. I just think some of the scenes with a lot of characters could have been better. Otherwise, absolutely loved all the characters and their relationships and the worldbuilding.

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