((This originally comes as my response to someone saying that ppl donāt like The Sun and The Star because itās a middle school book and we were expecting the series to grow along with us.))
Valid point I keep finding BUT I recently read the PJO series again in preparation for TSATS and those books still slap!! Theyāre so good even tho Iām reading them as an adult even though they're meant for kids. (Also I recently read ToA because of course Iām gonna keep reading Rickās middle school books until the day I die or they stop coming out lol. And that series while more goofy at points I still really liked) I also read one of Mark Oshiro's other books in prep for this book because I was excited for The Sun and Star to be released and I just COULD NOT get through it š the writing was just giving me the ick and the characters where all kind of samie like that sassy talking wit. Which was a bummer because I liked the premise of the book āAnger is a Giftā, which was about underfunded schools mainly facing ppl of color and immigrants which leads to the school-to-prison pipeline because of the defunct way America funds public schools that keeps the poor poor and the rich getting richer & it was ACAB & had a lot of queer representation & etc. So I thought Iād really like it but I just couldnāt get through it because of the writing and I noticed this same writing style showing up in TSATS. Just because itās for kids doesnāt excuse it from being bad. Like early Pixar and Studio Ghibli is still so good to watch back again and my 50+ yrs old parents like it. Book examples would be Harry Potter (screw JK Rowling tho fr) & the The Little Prince
Not to bash on ppl who say this is the main reason ppl donāt like the book but it feels like a straw man argument to say that the books not growing with us is the main reason ppl didnt like it. All tho Iām sure ppl have argued this but that is definitely their fault because Rick is staying in middle-grade fiction forever like thatās his thing! Why would ppl expect different š¤£ You think he wants to write a sex scene?! LMAO
(Hereās my review, itās unhinged and not great because I should be doing productive stuff but am distracted until I can at least write down some of my thoughts on my disappointing experience)
Here are some things I didnāt like about it from a piece of art standpoint:
This book was filled with the first thing they teach you about writing which is: SHOW donāt TELL
It made me not ship Solangelo surprisingly like how??! I used to love Solangelo but I think this mainly is because of the collective consciousness of the fandom and because we wanted Nico to find happiness with someone. But if you really look back on their moments canonically from the books Will is a background character (who honestly kind of gaslights Nico by invalidating that ppl treated him differently as a son of Hades and that he didn't feel welcome at camp) and they kind of have a quick meet cute in the last book of The Last Olympian. They get together without us seeing their developing relationship and we now know theyāre dating in The Trials of Apollo where we see them briefly in the first book and then more so in the last book. Honestly, this canonically alone doesnāt give me enough information or examples to really know or care about their relationship in comparison to Percy and Annabeth who we get to see develop. So TSATS just kind of felt hollow to me because Iām supposed to believe theyād die for each other but I DONT KNOW THE POWER OF THEIR LOVE?? This could just be a first love fling type thing like I was never shown the depth of their romance just told constantly in the book how much they love each other so it just felt kind of empty and emotionally unsatisfying to me.
Solangelo's relationship has always been in the background and the fans are what really made it cause we love Nico and want him to be happy. So when Will and Nico are fighting in this book all I can think is that this is just their relationship period.
So the reason it made me not like Solangelo was because Tarturus was supposed to bring out the worst in them and strain their relationship but, like, I havenāt really seen much of their relationship so I donāt have a ācontrol groupā to base this off of. So Will just seemed rude when he was so mean about Nicoās underworld home and about Nico's darkness which I also didnāt understand wtf he was talking about because Nico has killed just as many monsters as other campers and what else was his darknes based off of. cause heās emo/goth?? Cause he can raise the dead?? Like guys weāve discussed this just because a character wears black doesn't automatically make them the bad guy. I honestly thought Will just thought that was hot and theyād have that normie x alt relationship dynamic (that meme of: My hot witch wife. Me doing whatever she wants) I thought THAT was Solangelo not Will constantly trying to bring this light side to him and trying to change him. I agree that Nico needs help w his trauma and PTSD and things like that but this felt like if someone tried to ācureā a goth person, like actually screw you
I thought Will was supposed to look like a normie but be secretly a freak (in a good way lol) / goth interest. Cause this is meee I thought I was like Will as someone who looks like a normie and has a sunny disposition but I have a lot of alt/goth interests and I would let an alt girlie step all over me tbh lol. So does he like Nico for who he is or not?!
This is more in line w what I thought their relationship was like lol:
The flashbacks and forwards I thought were ok even if they took you out of the story a bit but this device is supposed to be used for an IMPORTANT event not just as a way to quickly give context to their relationship and when we got to the scene this was taking place in I was like thatās it?? He what? fell down and is suffering from sun withdrawals and this is the book's big moment to justify jarring flashback scenes?
Mark Oshiro is not a fantasy adventure or horror writer and it shows. Maybe itās just me but their depiction of Tarturus and the nightmare and the journey were just not up to snuff with good horror and fantasy books Iāve read. (And if your gonna say something about how itās for kids then I raise you the book series āGoosbumpsā) So as a genre in itself, it was just disappointing. It was mainly a relationship guidebook book but I didnāt really like that or feel like it was done well, It felt lectury and also idk if that's the genre middle schoolers really like?? š
It had too many references which really dates a book, A lot of professional writers say not to use too much slang or modernreferences (unless youāre trying to make a book expressly about a time period) because it really dates a book and doesnāt make a story feel timeless for future generations if you use too many references (this doesnāt include political novels tho which are very much based in that time when the events happening) Anyways for future writers keep this in mind, you don't need to keep in touch with the youth through urban dictionary you can just write about the emotions of being young or whatever. If youāve tried to read a comic book aimed at teens from the 50s like I have youāll realise how funny that is.
(Also the carebear reference that I didnāt even understand and I watched carebear as a kid & Lil Nas video which if this was written for kids that music video feels a bit inappropriate for them š it had a reference both too old and too young for middle schoolers AND how in the world would 1930s born, dropped out of elementary school, canāt use the internet or phones half blood, NICO DI ANGELO know these references???)
Bad alt representation. (This is my most out-of-pocket opinionated bullet point rant so if you don't agree thatās a-okay :D ) This could be a whole post in itself but although I know ppl joke about Nico as the Emo kid I would really like to get into how Nico is actually, or it would be cool, as having some goth subculture inclinations. And ppl probably think of Trad Goths with the whole makeup and teased hair look but itās mainly a music-based subculture and/or it just has a different idealogy around the ideas of death and what is deemed beautiful while most ppl see it as ugly. (Like listen to āGallows Danceā or the Bauhaus's āBela Lugosiās Deadā & āThe Passion of Loversā, to name songs off the top of my head) This bullet point is definitely MY OPINION and doesnāt contribute exactly to the book being bad but arenāt those songs the vibe of an underworld kid like Nico?? Embracing the darkness and dancing in graveyard vibes fr!! Anyways most alt subcultures and especially emo are seen as a phase in life that you grow out of and then become normal. This book just really gives the energy of being written by a normie who would be confused by the choices of alt ppl and just doesnāt get it because itās not their personal interest, which isnāt exactly bad even tho I want more philosophy from Nico on the chillness and acceptance of death (all tho greek mythologies view on the afterlife sucks fr and THAT is a whole other post haha) So this isnāt exactly a problem BUT what gives me the ick is WILL NOT ACCEPTING THESE THINGS LIKE SIR STOP BASHING YOUR BOYFRIENDS LIFE!! Will asking Persephonee, āHow do you love someone from the underworldā SHUT UP!! š¤
Will was useless and I know what they were trying to go for but if I had a girlfriend (oh Iām a lesbian btw just in case ppl think Iām going harder on this book more than the other books because Iām homophobic bruh I swear Iām not Iām only disappointed in the art itself, NOT the representation which I actually liked) and if I was super good at fighting and they werenāt, Iām sorry but I wouldnāt take them BECAUSE of my love for them. If they were going to be useless on a mission of such life-threatening danger and importance I WOULD NOT TAKE THEM OUT OF KINDNESS. Like skills in medicine and art and music are great and thereās of course nothing wrong w not being a badass fighter (lmao this is me and most readers) but then DONT GO TO SUPER HELL!!! Especially if you have something that makes you more pathetic than being a normal human in Tarturus, his suffering from no sunlight is out of pocket and just makes the story draggg and makes him seem boring and the story more boring. I know they were trying to go for a fish out of water storyline and roll reversal but I think it wasnāt done well enough and overall hurt the story
Also, Iāve heard ppl talk about how it would have been nice to have a book focus on their relationship while at Camp Half-Blood. Like maybe it takes place pre Jason's death and we can just see them living at camp. Itād be chill and we can actually see them as a couple & It would give the energy of readers wanting to go to camp half-blood again like how everyone wanted to go to Hogwarts. Cause we havenāt seen the camp as a fun home since the very early PJO books ;-; (this is just a fun idea I like and I think would have been more manageable for an author but this is FR my opinion on a fun book idea iād like to read) ALSO this would have been so nostalgic for the older readers who have been here since middle school gobbling up this universe š
I know ppl get mad at ppl making fun of Will for being pathetic in tarturous. As saying heās a child and no one can be happy and sunny and doing well 24/7 which is valid but thatās not really my argument. I like watching characters put in situations where we watch them bend against what we thought they were when put in a hard situation (the masochist in me lol jkjjk). But this I think didnāt work for me because as Iāve said before heās mainly a background character at the end of one book thrown together with Nico and we as a fandom have mainly made him up. Also, Tarturus was just not as scary or adventure-filled as like any of the other missions from previous PJO books, It didnāt feel as trauma-inducing as everyone in the series tried to explain it as. (again show not tell from the book) Also, I would have liked to have seen Will cool at least once or one reason for me to like him with Nico but I saw him as pretty bland as a character
The writing style felt bad to me because of the show donāt tell part for example telling as āit made him sad and traumatizedā when showing would be, you know, actually showing the scenes and this book just felt like 80% telling what they were feeling instead of letting the reader feel the emotions of the scene for themselves
I think thatās another thing I really didnāt like related to the Show Don't Tell. And another hallmark of bad writing was this book was really telling the audience how to feel instead of allowing the story to be powerful enough to do that for itself. This book follows a trend Iāve seen a lot in TV shows where everything kind of feels like detached irony from being on Twitter where you hear everyoneās opinions so the story is written as a wink and a nod like we know what weāre doing and we know what your thinking and how twitter will react to it. Like itās hard to describe this trend Iāve mainly seen in TV shows and movies recently which always gives me the ick cause it doesnāt feel funny it feels like Iām in a response piece that is breaking the fourth wall and reminds me that Iām in reality watching or reading something instead of actually feeling like Iām in the story. Itās like pseudo-wittiness or something. Tell me if you guys feel this way about some modern tv shows or books, I can't be alone please š!!
The stupid toast scene at the end lol The book is like: Do you get it? Did you get it?? Theyāre opposites! And they attract!! We did the trope you guys!! Also, the stupid Darth Vader scene to start off the book š
This whole book made me cringe where I had to constantly get up walk around and lie on the floor before I could continue, only to constantly repeat the cycle š
Anyway, idk how to end this review/rant I just had such strong emotions I had to get out probably because I was so excited for this book to come out for like over a year and got back into PJO for a bit and read some of Mark Oshiroās books and greek mythology and stuff, so I think it wasnāt just me reading any random bad book it disappointed me more that it was poor quality because I wanted to love it so much.
It did have some actually good parts, the troglodytes were cute ā¦ I canāt remember the other stuff but it was there I swear lol! If you enjoyed it Iām happy for you! Donāt let me ruin a book you like, you deserve to feel joy šš
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