Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Le soleil et l'étoile : une aventure de Nico Di Angelo by Rick Riordan, Mark Oshiro

47 reviews

tj_thenerd's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Violence, Blood, and Medical content

Minor: Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Outing

abby_can_read's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny 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

5.0

📖
I had a wonderful time reading this book. Nico and Will were adorable. I liked their relationship. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, and Grief

Moderate: Violence, Blood, and Death of parent

Minor: Eating disorder, Homophobia, and Outing

vaguelyredhead's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, and Grief

Moderate: Violence, Blood, and Death of parent

Minor: Outing

epohlig's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny fast-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

4.75

I loved this book!

My main reason for not giving it 5 ⭐️s is because the voice is slightly different from books that Uncle Rick does alone (which wasn’t a problem, but sometimes I missed what I’m more used to a bit). For the most part it wasn’t even noticeable, though. Another difference from Rick’s other books is the depiction of Mr. D, who acted more as a therapist here. It makes sense, but was also unexpected for me, given how he’s shown in other PJO books. 

Idk why it sounds like I’m whining so much. I genuinely really enjoyed this book and would 100% read it again. It was very dark, of corse, but there were still happy, sweet, and other lovely moments throughout the story. There was also a lot of character growth, both for Will and Nico, and there were a lot of valuable lessons, both for the characters and the readers. I was a bit skeptical about another Tartarus book because of the darkness aspect, but I really loved it. :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Death and Grief

Minor: Blood

wildatheart1339's review against another edition

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Death, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Homophobia, Torture, and Fire/Fire injury

melaschnie's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Medical content, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Homophobia, Outing, and War

val_theburrowofstories's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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

4.5

One word to describe the whole book is CUTE. Which is funny considering this is a Nico Di Angelo story, but his relationship with Will is just so cute, they’re my babies, I want to protect them from everything and I loved them from the very first pages 🥺💛 

This book is basically Nico’s quest to go to Tartarus and save “the one who calls his name” and Will knew it was going to dangerous for him to go too because he’s a son of a Apollo and needs the sun, but that would not stop him and he goes along. I loved seeing both of them protecting each other, their strength, their determination, their loyalty, their love 🤧 

I know sometimes their dialogue and nicknames could seem cheesy, but to me it was just so cute and sweet and funny. They’ve been together for a year and I was so happy that we got to read some stories between them at the beginning of their relationship (the moment they knew they liked each other, how one asked the other on a date, their first kiss). There were moments where I could’ve cried of how cuteness and how happy and proud I am of them 😭❤️ 

As always, even the smallest appearance of Percy and Annabeth makes me happy, and is so cheesy and funny that their only advice for them on Tartarus was that they would be okay because they had each other lmao but it’s true! That’s how Percabeth survived after all. 

This is so coming of age, so cute, being proud of who you are and loving who you want, coming out... I feel like this book can be SO important for so many kids out there who want and need someone to feel related and safe. And this book is perfect for that. 

I’m going to miss Nico and Will so much, this is easily a 4.5 ⭐ for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death and Death of parent

Minor: Outing

There is just one big spoiler of something that happens in The Trials of Apollo, just so you know:

- Grief: Nico is still grieving for his mom and his sister Bianca. But most recently

he’s also grieving for Jason’s death.

- Death / Death of parent: It is mentioned how those he loved have died.

- Violence / Blood / Injury: They were in the Underworld and Tartarus, so they had to fight and were injured in the process.

- Outing: Nico tells the story of what Cupid did to him in Heroes of Olympus.

scrubsandbooks's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective sad 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

4.0

My personal feelings about this book: I was confused at first. I read the audiobook so maybe the narration was hard to decipher between characters but the POVs flip flop between both characters within chapters and I don't think that's really helpful. Maybe it would have been easier to read the hardcopy. The flashbacks and flashforwards were also hard to keep track of initially too.

But, I rounded up half a star from 3.5 to 4 because this book is so important in the general sense. A middle grade book written by a beloved middle grade mythology writer featuring queer teens. Not only do those teens navigate rough patches in their relationship during this harrowing journey into Tartarus (which is NOT easy to do when one of you is the son of Apollo) but they openly feel their feelings. There is no hesitation when it comes to conveying their emotions which might be one of the more healthier depictions of mlm queer teen romance I have ever read in a book.

I know a lot of reviews here say this reads like fanfiction and maybe it does somewhat, but so what?? It doesn't take away from the importance of Nico's journey with his own demons and his relationships with the people around him who he has both loved and lost or love but are still there. There's also a calico cat that can turn into a sabre-toothed tiger, and that itself deserves a few stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Violence, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Blood and Outing

hayleyvem's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Grief

Moderate: Eating disorder, Blood, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body horror, Child death, Homophobia, and Death of parent

robertjspradlin's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Outing and Abandonment

Minor: Eating disorder and War