A review by sepiaparrish
The Tower of Nero by Rick Riordan

adventurous medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

i liked it bc percy and annabeth and nico and will and rachel and reyna and leo and hazel were in it. i didn't like it bc rick riordan is infuriating and incapable of taking his own writing seriously and also bad at endings. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Violence

Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Body shaming, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, and Torture

the child abuse is meg's relationship with nero, and we also meet other kids "adopted" by him and treated similarly. it is a main theme of the book so look out, apollo also reflects on how his relationships with the other gods could be considered abusive. the violence is riordan-typical but there's a scene where apollo "dies" and also there's a scene when a character gets her hands chopped off to teach her a lesson, which is the most graphic scene in the book i would say. i added ableism because some of what riordan says in reference to this character after the event could possibly be read that way? but i'm not sure. torture and panic attacks are mentioned very briefly, slavery is seen in the way nero runs parts of his empire and it is refered to as slavery multiple times, nico's ptsd is discussed a few times, body shaming is apollo commenting on his acne and body fat in a negative tone, homophobia is briefly mentioned at one point, and animal death is a type of monster that is killed multiple times that is a cow. also riordan-typical handling his minorities rather poorly, though i think he did better in this one than in certain other books.