Reviews with content warning for Outing - Słońce i Gwiazda. Opowieść o Nicu di Angelo

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Słońce i Gwiazda. Opowieść o Nicu di Angelo by Mark Oshiro, Rick Riordan

53 reviews

dlrosebyh's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

Reading a book from the Riordanverse for the first time feels like I’m eight again. I’m almost twice as old now, and the nostalgia is hitting me like a truck. I felt the same way Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield fans felt when they appeared on the large screen during No Way Home. THIS is MY Now Way Home. THIS is MY Joker.

Starting right off the bat, Nico has always been one of my favorite characters. He was the blueprint for the “religiously traumatized, queer, neurodivergent, and burnt out” characters aka people that represent me. Ever since Rick Riordan started expanding on his character from the little collector boy to one of the most deadly demigods alive in a span of a book, eight-year-old me wanted a book with Nico di Angelo. And of course, after reading House of Hades, and most especially Trials of Apollo, I wanted a Solangelo novel. It’s been a long time coming, but it’s finally here. And the best thing about this novel is that it’s co-written by someone in the LGBTQIA+ community— so you know it’s real and organic.

Aside from Nico, Will Solace has always intrigued me— and I’ve always seen him rather underrated. Usually, he is just perceived as Nico’s boyfriend when he’s so much more to that. And don’t even get me started on how overlooked his trauma is— especially during The Last Olympian. I’ve always wanted a deeper dive to his character because according to the previous books, he was distinct to his siblings. He wasn’t as talented in music as his siblings are, but he did have a gift for being doctorly.

As for the book, yes, it did feel cheesy in some parts, but I especially loved that aspect. Nico deserved that cheesiness, I don’t care. Plus, they’re teenagers, so it’s pretty expected. The target audience for this novel is definitely for younger queer people— the Nico, the Will, the Piper, and etc. Compared to the other Riordanverse novels, this one was more of a character study into Nico and Will and into their relationship. It was less climactic and for two people going to the Tartarus, I can admit that the climax was easily resolved— but I don’t think that’s something to be criticized on heavily because this novel had such a great message.

This is probably the closest we’ll ever have to Nico going to therapy; I mean that guy has been through a lot and even Hades at the end of the book admitted that. This was such a beautiful story about further self discography, self love, and healing. We tackle Nico’s PTSD for a pretty big chunk of this book. Some people might say that the ending was anti-climactic, but I waited patiently for three Riordanverse series for Nico to GET that ending. It was so beautiful, it made me tear up.

As a queer teenager who struggles with identity, it was refreshing to read about two people being so open about their sexuality. No one knows how much I cry whenever I just see the words “he is my boyfriend” in this novel. It felt like a love letter, especially that it was co-written by a queer author. The novel was so alluring to me because even if it did tackle so many heavy stuff, it was well-balanced out with the wit, sarcasm, and wholesomeness.

Although I gave this book five stars, I’ll still run over some of the “not so great” things in this book.

You could tell which one is Rick’s and which one is Mark’s. Their writing styles aren’t really different from one another, but I could still tell that Mark wrote the first chapters, and starting from the build-up of the climax, you could tell that Rick wrote them.
Since the characters are like 15-16, expect some very cheesy, “childish” dialogues. But again, cheesy doesn’t always mean bad. If you can acknowledge that something is cheesy with freeing yourself a bit, it wouldn’t hurt you. Expect also some miscommunication as they’re just teenagers (they don’t miscommunicate a lot, and when they do, it’s not like other miscommunication where I want to bang my head to a wall; it’s more of them masking to make each other stronger especially that they’re in the Tartarus.)
As I’ve said earlier, this book is anti-climactic especially for a book set in one of the scariest place in Greek mythology.
If we’re talking about adventure-wise out of all the Rick Riordan novels, I’m sorry, but this is probably the worst one. It’s not bad, it’s just not that adventurous compared to the others. It was low staked, but not in a cozy fantasy type of way because this was not cozy at all.

Content Warnings

the_real_al_cal'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? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was my most highly anticipated book of the year and it did not disappoint!

I was fortunate enough to be at the event in which Rick Riordan originally gauged interest in this book by asking the audience, and I couldn't believe how many screams and cheers there were for it. So I guess he must have taken that to heart! I really appreciate that he brought in Mark Oshiro to help him write the more tender parts. Mark brought such a wonderful, authentic perspective to this story about two LGBTQIA+ teens and their friends navigating their changing feelings and identities. Stories like this are so important, especially in this day and age.

From what I've seen of some online reactions, the response to this book ranges from absolutely loves to kinda lukewarm. I personally found this book very charming and impressive in how it approached some heavy themes in a way that is acceptable for the intended middle-reader audience. There were some silly moments and dialogue, but I thought it was sweet. I imagine that the majority of the more lukewarm responses come from fans who may have "aged out" of the middle-reader range and are finding that the writing style and humor aims a bit younger than they remember. It doesn't make their opinions wrong, but that's just how I interpret that response.

This story explores the theme of trauma quite extensively, but a very interesting part of trauma that often goes underwritten--the healing part.

Nico must learn that he cannot simply erase his trauma, but that living with it (in his case, literally!) and growing from it are completely healthy and normal. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Will, the indelible healer, must learn that healing others doesn't always mean forcing them to avoid pain completely. He must learn learn to accept pain, and understand that sometimes the best way to help someone is to meet them where they're at, rather than smothering them with toxic positivity.

I could go on for pages about this book, so in the end, I'll just say that even a day after finishing this book, I'm still thinking about it. Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro did a wonderful job. This is another jewel in the crown that is the Percy Jackson series.

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finnft4's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad 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

4.25

This is long as fuck, so I won’t blame you at all if you skip to the tl;dr. These thoughts are super disorganized, and I'm very conflicted on this book.

Disclaimers:

· I’m a new fan. I only got into it Feb this year. I'm not one of the people that's been counting down the days for this book to come out for, like, 10 years.

· I have no nostalgia for this series. Not sure if that makes me more or less biased, but, at the very least, I can say that I’ve got no happy memories clouding my judgment. I’ve read all of these books as a 17-year-old (already aged out of the target demographic but having fun anyway).

· I went in with extremely low expectations.

· For the most part, my views of the characters haven’t been influenced at all by fandom.

· I’m not very attached to Nico or Will and didn't like either much before this book. So they very well could have completely butchered the characters and, as long as they came out better than they came in, it wouldn’t have bothered me too much. For the record, being out-of-character isn’t a problem exclusive to this book. Percy and Annabeth have been out of character ever since the end of PJO. Mostly Percy. I still like them as characters.

(+)

· This is definitely an unpopular opinion, but I really think they nailed the characters and their dynamic.

I love the dichotomy of the two here, and the acknowledgement that they weren't polar opposites was cool asf - absolutely one of my favorite parts from TSATS. I thought the Persephone scene, the “Nico was glowing” line, and the promise to understand each other better were all great. I was never a huge fan of Nico and Will and found most of their interactions to be boring. This book fixed that for me. I enjoyed how in-depth their relationship went beyond the fandom's idea of "Will is sunshine boy! Will takes care of Nico who is NOT sunshine!". Some people are arguing that they messed up the chemistry, but... their chemistry is pretty similar to previous books. In all honesty, they were extremely boring in The Lost Oracle. They were better in Tower of Nero and had a bit more chemistry there. And now, with this book, I feel like their dynamic and relationship is finally fully fleshed-out. In all honesty (and correct me on this if I'm wrong, I'm a new fan), I feel like it was impossible not to disappoint a lot of fans with this book. Solangelo is disproportionately popular for the amount of screen time they have (literally two books – now three. Four if you want to count the *two-ish* scenes they have in Blood of Olympus). The majority of what people even know about them is... fandom-based. We really don't know all that much about Nico beyond his trauma, and we know even less about Will. And we’ve barely seen the two interact. So yeah, of course some people would be disappointed – even more so considering this book was 10 years in the making.

· Coming right off of this point, this book was especially good for Will's character.

Again, I've heard some arguments that he's out-of-character and inconsistent in this book, but I disagree. I think it goes back to the whole fanon vs canon view of the characters. In this book, Will is wary of the underworld. He warms up to the troglodytes but he still dislikes them. I believe this characterization is pretty in-line with what we've seen of Will so far. I mean, look at him in Tower of Nero. He hates the troglodytes. He doesn't trust Nico to keep himself safe, which is something they argue a lot about. He is consistent in this book. I feel like the conflicts the two of them had here were a long way coming, and I disagree with the criticism that it came out of nowhere because the book needed conflict. If anything, this book actually gave him a character. He has insecurities and fears, likes and dislikes, and he is finally something beyond just being Nico's love interest.

· Honestly, I think it also handled Nico pretty well.

He had some weird out-of-character moments (mostly in the beginning), but it really isn’t as bad as ppl are making it out to be. In terms of being a character, this book fixed Nico for me. After PJO, he’s always felt kinda flat. His main traits are his trauma, and he doesn’t have too much going for him outside of that. So yeah, if the character whose main personality is holding onto all the bad shit that happened to him leaves/moves past his trauma, that could be considered “messing up a character” in some people’s eyes. But honesty, it’s something that should’ve happened, like, seven books ago. I personally appreciate the book for giving Nico more depth beyond said trauma, and I think the ending is really the only character development he’s ever had beyond “btw, Nico got worse again lol”. He’s living for himself now. He’s learning to live with his demons. He’s eating again. I don’t see how this ruins his character unless you only liked him for his “emo-ness”, which has been reduced in this book because he’s becoming healthier. I dunno, I thought this was good for him.

· It's pretty clear that this book is targeted towards a younger (middle grade?), queer audience based on the dedication. And considering that, I think they did a pretty good job (but it definitely comes off as preachy at certain points – nothing's gonna be more preachy than the first bit of Trials of Apollo, though). Now, if you're thinking about it like your typical Percy Jackson adventure book, that wasn't accomplished. But I don't think that was the goal.

(~)

· Writing is noticeably different. Makes sense, since this was co-authored. It still feels like a book Rick wrote, but it is, evidently, a LOT more character-focused. This book's main focus is on Nico and Will's relationship, not Tartarus. Not even the rescue mission. It's… different. I can't say whether I like it, honestly. As a standalone book, I do, but as a Riordan one, it is so different. Whenever I try to think about it, nothing but question marks.

· For the most part, the dialogue is fine.

It definitely repeated itself at times (I got tired of the "my little [insert weird descriptor here]" pretty quickly), like when either character teases the other and the other one gets annoyed. They used that interaction pretty interchangeably between the two of them.

· This isn’t really a point, but I thought I should include it. I liked reading this book. I loved it. I kept some comments on it, and most of them are me marveling about how good it is. I’m a sucker for an emotional, character-driven story, though. Ari and Dante is one of my favorite books. Now that I’m thinking with a clearer head, I can see more of its flaws, but, at its core, I think it told a good story. I’m realizing now how mediocre and slow the plot was but, while I was reading it, this didn’t stand out much to me other than how long the first half or so of the book felt.

(-)

· If we're criticizing it based on adventure and plot, this was the worst Riordan book, hands-down. It was pretty uneventful, especially for a Tartarus adventure.

Nico and Will leave. Nico and Will get trapped in a time loop. Nico and Will spend way too long with the troglodytes. Nico and Will finally get to Tartarus when the book is already over halfway over. They get separated for a few chapters. Then they travel down the river. Then they have an extremely anticlimactic fight with Nyx which is more for Nico's character development than anything else. That's about it, which sounds like a lot, but this book is almost 400 pages.

· Extremely low-stakes.

I’m biased here because I went into this knowing neither author would try to kill off Nico or Will. I also doubted Bob. But this is Tartarus. I feel like worse shit could’ve happened to them beyond having to deal with the River of Acheron (hopefully spelling that right) and Will looks a bit waxy again. It’s just underwhelming compared to Percy and Annabeth’s time there.

· I wasn't a huge fan of the antagonist(s).

Nyx’s motives are so stupid. “I kept Bob down here and tortured him because he was trying to change, and I believe people should stick to ‘their true form’.” Yeah, sure. Whatever the hell that means. I mean, she was an effective opposition for Nico’s character development, but she sucks as a standalone antagonist. And the fight with her was so underwhelming. Feels similarly to the BoO. Way less disappointing, though, since this is a standalone and not a pentalogy finale. Her henchmen just decided to go against her after a while? Okay…?</spoiler.

· I like that they finally addressed Nico’s trauma, but they did it in a pretty goofy way.

Are the “cacao puffs” just gonna be hanging out at camp now? Is Nico not gonna have nightmares anymore? A lot’s unanswered. Plus I agree it was a huge cop-out on “leave something of equal value behind”, which goes with the whole low stakes thing.

· This book starts off super weak. This impacted the low expectations I had going into it, but I really disliked the preview. But either the writing got better or my dislike just dropped as the book continued. First five chapters are pretty bad, though.

tl;dr: If this wasn’t a Riordanverse book, I’d say I really liked it. I have no idea how to feel about it knowing it’s a continuation of the series I’ve been reading thus far. It is very different from the previous books.

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