From the World of Percy Jackson: The Sun and the Star (… (2024)

you know that feeling when one of your favourite authors randomly announces that your favourite character from your favourite series is getting their own book?? yeahhhh :’)

TODAY IS THE DAY PEOPLE, IM HERE TO REMIND YOU THAT THIS BOOK IS NOW OUT

MAY SECOND PEOPLE THATS WHEN WE GET THIS BOOK 🎉🎉

uncle rick has blessed us with our deepest darkest desire

*takes a deep breath*
*screams*

SOLANGELO FOR LIFEEEEEEEEE

edited may 8th to add more of my thoughts

Thinking of that one post that says “This reads like fanfiction (derogatory)”.

I’m def in the minority and I’m glad to see everyone else enjoying this book and it’ll def be amazing for younger queer kids. But personally, as someone who has stuck with the og series for years, I didn’t really like it.

It’s not even a matter of me reading a book that’s not intended for my age range. Like, I promise you, I can tell when I’m not the target audience for a book. And I didn’t even (mostly) have a problem with all the interpersonal, emotional conversations, cheesy convos, and moments that happened between Will and Nico. I thought it was actually much needed and made sense considering they’re two 15-year-old boys in their first relationship.

With Oshiro as a co-writer, we’re introduced to storytelling elements that the series didn’t have much of previously such as flashbacks and dream sequences. I actually liked the dream sequences and didn’t mind the flashbacks that much. I also liked how it, for the most part, handled their trauma and other emotions. However, this is where my enjoyment ends.

I think Oshiro’s and Riordan’s voices could have been blended a little more because I could pick out passages written by one of them, which was incredibly jarring. While this book tonally fits a middle-grade book, it comes at the genre from a different direction than what the PJO series traditionally is. It feels like a contemporary middle grade shoved into a fantasy middle grade which fundamentally doesn’t work because of what storytelling elements they both differently prioritize. In other words, yes the writing style fits a middle-grade book, it just doesn't completely fit the PJO world.
The writing style also didn’t work for me because of how dominated it was by lame jokes that barely had any of the classic Pjo humour we’re used to, and because of how it had SO MANY pop culture references. These pop culture references date the book which is annoying since Riordan has told us time and time again how the book doesn’t follow a certain date. This is a minor annoyance but jfc they were not needed.

Unlike the previous books, this book never lets the reader come to conclusions on their own. There is constant repetition of plot points that already happened in previous books. While on one hand, this makes sense because it’s a standalone, half of these reiterations was entirely inaccurate to canon. Like Nico in Tartarus wanting to be around Annabeth, Percy and Jason bc he’s so scared. ok? but when this scene actually happened in MOA & HOO Jason and Nico were barely acquainted?? Like why not Hazel, since she’s, you know, his sister????

Similarly, this book doesn’t trust the reader to keep up with its themes. It repeatedly hits the reader over the head by mentioning how Nico and Will are respectively the dark and light over and over again for 480 pages until the themes themselves become redundant and the characters are watered down into cheap archetypes of darkness and lightness. Like ffs we get it!!! Nico is a pessimistic, depressive, grumpy, gloomy wittle bittle ball of darkness with a soul as dark and bleak as coffee. And Will is the sun! So bright! So much Shining! Shining carebare boy who has never done wrong and is the goodness that Nico needs!! No!!! You don’t get it, he’s the Sun!!! (Completely excluding the fact that Will is a battlefield medic and on some level has already been exposed and a bit hardened to the horrors of demigod life).

Until we reach the end and they realize that they’re both complex humans who can find goodness in both light and dark. The book is so heavy-handed in its morals that it almost feels like you’re being grabbed by the hand and pointed toward the characters while the narrative gleefully exclaims “See!!! Light and Dark are both good!” This is stupid because the narrative fails to recognize that the characters already kind of recognize that their nature is driven by ambiguity. It’s what made a lot of people (including Will) turn their attention to Nico because this ambiguity made him such a relatable and interesting character in the first place to readers.

Also yes everyone, the characters were ooc at times. The dialogue and voices in the book were absolutely asinine at times. Annabeth would never talk like that like what?? I also don’t like how the narrative undermined her and Percy’s devotion to their friends. (The craziest thing is that they were in the story for a fraction of the novel but their voices were still completely misconstrued.) (Also, the literal namedrop of Percabeth in this book had me putting down my Kindle and just deeply exhaling.)

Another issue is the frequent plot inconsistencies and the pacing. It’s also pretty well known that Rick Riordan has an issue with keeping his plot points consistent. But this was on a different level. It genuinely felt like there were so many cop-outs from canon for fan service. Like why on earth are a sliver of Maria and Bianca’s souls able to interact with Nico when they’ve both moved on and are reincarnated/in Elysium or whatever? Why is Hades able to retrieve someone’s soul from Tartarus though it’s been said previously he can’t? Why is he suddenly twirling his bowler hat like a shy teenager? Plz bring back turning humans into plants because when did he act like this before?

Also when I say this reads like fanfiction, I mean that it prioritizes relationships that the fandom would love to headcanon that otherwise barely exist in canon. As a result, other relationships that actually exist in canon suffer. For instance, in the end, we get a heart-to-heart between Nico and Piper. But when were they ever established as close enough to have such a heart-to-heart? When did we ever see them as such great friends? It would’ve made more sense to showcase Reyna at the end and this is another problem because where was Reyna? Hazel??? Nico’s sister, like hello?? Also, I understand that scene was in part supposed to illustrate Nico and Piper’s shared grief for Jason but if this scene’s additional purpose was to normalize conversations surrounding navigating your own queerness, why couldn’t this scene have included Reyna instead? Please correct me if I'm wrong, but she’s been alluded to as asexual (also potentially aromantic) in toa which was confirmed by Rick online. I think this would’ve been a great opportunity to center asexuality for once in fiction which so frequently tends to be dismissed as not a queer identity.

I genuinely think this problem is a consequence of Riordan paring every living thing together without taking time to flesh out backstories and relationship arcs. This book had to flesh out Will’s backstory and balance showcasing his relationship with Nico and their interpersonal communication issues. Consequently, Will’s character arc and his personality were built off of these interpersonal issues he had with Nico that resulted in his character coming off as if he existed for the sake of Nico and Nico's character arc.

(Also, wtf was that plot point of Nico having monster physically-personified trauma children and basically splitting custody with nyx…like wtf was that because I kind of want that scrubbed from my brain.)

hi so i need therapy after this

--------------------------------

pre-read: this will be my joker

this book was a decade in the making for me— Nico di Angelo, my grumpy ball of darkness, you will always be loved by me. whether im thirteen or twenty-three.

Nico and Will were a much-needed dose of sunshine, hope and nostalgia mixed with the dash of pain RR never forgets to add. i was giddy and i was swooning. i was laughing and i was holding back tears. it was a whirlwind and so worth revisiting a series i haven’t read in years.

the fact we get another Percy Jackson book in a few more months??? i am feral at the thought

‘I’ve got you,’ Will said in his ear.
Then his boyfriend’s arms wrapped around him, holding him tight. Nico turned until they were face to face, staring into each other’s eyes. Nico was supposed to be nurturing Will, not the other way around, but Will always seemed to know when Nico was most vulnerable.

writing and plot wise, does this book deserve 5 stars? probably not. did it make me feel every emotion ever experienced by the human species and also laugh and cry and stay up until 3 am finishing it? yeah, and thats all that matters to me. literally so good and cute i’m losing my mind, 5 stars

4.5 stars rounded up to five!

People who became gay because they got really into Percy Jackson when they were younger we won.

Nico’s a fan favorite character for a reason. He’s the mysterious son of Hades with a tragic backstory and many tricks up his sleeve throughout both Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus. He’s also the first openly queer character in Rick Riordan’s books and the first time many PJO fans ever saw positive queer representation (myself included).

I’ve seen some people complaining that Nico was out of character in this, but I disagree. Despite being present throughout all three series before this, we mostly only saw him from other characters’ perspectives. He did get a POV in The Blood of Olympus, but that story wasn’t really focused on him.

This book dares to ask the bold question “how is Nico di Angelo?” It’s a look into his trauma specifically and him trying to cope with it. Nico’s arc had me sobbing towards the end! This book was to me the literary equivalent of therapy and did heal a little bit of something inside of me.

This also made me finally like Will Solace! I think I’m in the minority of PJO fans for taking this long to appreciate him. My reasoning is that he was essentially a glorified background character in the other books. So to me Solangelo had felt like just throwing Nico at the nearest presumably single boy we could project onto and have the fun little light/dark dichotomy with.

But now I like my boy! This book expanded on both his backstory and relationship to Nico. He has some of his own trauma he’s working through but processes things differently from his boyfriend. He starts TSATS wanting to help Nico, but is stumped on how to as he can’t fully understand Nico’s experience, which in his defense perhaps nobody could. I loved that this was a book about a queer couple that gets to have a realistically complicated relationship!

Overall, the character work in this was great! The plot and writing had some issues though. Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro’s writing styles don’t blend well and you can pretty easily pick out who wrote which scenes, though I didn’t dislike either writing style; it would occasionally take me out of the story. The antagonist was way too unserious, a situation where some of the typical Riordan jokes needed to be cut. The themes are handled mostly without subtlety. And I already critiqued this in my review for The Tower of Nero, but Riordan still relies too heavily on convenience to get his characters out of conflict.

Oh and where were Reyna and Hazel???? Why were they barely even mentioned???? They were the closest people to Nico in HoO!

I also have mixed feelings on the flashback scene where Nico asked Will out in regards to queer rep. Without spoiling, basically Nico and Will were pressured to come out. This is especially problematic given Nico was outed in The House of Hades. Can we just let that boy come out when he’s ready???? Hasn’t he been through enough????

Despite that scene, I view the queer rep in this (and Riordan’s books in general) as a net positive. And despite my other critiques, I did really love The Sun and the Star! It was cathartic to see a character that means so much to me finally begin to unpack the tragedy of his story.

BTW though it's not necessary, I'd recommend reading the Trials of Apollo series before this. Though Nico and Will only appear in the first and last books, there are some spoilers to ToA and you'll have a better understanding of Will, particularly his relationship to Apollo. Trials of Apollo is also just a really good series itself!

TWs: outing (Cupid when you catch these hands), PTSD, death, grief, some gore including injuries and blood, bugs.

I like watching all the Percy Jackson fans lose their sh*t over this

I will need 3 business days to recover from this letdown.

This story was sweet. There’s really no other way for me to describe it.

Riordan‘s books are clearly written for a younger audience, which I‘m not a part of anymore, and it shows in the writing and dialogues which felt very… childlike. That‘s not a bad thing, of course, it just means that I‘m not the right age anymore for these kind of books.

And if I‘m honest, I solely bought it for the nostalgia anyways.

Will and Nico made a perfect team, and I‘m glad they got their own story without any of the other characters taking the attention off of them.

I probably won‘t be coming back for a reread, but The Sun and The Star has earned its spot on my shelf, where it will always remind me of my childhood and early teens where I got to escape in an amazing world of gods and monsters and heroes. I‘m forever grateful for that.

if you want solangelo fanfiction there’s probably better ones on ao3

I never thought I’d ever be in a situation where my prominent feeling after reading a rick riordan book would be disappointment. But here I am, so let’s try to unpack.

I guess my main complaint here is that this book didn’t /feel/ like a rick riordan book, which maybe was to be expected as it was co-authored. I don’t want to hate on or blame mark oshiro as he is unknown to me and I’ve never read one if his books before. But while reading the sun and the star i could pinpoint entire passages and just know wether rick or mark wrote them. Their voices didn’t merge well together, which just made for a weird reading experience. This book made me cry within three pages because it’s charged with history and context that is dear to my heart. I already knew and loved these characters, everything was supposed to be familiar but every time i felt like i was finally settling home, a sentence would just rob me of that feeling. I also spotted many instances where everyone was acting out of character, chiron and Mr D. especially seemed to have lost their very essence. In this book, Mr D was NICE, remembered the names of his campers and said out loud that nico was his favourite demi god and it made no sense to a point where I was actually pissed off.

Secondly, I need to address the writing. Someone said that if you’re looking for solangelo fanfiction you can find better work on ao3, and even though i am not a fanfiction person, i do not doubt that statement. I know that I am NOT the target audience for this book. Rick is writing middle grade, and us adults who grew up with the og pjo series are just extra at this point. These books being written for children was never an issue before, so the problem here is more than just that. I just found the general writing to be very weak and frankly annoying. For example Nico and Will were constantly addressing each other as «my boyfriend» to the point where it became a pet peeve. I know that this representation is important, and I was pleased to see that a real inclusion effort was made here with the use of real labels like gay, bi or even lesbian. But if i had to read one more time «he took his boyfriend’s hand» or «he spoke to his boyfriend» i would have lost it.

And finally, and this kind of goes hand in hand with the writing: this story lacked stakes. Nico’s and Will’s quest was almost boring, it lacked actions and a real state of urgency. I wouldn’t have minded a more chilled story had it been advertised that way. But this book constantly spoke of trauma and hardships, and it felt a bit empty to me as the general setting didn’t match that. Will and Nico going to Tartarus didn’t feel like Percabeth going through it in the House of Hades. Everything felt more easy here, i didn’t get scared for the characters a single time. The quest itself was weak (although i really like bob and was happy to have more of his storyline) and there was a strong sense of fan service. I think maybe this book was rushed. It felt like a draft of something that could have been better rather than like the finished product. It left me with a bittersweet taste, because it’s always a joy to be reunited with these characters and this universe, i loved some of the easter eggs, but overall i just expected more. I can’t say that the sun and the star made me love will and nico more than i did before. These characters have so much potential and i can’t help but feel that a lot of it has been wasted. They felt more like archetypes than real people in this story. The whole light versus darkness topic was so cliché that I couldn’t even care.

So here it is. I’ve read my most anticipated release of the year and i can’t get past the disappointment.

just 480 pages of teenage relationship drama but in literal hell

it pains me to give this rating, but

this is the epitome of your book reads like fan fiction (derogatory). there were seeds of a good book in here, but every time they surfaced, they would just get buried under the awful characterizations, bad writing, useless references, and MCU-levels of useless, distracting snark. i've never enjoyed an RR book less.

gay

It physically pains me to rate a book about Nico that low, especially because I've been waiting years for this book to exist. But I can't give it anything higher knowing that at the end of the day, this book is a piece of Swiss cheese of plot holes, wrong lore and mis-characterization it's painful. Spoilers up ahead in a rant.

I know I am so out of the age range of a middle grade book but I don't think that means a book should be this bad of an addition to a series loved by many for me to brush it off for being older than the audience.

This doesn't read like a book by Rick Riordan at all. This reads like a fanfiction of someone who only knows about this world, its event, the characters and their relationships from low quality screenshots of already out of character tumblr posts found on pinterest. This book also comes across from being written in two points in time - pre and post - release of the Trials of Apollo.

Any and all foundation Nico and Will had in their relationship is gone. Any relationship Nico had with other characters, especially Hazel, is gone. Any real sense of either of their characters are gone - Will, unfortunately, was given the fandom created personality that he's controlling over Nico's powers, not letting him shadow travel them around with ease. Even though there's a literal scene in one of the ToA books where we see Nico shadow traveling during Capture the Flag and Will is there to catch him when he passes out of exhaustion and bring him out of harm's way with a smile.

This book also still pushes the idea that Nico was making it up in his head that no one wanted him around even though, we have on page, in POV character's thoughts and words about how they don't trust him or like him. Hazel flips out on the seven when they don't seem eager to rescue him in HoO - like Nico was not making it up, people did not like him or want him around.

Nico and Will worked for me because Will had been up close with death before. He's a healer, he has lost campers for three series in this universe. He just doesn't have that anymore. He doesn't even understand that someone is made up with both light and darkness in this book, even though he's the one that pushes Nico to come and help out because he knows Nico isn't just death and decay. They also worked because you got the sense that they were both new to being in a relationship and were just soft, sweet friends as well.

There are moments of that in this book but this book also makes it like they're complete strangers. They talk about how they don't seemingly know each other then Nico tells Will he loves him. This book notes to make sure you get that they're almost at a year into their relationship. I don't expect them to every single detail about their life but this book makes it seem like they know NOTHING about each other.

Nico gets given the YA trope of coming out to everyone, ever, which is told to us in a story a few lines after Nico comments about his trauma of being outed by Cupid - something he very clearly struggles with since he mentions it multiple times. Then we find out he outs Will, but it's ~fine~ because Nico shows everyone at a camp for children born to Greek gods that being gay is okay. A camp run by Dionysus mind you. I get what they were aiming for and I blame the fact that Nico is the first canonically queer character in this series but come on.

This book also threw out every piece of worldbuilding and lore to make it work. Camp Half Blood is suddenly just not the safest place for campers anymore. What about the kids who don't have a home to go back to because they're orphaned or have a bad relationship with their family? Don't question it.

Demigods can only have a small amount of ambrosia and nectar before it burns them up inside. So why is Will eating and drinking the stuff the entire week they're down in the Underworld, even though they bring food and it's commented on? Don't worry about it. He should have been dead by the time they got to Persephone's garden.

Nico can't control dreams anymore, even comments that he wishes he could but he can. Hypnos is now suddenly the one who put everyone asleep during the Battle of Manhattan - it was Morpheus. His sister had been chosen to be reborn and Hades forbid Nico from seeing his mother whose soul so scattered she won't have known him but Hades can suddenly show him both.

Not getting into this book ruining Apollo's character arc - he was practically sobbing when he saw Will in the last series and found himself left out once he returned to his godhood. He would NOT cut contact with Will. Any sense of Hades trying to be a better part to Nico we got from the HoO is gone from sending Nico into somewhere that almost killed him before let alone the trauma the experience gave him.

And I really DON'T want to get into the idea of a woman millions of years old "creating" children with a gay fifteen year old boy but that was a CHOICE. If you don't see anything weird with that, re-read the sentence again.

Nyx had potential - I liked the idea of her wanting Nico to bathe in darkness and be darkness and seeing herself as a mother figure to him but again.... children. THEIR children.

This book was just missed potential and badly written fanfiction. I can't believe the one chance we got of Nico healing was given to us in "Cocoa Puffs". What happened to this book because I swear I remember it being advertised to us as an Orpheus and Eurydice style story back in the beginning.

this book does not deserve my 10k word analysis on how much it sucked. instead, a not-so-brief numbered list:

1. the writing sucked ass, so let’s just get that out of the way
2. i think if i had read this when i was 13 i would have stayed in the closet
3. he would not f*cking say that, etc etc
4. who is nico’s mother again? i’ve never seen a typo that glaringly bad before. might as well have told us ahead of time that no one on the writing team gives a f*ck about this book & i would’ve saved my time and sanity
5. speaking of nico’s mother, what happened to his dip in the lethe? those memories start conveniently coming back? or did the lethe wipe rick’s memory of ever having written that plot point in the first place?
6. mythomagic did NOT exist in the 1930s. or 1940s. whenever rick makes up his mind on which decade nico was born in
7. so……hades can send prophecies now? under apollo’s radar? that’s something that can happen?
8. if i see any mention of c*c** p*ffs in any future RRverse book i will have to file a lawsuit
9. maybe the real tartarus was the pain of reading this f*cking book
10. “it’s a good first step for representation” is it? is it really?
11. will solace being a frankenstein’s monster of every single one of his 2015 headcanons was not on my bingo card but still somehow the most predictable thing that happened
12. boo nico “he had no doubt he could kill octavion before the first cohort intervened, nor did he particularly care if he died for his actions” di angelo beats up tsats nico “i think about octavion’s death every day” di angelo in a dark alley
13. who the f*ck is niccolo
14. just watched my favorite character get turned into a cheap, butchered caricature of himself for the sake of “queer rep”

the characters are flat and inconsistent and the plot is slow and riddled with holes; the pacing is horrible and the structure is all over the place. it’s incohesive and poorly written. this shouldn’t have made it past the editors. i’m not “being miserable” or trying to deny the importance of seeing queer relationships in media. i’m saying this book is simply not good and it’s important to point out why lest all queer rep becomes garbage that gets away with being published for the sole reason that it boasts a queer protagonist. good night. it’s my turn for a dip in the lethe.

((this is breaking my heart btw.))

2.75 Golden sparks

it's nearly 9 years since I joined Riordanverse & enjoyed every moments reading & re-reading it & it owned a place in my heart; Percy, Annabeth, Jason, Will, Nico, Piper, Apollo.... all of them. & this book is the final book & I really wanted to like it. It's a Solangelo after all. I thought it would be a 5, or at least 4.
but (it really hurts me to say it) it's a 3.

the truth is, I was kind of afraid this might not be as good. but I kept my spirits up.
but now my worst fears come true (dramatic, yep, that's me)

please don't hate me now
it's just my opinion
& I'm glad for the people who could love it, sadly, as much as I wanted to, I wasn't one of them

it was a letdown.
ordinary
it felt like not-a-good Solangelo fanfic. (I know we kinda expected that too, but it felt repetitive & slow pace. I just didn't expect this from an author. I read a lot of better fanfics.)

it had its moments, but not enough.
maybe if it was shorter, or the pace was quicker...

I don't think I ever re-read it.

■ my Issues with this book:

the Characters were slightly different. I didn't expect this kind of development (character deterioration? is that a thing?) they also didn't feel deep enough.
I was sooooo happy to have a story about Will & he having POV chapters, which was one of my wistful anticipations, but... he didn't feel completely like himself.
nor Nico
(I did laugh with Mr. D & Chiron at first, but they didn't act like themselves either)

the Writing style was bugging me at some points. raw & inexperienced & repetitive choice of words/expressions/tags. (the fun was not even funny. not to mention out of character.)

the Pace was SLOW- the story was not captivating enough to keep me stay-up-all-night sort of way like all the other Riordanverse books (still in my re-reads) & craving for more ASAP! reading this one felt like a chore.
I had fun times until 25%, then slowly I lost interest.
I mean it (nearly) put me into a reading slump!

so many random stuff happened to fill up the pages (& more absurd than painful or worrisome)- & when it reached an important plot point, there was a repetition of parts that had already happened in previous books (there, it was wonderful & captivating, here, it felt forced, with the lack of creativity or excitement)
so, another reason for not being intriguing, nor surprising.

the "boat" parts, were intriguing enough that I was looking forward to it, but when it was revealed & I figured it wasn't like, a main plot point or something critical or important (it was, I'm sorry to say, their clumsiness!), it was silly & anticlimactic. (probably the point I started to really consider giving it 3. losing interest was a while back when they met their friends &... the repetitiveness drained the interest out of me... or the main flashback (I was so waiting for it, & it disappointed me very hard); ended so soon, & not the things I expected... it was just gross & disgusting, not the horror I was anticipating, because those vague descriptions (in previous book) felt sooooooooo heart-feeling horrifying! this... was not.)
the main event they were coming for, felt also a little anticlimactic & ended so soon.

the coco parts were cute? (very unreasonable & ridiculous tho)

& many unnecessary Misunderstanding Dramas, which is kind of understandable, since they were two queer teens in their first relationship (& it's good & educational for young readers, how they talk about emotions & relationships without getting to a real fight), but it was dull, & exhausted me & sometimes it didn't feel real.
more drama than adventures

the good concept, wasted

I hope this book haven't ruined my feelings for The House of Hades in my next re-read. & now I don't know if I want to jump into one of Heroes of Olympus books to wash it all away, or just wait until I forget this one! both!
(Updated Jan 2024: thank the gods! it didn't ruin my favourite book/series for me!)

it's just a theory, but I think Riordan supervised this book, giving the permission to use his characters, the rules of this world & explaining the general path for the characters, not actually involved in writing. because it REALLY didn't feel like a Riordan's writing style (or the character developments, how they talk, their voices- or the slow pace! or not captivating- was totally unlike the fast pace & captivating way Riordan wrote his books)
& the co-author tried to make it funny, but I wasn't laughing like I do with other Riordan's books. the jokes were lame.
-
Plot: ★★★/5
Characters: ★★★/5
Writing style: ★★★/5
Concept: ★★★★/5
------------
Pre-read excitements:
Sep 2022: Nico's book has a title!
yessss!
so cute!
We have a cover! with Nico & Will on it! I repeat! We have a cover with Nico & Will on it!😍

also can we get Will's POV?
& more backstory on his part? (like how & when he got to the camp)
ahhh, can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
one of my most-anticipated of 2023

May 2nd 2023: It's the day! happy book birthday!

4.5 stars rounded up. Gloriously brilliant in its myth-laden storytelling and riotously funny in the signature Riordan way, reading The Sun and the Star felt like returning back home in best possible way.

a wise internet user once said “do you want characters who talk like they're trying to get a good grade in therapy? because this is how you get characters who talk like they're trying to get a good grade in therapy” and i feel like this is the destination

tartarus isn’t hell, this book is

this comes out next week and i’ll be 100% honest, i forgot it existed

this is actually the greatest gift from the universe i'm not sad anymore

i feel like i’ve spent my whole life waiting for this

“lonely souls finding one another is always a good thing.”

i didn’t know i was queer when i first read percy jackson in high school. (although, how many of us read percy jackson as kids and then grow up queer?) something in me then was drawn to nico di angelo. the book where it was revealed (where he was outed) had not even come out yet. before knowing he was queer, something in his soul called out to mine. (again, how many of us—)

i found out about nico’s queerness when i was in college; long after i stopped reading the heroes of olympus series. finding out about his canon queerness after the fact that i had figured out mine meant something i couldn’t put into words. it was like uncovering something you didn’t know you didn’t know. like looking back at moments before you were out to yourself and thinking ah, yes. of course.

i always meant to come back to heroes of olympus, but i didn’t know how. so instead i let the world tell me what happened, absorbed spoilers and art. i knew about solangelo before i even knew who will solace was on his own.

i feel like i’ve waited half my life for the sun and the star. it feels like the book we were always meant to have. in the words of taylor swift: it’s been a long time coming.

this book is healing. for nico, for readers, for me. it’s finally taking ownership of your story, it’s being a light for others, it’s learning to accept your past. it’s having others accept it too, and love you for all of it.

looking at all the dark parts of you in the eye and knowing you are who you are because of all of it.

how lucky were we to grow up with riordan books coming out year after year. and how lucky are the kids who get to read all the books leading up to this now. how lucky are the kids who get to read this, and see nico and will’s queerness loudly and proudly on page. and know that they can be loved.

they are loved.

i'm just going to pretend this book doesn't exist

5/2/23

❝tell the sun and the stars hello for me. and be strong. this may not be the last sacrifice you must make to stop gaea..❞

song: afterglow by taylor swift

(quote is from the heroes of olympus series,,, i’m still shaken on the title’s reference regarding bob’s last words. cus i’m not crying, you are.)

this book was honestly just… boring??? like it wasn’t the iconic riordan writing and u could 100% tell that this wasn’t riordan writing. it read like a fanfic and the pacing was absolutely terrible??? like i loved the small crumbs of solangelo but the development was NOT there.

again, it read like a fanfiction and it was such a let down?? i’m not surprised atp but like the hype was just uncalled for 🚨 and tbh the characters acted like babies like nico was a lot more mature in the pjo/hoo series, and will was kinda… 😂 imo i loved the banter and the small parts, but the plot was not it.

wait omg this was seriously so overhyped and i’m looking at my past texts w my friends and cringing at how excited we were for tsats pls 😭

rtc

>2 stars

notes:

- so will first kissed nico after the burning maze, when jason died. but they started dating somewhere before the hidden oracle. that's okay ig?? but like nico and will's reaction after their kiss gave them major non-dating vibes. idk if that's like a typo or something but that was weird
- the “fighting relationship scenes” that nico and will had were so fake and like pls it was so uncomfortable to read it.
- the amount of typos/flaws in this HURTS.

~~~ pre thoughts ~~~

4/21/23

it's been like 7 months since this update but i'm listening to a sample of the audiobook and the effects and music is insane. also the beginning is so cuteee and it's in nico's pov??? like holy sh*ttt

my live reactions as i listen for five minutes:

"nico glanced and saw that will was trying to hold his hand."

OMG????? THEY'RE SO CUTE I LOVE THEMMM

NICO CALLED WILL THE STUNNING SON OF APOLLO. THIS IS OMGGMGM

"i'm the son of hades. i don't live by most rules" <-- i can see that being a huge quote in the future

AUSTINNNN 😭

"what did i ever do to deserve him? nico wondered. he asked himself that question a lot." HELLO???? OMG??

wait what's happening this is why i hate audiobooks bc i get distracted but this is so cute

DARTH VADER??? HUH WHATS HAPPENING BUT IK WILL LOVES STAR WARS.

"why would u choose vader when kylo ren is right there???" uhh no comment 😭

omg five minutes just went by so fast i'm crying I NEED MORE. I NEED CONTEXT. I NEED MORE!"?!?!!?

only 10 days ish until release <33 can't wait!!

9/27/22:

just added to my gr tbr, pumped af! the cover isn't the best (prob cus i read too much YA novels with cover loves but-) i love solangelo and i love bob so-

tell me this isn't a dream come true??? (hopethiswontbealetdownthough-)

I NEED TO BE SEDATED

Warning: this review will be sappy as hell. It’s going to be a lot of gushing, seriously.

Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro, thank you. Thank you for giving this to me. Thank you for bringing this masterpiece into the world. Thank you.

I’d like to start off this review by saying how important Uncle Rick’s works are to me. I grew up with Percy Jackson, Nico Di Angelo, Annabeth Chase, and all the other Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter friends. They mean the world to me. But the one who means the most to me was, and always will be, Nico Di Angelo. As soon as this little ten year old was introduced in book three of the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, I was hooked. I immediately adopted him as my own. And I just fell more in love with his character as the story progressed. Reading his story about grief, trauma, and sexuality meant a lot to me.

So a book like this, that had Nico coming into his own. Facing his past and his future; his relationships; his grief, guilt, sadness, anger. This book was everything I wanted and more.

For a long time, Nico had assumed he himself did not have a heart. He was the son of Hades, after all. Love didn't find people like him.
But then came . . . Will. Will, who could melt Nico's iciness with a smile.

Nico and Will’s relationship already stole my heart before guys, but this book has enveloped my whole life. I finally got to hear about when they fell for each other, how they started dating, and their first kiss, and guys, seriously, it was too cute.

Three words.
A promise of hope.

The words tingled in Will's ear.
They ignited his heart.

“I love you.”

And they fell.

One of my favourite things while reading was the fact their relationship was not perfect. They had their sweet, tender, fluffy moments that made me smile and gush. But they also had their struggles. Which is understandable. I mean, two kids who’ve been through three wars and enough trauma to last a lifetime won’t have it easy. Throughout the book, they both have their own struggles and issues. Nico doesn’t open up a lot and Will is a little close-minded about Nico’s life, and both of these tend to upset the other.

But this was the first time in Nico's entire life that a certain sensation filled his whole body, stitched itself to his bones, buried itself in his heart.
Nico smiled.
The future held hope.
And he clung to it.

But they want to keep trying to make it work. Their relationship is so much more complex. We only get a glimpse of what they’re like in The Trials of Apollo, so I was thrilled to see their development. Will is also an amazing character. We get to learn more about him and he’s such a sunshiny sweetheart. He cares about his boyfriend, friends, and family a lot. And of course, Nico. I’m proud of him for growing up. He finally learns to embrace that darkness, the light, all his feelings (both positive and negative). He finally learns to cope in a healthy way. He finally accepts that he can be happy.

"Do you know how many others have felt comfortable coming into their own because of you, Nico?"

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Paolo. Malcolm Pace. Jake Mason. And it's not just in Camp Half-Blood! Piper is just as thankful for you as the others. None of them would have been able to be out if you hadn't gone first."

As a queer reader who has been an avid pjo fan for years, this part of The Sun and The Star warmed my heart. This book is open to other sexualities and genders and it makes me so happy. Nico and Will openly talk about their sexualities and even their coming out stories. The fact that Nico became a role model for other members of Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter is fitting. This may or may not have been intentional, but I think it’s a little nod to what Nico Di Angelo means to his fans. I’ve heard from other pjo fans of how Nico being gay helped them come to terms with their own sexuality. So Nico Di Angelo, you’re not just an important person to me, but also to so many young queer readers who you gave courage and strength to.

I’d also like to take a minute to appreciate some of the other minor characters in this book. Mr D., don’t change seriously

I guess Camp Half-Blood is basically one big super-dysfunctional family,

Truer words have never been spoken, Nico. CHB is my family. They will always be my family. Nothing will ever change that. I will be an eighty year old in a nursing home talking and talking and talking and talking about these characters til everyone would wanna smother me with a pillow.

And I will leave you all with the words of Uncle Rick and Mark’s dedication because it made me tear up into a soppy mess

“To all the Nicos, Wills, Pipers, and everyone in between: this is for you.

May you shine as bright as the sun and the
stars.”

Okay maybe im at fault here because I am no longer a middle schooler (the target audience of this book) who had recently came out of the closet but this book was not good. It is quite literally fanfiction. It reads like something I would write in middle school.

I think i have never cringed more at anything…literally all of the jokes throughout this made me want to vomit in my mouth. It was so middle-school edgy-esque. How did rick write “my ball of darkness” AND THINK THAT THAT WAS OKAY??! Will and Nico may as well have referred to each other as “pookie bear”. I know that Rick likes to have cringey nicknames for his characters (think seaweed brain) but this took it way too far. I had to take breaks. I don’t want to repeat some of the petnames the two characters gave each other even. “Care bear” was a little silly. What the f*ck is “Field Medic Will”. IT MAKES NO SENSE?!,,!!,

I wanted to like this! I was never more excited for something. I bought it the day it came out. Nico is one my favourite characters in this franchise and does indeed deserve a standalone book. There is so much to his story that wasn’t really explored in all the others so I thought this was going to be a big opportunity for Riordan to address Nico and all his flaws, traumas, etc. He is probably the most beloved character in the fandom. This was such a miss and dissapointment.

I’m not a total hater of cheesiness in writing but this BOOK JUST KEPT SAYING THE STUPIDEST THINGS ALL THE DAMN TIME! There is a lack of depth to the writing that makes these characters feel real. I wasn’t engaged at all in the danger the characters were facing. The quest almost felt too easy. Everytime they ran into trouble the problem would be solved easily without consequence. (How did persephone not get mad that one chapter?!? What will and nico did was quite disrespectful?) (THEY GOT A BOAT AND HEALED WILL BY JUST TELLING STORIES WHAT??) (Small Bob just literally did everything for them) The whole point of the book was that they WERE IN TARTARUS!

I expected better descriptions of Will losing his mind and everything as well as Nico facing his quite literal deepest traumas BUT THE QUEST FELT SO EASY! Not once did I feel any tension between the characters and their emotions or anything. Also Will didnt even go through as much as I expected to him considering son of apollo and all of that. All he did was freak out and a few sentences later BAM nico snaps him out of it. Instead of taking time to talk about the effects of Nico’s traumas, we get this surface level mini lesson on what PTSD is and briefly summarize his memories. One of the biggest themes of this book was healing from trauma but it honestly felt dumbed down to me. The Cocoa Puffs were stupid but maybe I am nitpicking at that point. This book just lacks emotional depth and any depth at all, surface glancing over nicos character WHICH THE BOOK WAS SUPPOSED TO ADDRESS! NOT ONCE DID I FEEL ANY OUNCE OF EMPATHY FOR THESE PEOPLE.

Anyways onto Will…

I understand how Rick tried to develop Will’s character but it was simply lackluster. He was a wimp which we didn’t get to see before and it was nice to see some insecurities and his judgement on the Underworld but other than that we just got the nice supporative boyfriend. He never got any “full” charater development. I ALSO DONT UNDERSTAND WHY WILL IS SO ICKY ABOUT DEATH WHEN HE WAS A LITERAL WAR DOCTOR! I had high hopes for Will as he seemed like he had potential to be an interesting character + putting him without sunlight should have been engaging to read about but bleh.

I think rick tried to tackle the sunshine golden retriever and black cat trope going in their relationship by addressing their differences but again it was never fully fleshed out. Nico and Will never actually fully communicated in my opinion, although they did promise each other to.

I felt like the relationship was cuter in the trials of apollo series and all the other books. Over here it was just very much cringey and lacked depth. While the boat story-telling scene does try to provide us with this context to their relationship, its also very short and does not fully show why Will is so devoted to Nico to the point of going to tartarus for him. (This was such a sh*tty version of tartarus that legitmately did not deliver the setting it was supposed to). I don’t get the same sense of the love in their relationship the same way I do with percy and annabeth because of that missing context and emotion. I felt like Nico and Will barely know each other, (which the book does address but like still!) I understand this is just one book, but honestly the lack of emotional depth is the main issue at hand as well as the bad characters. All of their relationship problems were never addressed fully in my opinion and were slightly annoyances at most. They apologize like three sentences later.

The darkness and lightness spiel felt too literal to me. It was also overeppitive and stupid. I don’t know what to say.

The only scene that comes close to achieving what I truly want would be the one where Will talks to Persephone. (Ignoring how forgiving she is), Will asking “how do you love someone from the Underworld” was a genuinely good line that added to the relationship that Riordan was building. Their conversation is one of the only parts I liked about this book (and the trogolydes, they will always be my favourite) Unfortunately nothing came out of the conversation which sucks because it was probably my favourite scene in the book.

Bob was also just mediocre. I expected to feel more empathy and general sadness for what he had to go through but the writing just did not deliver. Chiron and Dionyus annoyed me for the few appearances they had. All the other characters we popped into throughout the Underworld also felt flat in their interactions. Except the trogolydes <3

Nyx as a villan was also bad. She never felt like a threat at all to Nico and Will’s relationship and their livelihoods. It was stupid. Her children at the end of the book joining Nico and Will’s side was also stupid. I think having Nyx as a character could have worked really well and been really interesting but you know! Didnt happen!

Representation in this book… I understand that this is written for middle schoolers so it sort of does make sense that Riordan portrayed the characters the way he did but he simply could have done better. The Cupid scene from the House of Hades is one of the best things written throughout the entire franchise so I expected more here. The discussion of sexuality here was also very surface level, with the coming out scene and the talk of Nico’s outting. I wish we especially went more in depth with Nico being outted as well as his fears about coming out. I actually wish we could have gone more in depth with any aspect of the book but that did not happen I guess! Please stop using the phrase “chaotic bisexual” though thank you very much.

One of the most popular sayings about writing would probably be “show, not tell”, which Riordan fails at here. The characters constantly tell you the lessons/morals of the story straightup. It feels like a lazy attempt at giving what the book was supposed to discuss without actually fleshing through the journeys that should have came with these issues.

This rant is getting too long now and I’ve already mentioned this but RIORDAN BUTCHERED THE SETTING OF THIS BOOK SO MUCH AND I DETEST THIS BOOK FOR THAT!! I expected so much with the setting. I hate this.

So anyways good parts of the book:
Silly hats!
Persephone and Wills conversation
More insight into Piper. I love Piper! Also Jason’s death. Yay!

This had a lot of potential and could have been probably one of his best books. I feel like he set Nico up in his other books to be a really good protagonist who was very interesting and engaging to read about. I think he could have easily also made Will an interesting character as a son of Apollo. Same applies to Nyx. The setting could have made this an extremely harrowing read adding onto the themes of trauma. My trogolydes on the other hand, have no flaws.

I don’t know. I feel really disappointed. I wish I didn’t buy it. If I could go back, I’d still read it. I am still slightly biased to this franchise which is why this is two stars and not one. I really love Nico and always will. I wish Riordan would rewrite this. I WANTED A NICO BOOK SO BADLY AND THIS WASNT IT.

ALSO WHERE THE f*ck IS HAZEL? also the guy who never fully generated back what happened to him and im gonna end this review now.

let me make it perfectly clear that the 5 stars are for nico di angelo and nico di angelo ONLY. there were quite a few things that i disliked about this book, but im not going to focus on them because nico di angelo came back to me and that’s the only thing that matters in this cruel, wretched world.

nico di angelo, you will go down in history as one of the greatest characters ever created. i love you.

whats really #onbrand is how rick manages to forget his own characterization and plot while writing books