Reviews with content warning for Violence - The Sun and the Star

What a fun read! This brought back all the love I have for these characters and I'm so glad we got to spend a whole book with Will and Nico. Their relationship was handled really well and we got to see them be teenagers in their first relationship while also dealing with much harder topics.

Of course, a lot of it was pure nostalgia. I don't pick up a lot of middle grade anymore, so there are some things I struggled with. The build-up to the fight with Nyx was really good but the battle itself was disappointing and gave me Gaia flashbacks. I also wish we could've seen more character development from Will instead of just Solangelo relationship development and a lot of Nico development. We've already been through that! Give me more Will content 😭

I'm also not the biggest Bob fan and I don't understand all the hype about him which probably didn't make me the target audience.

My favourite parts were probably all the times we learned about how Nico and Will got together, their first kiss, first date etc. I must've read at least 100 different "Three Days In The Infirmary" fics since 2016, so it was nice to get some definite answers after all this time. I was worried that all those infos wouldn't feel natural in the story but Riordan found a good way of working around it.

Despite its faults, still a must-read for all of us former depressed emo kids who were a little too obsessed with Nico di Angelo.

(Don't know about you but now I'm more of a Will girlie. Is this healing?)

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caoimhe9876's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Amazing

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daisytrails's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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riverlasol's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

5.0

I can count on one hand the amount of books that have made me actually cry. This is one of them. In so many ways, more than just being so hyper and excited about a solangelo story and getting nico’s and will’s povs and just MORE DEMIGOD CONTENT, this was a book I needed. It was healing, and it was beautiful. In many ways, I took it as a love letter to anyone with trauma. And because of who this story is about specifically trauma experienced by those who are queer, who are in any way different. I see parts of myself so clearly both in Will and Nico. I can never truly express in words how much I adore the percy jackson universe and these two characters specifically. But to wrap up this review (okay, sappy rant)—this book was even better than I could’ve expected. There was a few interesting time jumps but it all worked out perfectly and like all riordaniverse books it was full of wit and such beautifully handled romantic moments. I’m just….so glad this book exists. Thank you to both of the authors for putting this art into the world. 🥹

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armand's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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

4.0

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ali_k0's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

This book healed something in me. It is also a testimony to why Authors should bring in Co-authors more often. Rick is aware of his young and old audiences and the balance of topics in this book show it. Nico's PTSD and Wills guilt is not shied away from. Mark was such a wonderful co-author. Conversations on queerness and gender felt natural. Will and Nico were clearly written with a queer person. I wish more time had been spent in Tartarus but it didn't take anything away in the long run.

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zanm's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful medium-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

4.0

Unfortunately, this is a strong 3.75 or a weak 4. I rounded up for my review and was lenient in places I would be harsher would this be anyone other than Rick Riordan. This book was mostly just a nostalgia fest/pandering to the fandom which is totally fine! The problem is, it was not a story that had a lot of layers nor did I feel engaged. Everything was stated outright. Problems were introduced and immediately solved. The entirety of the novel was a fluffy-feel good piece that didn't exist to expand the PJO universe or explore an action-packed prophecy, but simply to explore Nico's (yes only Nico, not Will, he was about as developed as Jason Grace was) trauma. It is my belief that this book could have (and should have) been a novella. The

journey getting to Tartarus

was the longest part of the book and nothing was even happening! Parts of the writing also felt extremely dated in the 2020s and I'm not sure the PJO universe is canonically in that time period. (If Percy was born in 1993 *thanks google* and is, what, 18? 19? now...shouldn't it be 2012?) That's a small critique though, when my legitimate critique is the 2020 writing felt...cringey. I painfully shouldered past it and it got better as the book went on, but it had the feeling of an adult trying too hard to be relatable to teens nowadays, than an accurate depiction of what it's like to be a teenager. But the book did have a good message and, once it picked up toward the end, I was engaged by then (only took 75% of the book to get there), so it pulled the rating up in my books. I would recommend this to any PJO fans who want to know more about Nico but would caution them to have lower expectations. It's not a bad book but it certainly lacks that Riordan charm we all know and love. I assume it's because this was a co-written book. (Sometimes it felt like two voices were passing the book back and forth making up a story.) I also want to say the 3rd person point of view really distanced the characters, but I grew to love it. Overall, this had fanfic vibes...but in a neutral way.
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PROS AND CONS
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Pros:

Nico and Will are adorable and really thrive on healthy communication.
Nico goes to therapy!!!
(Not a major plot point but)
I had warm fuzzy feelings at the end of this
Nico had a nice little character arc about
self-love
Will had a good arc about
accepting Nico's trauma as it is and not fixing it which is a great message to the audience

Cons:

Long/slow beginning
Felt Ooc for Nico to
come out to the whole camp
even in the way they explained it...and there was an "everybody clapped" moment...
Nico felt Ooc the whole time, really, but what do I know
Not enough Will backstory!!! Even in chapters in his voice!!!!!
Mr. D felt Ooc too but, again, what do I know? Tbh his change in character was kind of nice, even if I had to suspend my disbelief about it.
Random meme references. So many. Too many. I had to keep ignoring them.

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