A review by noorandbooks
The Tower of Nero by Rick Riordan

5.0

"So I ask you: Are you worthy of being a god?"

me @ myself when I spent the whole series complaining about the series and then I end up actually tearing up at the ending

The Trials of Apollo series suffered from what I'll dub the five-book curse. That is, Riordan following the trend of writing five books for a series, when the series could've done with maybe three. This ended up with poor character development, especially for Apollo who would learn a lesson by the end of a book and forget it the very next one, as to not have his character arc completed too early. This also ended up with poor pacing, with better scenes being shorter than the more boring ones. And that really hurt me, given that Apollo is one of my favorite gods and Meg ended up striking a chord in me.

"Have you learned?" she asked.
If I hadn't felt so weak, I might have laughed. I had learned, all right. I was still learning.

(one of my favorite quotes from the entire book... honestly, I was highlighting every other line. this had prose very similar to Heroes of Olympus and I was living for it!)

So this book really redeemed the entirety of the series for me. Riordan pulled out all the stops for this one and oh boy, did he deliver - there was witty humor, and interesting characters, and fun interactions, and edge-of-my-seat fights, and GOD, the scenes that were meant to hit home, really hit home. Apollo finally got the character development I'd been craving the entire series, Meg finally got the happy ending she deserved, and most importantly...

I got to see Nico di Angelo.

Nico frowned down at me. "You look awful.
I laughed weakly, bubbling snot. "I know, right?"
My sense of humor didn't seem to reassure him.

(also, every time Will and Nico were in a scene together, my faith in love was rekindled)

Like I might take you out for pizza this weekend," Will offered, "if you're not too annoying."
"Exactly." Nico's smile was a bit of winter sun breaking between snow flurries.

Before we carry on, I just. I NEED TO TALK ABOUT MEG AND APOLLO. I did not expect that I would get so intensely attached to their connection, especially with all the grief I was given this book, and yet? Every time they were together, I was just smiling cheek to cheek. These two people, one hundreds of years and another only few, with so, so much left to learn, so much hurt they have to figure out, and the patience to learn how to work through it together... UGH, they're so perfect for one another!!! And Meg. OH, Meg being allowed to keep her spirit throughout the book? Not being forced into being a perfect daughter? Being allowed to be her little gremlin self, allowed to be vulnerable and still be uniquely her, because breaking the cycle of abuse doesn't mean losing yourself but finding yourself? MEG... MEGGG

Meg's tantrum raised my spirits considerably. That's it, my friend! I thought. Give them Tartarus!

THEY MAKE ME SO

Nero looked baffled. "As I said, Meg is fine. I would never hurt her."
"You-" I choked on my rage. "You do nothing but hurt her."

and so much of Apollo's character development occurs because of her... they were made to find each other tbh

I held on to my purpose. I remembered Meg McCaffrey's last order: Come back to me, dummy. Her face remained clear in my mind. She had been abandoned so many times, used so cruelly. I would not be another cause of grief for her. I know who I was. I was her dummy.

shoutout to the Tower of Nero being the best Trials of Apollo book and overall, one of my favorite PJO books