I really enjoyed Cemetery Boys when I read it back in 2020, and while I have yet to read Thomas’s other recent release, I was super excited when The Sunbearer Trials was first announced. I’ve always loved stories about competitions, especially when blended with mythology, and this seemed like a fantastic new book with exactly those things! And honestly, it was! This was fun, full of diverse characters, and a wonderful dive into mythology that is less frequently seen in published stories.

I saw some reviews comparing this to Percy Jackson, and honestly, it’s a fair comparison! I feel like it has a similar energy and atmosphere to Riordan’s work, while still being wholly unique. There’s this incredible range of characters that complement each other well, and they all felt quite developed, even if they were only side characters. There’s also just this core of goodness at the center of the story, and especially within Teo, who seems to just want to do good and be good for a large part of the story. This, combined with a competition and world that is honestly quite gruesome when you think about it, makes for an interesting contrast, one that I can’t wait to see explored further in the next book as the consequences of the ending of this book become clearer.

There were moments where this book felt quite young, especially considering Teo is 17. I think it might just be the writing style, as I remember feeling similarly about Cemetery Boys, and I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing overall! I feel like it generally just lends some additional lightness to most of the story, which works with the overall energy the story seems to have anyway.

The only reason this book was a 4-star read for me, rather than 5 stars, was that I wasn’t as into the competition as I hoped it would be. I felt like I sometimes got a little lost in the trials, and I feel like this was partially due to Teo’s wavering motivations. While he was always technically motivated, his goals seemed to fluctuate, sometimes even within one trial. He shifted between wanting to win and do well for himself, to perhaps even be the winner, to wanting to make sure he focused solely on making sure all his friends made it. I feel like these two goals could’ve been blended better, as instead I sometimes felt lost as to what I was actually supposed to be cheering for. Did I want Teo to smash the competition and win? Or wait, was I supposed to be hoping he’d turn around and help his friends first? There often didn’t feel like there was a singular outcome to support, which makes sense because this was also a struggle for Teo himself too, but it ended up removing some tension from the trials for me.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and I’m anxiously awaiting the sequel to see what happens next after that cliffhanger!