Reviews with content warning for Grief - The Sun and the Star

Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Sun and the Star by Mark Oshiro, Rick Riordan

106 reviews

strawberrytheauthor's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

The ending was really good it had me crying. The rest was a drag and took forever to get through. Maybe I’ve aged out, maybe it was because it wasn’t just Rick writing but it was slow and agonizing to get through. It was about 300 pages too long

I love the characters just as I always have. They did seem very preachy. Like everything was overly described in their thoughts and feelings which contributed to the slow pace.

Content Warnings

elizabeth_the_witch's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Nico and Wills relationship is tested to its limits on their journey to the pits of Tartarus. However they both succeed in providing each other with the support they need to win their battles. It's a beautiful story and shows how being able to face your demons is hard, but learning to see them and let go of them is easier.

Content Warnings

alicethemermaid11's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging dark funny tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

fe_aye's review against another edition

4.5

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Nico’s first solo adventure. I’m so happy we got this book and I love how it doesn’t shy away from the fact that the main couple is a queer couple. If you’re looking for a queer love story where the fact that they’re gay isn’t the main focus but still addressed then this is a good one.

Nico and Will don’t have the same kind of seamless relationship that Percy and Annabeth have, they are two very different people who have to learn to see the world through each other’s eyes, their struggles are brought to light in this. It’s nice to see a relationship that has its rockier parts but they still love each other and are willing to work for it.

Content Warnings

bicanthropus's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

percy_still's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

gremlin24's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

kaitlyn54679's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

grandr's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

tj_thenerd's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I'm really struggling to know how to feel about this book. I was a big fan of Nico Di Angelo when I initially read PJO and HoO, not to mention now as an adult queer I often seek out queer romance. But this isn't what I'm looking for. And I fear I've just grown away from this writing style. Things feel ham-fisted and it's constant references to ToA made me exhausted.

I didn't enjoy that series and didn't finish it, so maybe I was hoping it would mostly be ignored? But I imagine if I had finished them, it would also bother me that everything was constantly being summarised again. It felt like I was simultaneously being isolated as someone who didn't engage with ToA AND isolated as someone who knew what had already happened. Over explained and under explored?

I felt like it was trying to be one of those companion short stories that felt like bonus scenes in a DVD menu but instead it became a full movie that doesn't really stand up alone. Is that a bad thing? For me, yes, I think so. I think I was looking for something different here. And I think I knew going in it wouldn't be what I hoped but I read it anyway.

The relationship is sweet in places and made me smile. If you're still deep into these stories and enjoyed ToA, I think you'll like this. I just think I unfortunately have to concede that new additions to the Riordanverse aren't for me anymore.

Content Warnings

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