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4.17 AVERAGE
4.17 AVERAGE
While definitely for younger readers I always love Rick Riordans's work and writing style and it was so fun to fall back in the olympians universe and follow along Nico and Wills journey will all the heart wrenching and hilarious trials and tribulations
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Compared to the original source material (PJO) and even the extended HOO series, the writing in this book is poor. Its oddly paced, mischaracterized, and sloppy. Unfortunate, because of how refreshing it was/is to have objectively good young reader writing with the previous works. I am a little dissapointed with how this story shook out, especially given the strength of precious books, but if you detach this book from all of the prior series it stands on its own as a pretty mediocre and relatively non offensive read.
adventurous
funny
hopeful
tense
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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
Beautiful representation of queer youth and balancing the struggles of daily life, adventure, and discovering yourself. Sexuality is ever changing and sometimes it's hard to grasp, but Rick and Mark have written such a beautiful story that is easily digestible yet accurate and true to queer life.
emotional
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:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
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
When someone asks me what made me love reading (or storytelling as a whole) I always reference the percy jackson series, and while I do still love the books and enjoy rereading them, I always thought that I could never recreate that feeling. The sun and the star made me feel like no other book has since reading the last Olympian for the first time. As someone with an English degree, I tend to be snobby and recommend books like Babel or Pachinko. They are fantastically well written and terribly entertaining. But something about Rick Riordan's world makes me feel like no other book can. It's like eating very expensive and well prepared food and thinking this is objectively and subjectively very good, but then, just the very next day, making yourself a heaping pile of homemade, mostly frozen, greasy food. And you think, why would I ever spend $50 on sushi again? THIS meal was made for me in particular. THIS meal is exactly what I wanted.
The sun and the star was like a greasy fried baloney sandwich. It was exactly what I needed exactly when I needed it. There was no page or excerpt or prose that was particularly beautiful or life changing, but I could not stand to put it down for even an hour, because the entire STORY, it's emotion and it's charcters, were life changing. It felt like I was in my shitty bunkbed in 4th grade, awake at midnight, crying over percy jackson finally defeating kronos.
If the English language was destined to be molded into a series of 500 pages it was these 500. This made me fall in love with reading again. Nico di Angelo was a character crafted quite literally by the gods for me to love and admire. Rick Riordan I owe you my life. For a middle aged straight man to care so deeply for his young queer readers is the most heartwarming thing I have ever witnessed in the world of literature. If I had read this book when I had read percy jackson at the ripe age of 10, when nico and I were the same age, it would've meant everything to me. It means everything to me now, even as he is now 7 years my junior. God bless Rick Riordan and God bless nico di Angelo.
The sun and the star was like a greasy fried baloney sandwich. It was exactly what I needed exactly when I needed it. There was no page or excerpt or prose that was particularly beautiful or life changing, but I could not stand to put it down for even an hour, because the entire STORY, it's emotion and it's charcters, were life changing. It felt like I was in my shitty bunkbed in 4th grade, awake at midnight, crying over percy jackson finally defeating kronos.
If the English language was destined to be molded into a series of 500 pages it was these 500. This made me fall in love with reading again. Nico di Angelo was a character crafted quite literally by the gods for me to love and admire. Rick Riordan I owe you my life. For a middle aged straight man to care so deeply for his young queer readers is the most heartwarming thing I have ever witnessed in the world of literature. If I had read this book when I had read percy jackson at the ripe age of 10, when nico and I were the same age, it would've meant everything to me. It means everything to me now, even as he is now 7 years my junior. God bless Rick Riordan and God bless nico di Angelo.
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