Reviews with content warning for Torture - Das brennende Labyrinth

BRO. ALRIGHT. ToA has officially redeemed itself.

Non-spoiler stuff first lmao. This is the first book where I actually like Apollo and Meg as characters and am not consistently annoyed by their appearances. I'm really liking Apollo's arc; it no longer feels like a half-baked Kuzco. The lines where Apollo starts to doubt his entire identity as a god while he's being reduced to basically nothing are... man, they're good. It doesn't feel as rushed anymore, and it feels honest. Meg's whole arc with Nero and shit is also very good. Piper and Jason, who I didn't like in the past, are... better now. Not great, but this book gave them a bit more depth, which I appreciated. Grover continues to be one of my favorite characters. This is the first ToA book where I actually cared about the characters and what happened to them.

And there are STAKES NOW - one of the bigger improvements between this one and the other two books (which still had stakes but weren't very investing). This book was so fucking intense. Almost at House of Hades level with the amount of pain going on. I'm still in a bit of shock.

SO MANY GOOD LINES TOO. I'M SHAKING.

Spoilers below.

Alright, to be honest, I was already spoiled on Jason's death before reading this book. And I was mostly indifferent to the news. Oh wow, this character that I don't care that much about dies? I'm... so sad. But I'm surprised by how much it got to me. The death itself was more "OH SHIT" than anything, but the characters' reactions and the time processing afterward were heart-wrenching. The way Jason went out though was kind of stupid. Like, my guy survived getting impaled in Blood of Olympus, and this is how he dies? Sheesh... No complaints other than my guy was nerfed.

I'm actually looking forward to the next book (previously I saw the ToA books as obstacles in between MCGA lmfao)

CURRENT RANKING
[1] PJO: The Last Olympian
[2] HoO: The House of Hades
[3] HoO: The Mark of Athena
[4] MCGA: The Sword of Summer
[5] PJO: The Lightning Thief
[6] ToA: The Burning Maze
[7] PJO: The Titan's Curse
[8] MCGA: The Hammer of Thor
[9] HoO: The Son of Neptune
[10] PJO: The Battle of the Labyrinth
[11] HoO: The Lost Hero
[12] PJO: The Sea of Monsters
[13] ToA: The Dark Prophecy
[14] HoO: The Blood of Olympus

[15] ToA: The Hidden Oracle

Content Warnings

kbairbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

3rd book down! Glad to be over halfway through this series. Im about to start Daughter of the Deep and im excited to get out of Apollo’s head. There was a surprising amount of death in this book. I feel like it isn’t normal if Ricks work to have so much of it in his books but this was very grief stricken. The warrior driads were cool, I loved seeing Grover again, the Coach Hedge fight scene was funny and the whole Jason thing felt… unreal. No way.

Content Warnings

hayleyvem's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

luluslittlelibrary's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

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

2.0

Content Warnings

margotnelson's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

I'm liking Trials of Apollo more and more as I read each one (which is what happened with Heroes of Olympus too) and I especially loved all the secondary and tertiary characters in this one. Action-packed, swift pacing, full of emotional ups and downs, and I especially like seeing Lester/Apollo become more and more human. You can definitely tell in the writing and in his voice, which works really well for his character arc throughout the entire series. A fun read, continues to scratch the "I wish I could read Percy Jackson again for the first time" itch!

Content Warnings

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