Reviews with content warning for Dysphoria - 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.

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erikagibson126's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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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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evarinya's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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

4.5

I absolutely love the queer-normative world Aiden Thomas managed to create with this duology!
Admittedly, I found The Sunbearer Trials a bit better (the plot in this book felt a bit less... engaging, somehow, despite the urgency of the premise. Also I didn't really like the ending, honestly) but all in all this book still was really good!
Teo, Niya and Aurelio are a funny trio for sure! A pity that it's over already - although I 100% appreciate that this wasn't a trilogy. Trilogies can be quite annoying and the story of Teo was better told in this way.

(spoiler for the ending)

I'll miss Suerte, though... his death really was a gut punch. :(

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barnesbookshelf's review against another edition

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adventurous funny 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

This book is a little predictable in the best ways. I didn't predict the slight twist at the end! I truly love this series. I'm glad we got to see more of Aurelio and Teo's development, and Niya is hilarious as always. This book has multiple instances of one of my favorite queer jokes around pronouns, and it delighted me every time. This was another book I couldn't put down. I think I'll be returning to this series quite a few times in the future to visit Teo, Aurelio, Xio, and Niya.

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