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A review by tibcanread
The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
This felt more in the age range for Percy Jackson than The Hunger Games (the two comp books for this story). While I enjoyed my read time, Teo frustrated me a lot with his overt assumptions and being a jerk to Aurelio while simultaneously calling him a jerk. Glad we finally got over that phase of the relationship for sure.
I was left wanting to know more about pretty much everyone and everything. The outfits got more page time than the world and side characters. While I really loved Niya and we got a lot of page time with her, she still felt flat and lacked the complexity that was briefly hinted at from time to time.
But I loved how colorful and how much potential the world had. I just wanted more time with it instead of having five trials rushed through to get to the fairly predictable twist at the end. I believe at one point it was mentioned this was going to be a series somewhere but quietly changed into a duology and I think that really stunted a lot in this book, which is sad cause the potential for a lot is still shining through.
What I actually couldn't stand was the fact that this story was actually modern? We would be going along talking about the gods and ancient cities and suddenly these kids whip out their phones and talk in old Vine memes and talk about the equivalent of tiktok and instagram. It was super jarring and pulled me out of the story every time.
I was left wanting to know more about pretty much everyone and everything. The outfits got more page time than the world and side characters. While I really loved Niya and we got a lot of page time with her, she still felt flat and lacked the complexity that was briefly hinted at from time to time.
But I loved how colorful and how much potential the world had. I just wanted more time with it instead of having five trials rushed through to get to the fairly predictable twist at the end. I believe at one point it was mentioned this was going to be a series somewhere but quietly changed into a duology and I think that really stunted a lot in this book, which is sad cause the potential for a lot is still shining through.
What I actually couldn't stand was the fact that this story was actually modern? We would be going along talking about the gods and ancient cities and suddenly these kids whip out their phones and talk in old Vine memes and talk about the equivalent of tiktok and instagram. It was super jarring and pulled me out of the story every time.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Blood