A review by archytas
Sun and the Star, The: A Nico di Angelo Adventure by Rick Riordan, Mark Oshiro

emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

This had significantly more talking-about-feelings content than Riordan's solo work, which I actually thought worked quite well. The setting, the action scenes and the complex relationships between gods, demi-gods, titans, and various mythological players all felt perfectly in tune with the rest of the series. Nico's characterisation, in particular, was far more fleshed out than he has been able to achieve in other books, and I thought Oshiro and Riordan stepped deftly around some of the less well-executed parts of his arc in previous books (especially his crush). Riordan has always tried to give his young readers versions of themselves to relate to in his books, making his characters have real problems like ADHD, poverty, trauma and absent parents. Here, some of the arcs are focusing more on exploring the consequences of that. The extra emotional processing conversations are combined with some more directly allegorical content. Nico, whose powers are closely connected to his trauma (and who Riordan has chucked quite a lot more trauma at in the series'), makes an excellent subject for exploring how to live with it. I can see, for some kids, this book is a literal lifesaver.
I think the extra emotional content makes this more suited, I suspect, to more emotionally developed tweens, and the focus on exploring early romantic relationship dynamics (there is no sexual content at all) might also suit young adults who like this genre. Certainly, the humour, the action and the plotting are well-enough paced to carry the more introspective bits (absolutely a page-turner), making this clearly an adventure book, just one with some emotional reflection.