A review by noorandbooks
The Burning Maze by Rick Riordan

4.0

The morning sun blazed in the east. It had risen today, as always, but no thanks to me. It didn't care if I was driving the sun chariot, or if Helios was raging in the tunnels under Los Angeles. No matter what humans believed, the cosmos kept turning, and the sun stayed on course. Under different circumstances, I would have found that reassuring. Now I found the sun's indifference both cruel and insulting. In only a few days, Caligula might become a solar deity. Under such villainous leadership, you might think the sun would refuse to rise or set. But shockingly, disgustingly, day and night would continue as they always had.

me, getting to the halfway point after telling myself repeatedly the book would be horrible: perhaps I've treated you too harshly
me, finishing: perhaps you're treating me too harshly

only 4 stars because the beginning was slow but oh my god... THAT SECOND HALF... THAT IS... THAT WAS... NNFNDSFKDSLJF SD imagine incoherent babbling. which is what I'm doing. WHY. WHY WHY I literally KNEW WHAT HAPPENED AND YET. my heart still has the AUDACITY to hurt

I give you my heart
I mean metaphorically
Put away that knife

best haiku in the entire book, this is what happened to me. there was a knife that went through my heart

"I can't even..." Jason sat heavily on his bed. "I don't know whether to laugh or yell."

"Don't limit yourself," grumbled Piper. "Do both."

oh.. I am going to miss this :(

"Don't allow them to win! All you have to do is rest. Return to the ether of Chaos, my old friend. Be at peace."

no matter how much I complain about Apollo as a protagonist, he gives some HEAVY lines sometimes and I just go. you. YOUUU

Spoiler

I could hear Jason's voice in my mind, saying my name, asking for one favor: Whatever happens, when you get back to Olympus, when you're a god again, remember. Remember what it's like to be human.

This, I thought, was being human. Standing on the tarmac, watching mortals load the body of a friend and hero into the cargo hold, knowing that he would never be coming back. Saying good-bye to a grieving young woman who had done everything to help us, and knowing you could never repay her, never compensate her for all that she'd lost.

there is no joy in this world