Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Celestial Monsters

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

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POV: 3rd Person - Dual

Format: Audio - Single Narrator

Content Warnings

quinnyquinnquinn's review against another edition

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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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stormeno's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful fast-paced

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

4.0

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indigo_fox's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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

It was fantastic returning to this world and seeing the characters again. I liked how the story shifted between Teo's and Xio's POV. It was interesting getting to see what each side was up to as the events unfolded. I love how the characters had a chance to explore their vulnerabilities. Sure, they are semidioses but they are also children and it was great that the author didn't forget to let them be children. I also enjoyed getting a little bit of glimpse into all the side characters. I feel like I got to know a lot of them a little bit better.

The story didn't grip me immediately, and I found myself getting easily distracted unlike with the first book. It felt like certain parts were rushed but I don't know if it was due to word count or the characters being on a time crunch. Those time crunches can really get ya when adventuring. Despite things being rushed, the situation didn't really feel urgent. It didn't feel like the characters had the drive to just go go go. I also feel like the Obsidian story line was lacking.

Overall, it was an enjoyable book and I'm sad to see that the adventure is over. I'll always have my rereads and fanfictions but it's just not the same.

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renrose03's review against another edition

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4.0

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capriqueen's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted slow-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

2.5

Overall a fun read, but I think there were some structural issues that hindered its full success

One issue is a lack of… I guess structure?

Our main trio has one objective: go fight the Obsidians. There aren’t any side quests or steps to meet this goal, so everything that happened along the way just felt like its only purpose was to stretch the journey out, and it didn’t feel like the events really fleshed out the characters or the plot. And the Obsidians didn’t do anything other than sit around and be self-righteous, so the world didn’t feel like it was in that much danger

The dioses felt really underutilized.

Like, they’re freaking gods. They gave reasons as to why the gods “couldn’t” go and had to do other things, but it just doesn’t make sense to send three teenagers to fight gods when you could send gods to fight gods.

The romance(s) was cute but flat.

The really frustrating thing is they never resolved why Aurelio ditched Teo when they were kids. It’s implied that it was because of the Jade/Gold prejudice, but they never talk about it. After Auristela’s line about “he made my brother sad” as to why she hates Teo I thought that would lead into an explanation, but it never went anywhere. And she continued being prejudiced against non-Golds, so that line felt worthless in the end. I liked that Dezi and Marino were together, they were one of my fave parts of the first book, but it was unclear if they were together the whole time or got together recently. And then the random hint of Niya and Paz (and Niya and Auristela?!) never went anywhere. And Xio/Atzi felt super forced and yet also unfulfilled

The ending was the most frustrating thing. This book was riding a solid 3 star until the end, which made me want to drop it to 2.

I just feel like the whole point was lost. A sacrifice still had to be made, although this time it was at least voluntary. And why didn’t the gods try to resurrect Sol before this? And they tried to make points about how the Golds and Jades were shitty to the Obsidians, but instead of working that out they just banished the Obsidians to the stars again. But anyway, Teo’s main point was that the gods bungled ruling (esp the Golds) and they depended on the priests and demigods too much. So Sol’s resolution was to yeet all the gods into the unknown as punishment, leaving the priests and demigods in charge? What?? Also, how fucking traumatic for the gods’ other children and romantic partners, to not say goodbye and now only get holiday visitations. Absolutely bonkers. Also one of the coolest things imo about the first book was how involved the gods were in the day to day. To have that gone just kinda sucks

I do like that the Academy is open to all now, and that the Golds are all free to decide what they want to do with their lives, instead of having to be Heroes

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