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citrus_seasalt 's review for:
Celestial Monsters
by Aiden Thomas
Ok, I’m gonna be cursing excessively because I was very disappointed by this. Sorry to my Booksta friends that enjoyed it.
Settling on a 2.0, but I disliked reading this so much I might just lower it later out of spite (or have my Goodreads review as a “rounded up” rating idk). Can’t tell if I was disappointed because the frontal lobe developed more and I’m just not as much a fan of Aiden Thomas’s humor, or because the plot had to drastically change because of the lack of the Trials (plus so many of the characters I had fun with last book were imprisoned).
I’m aware a trademark of the YA genre is keeping things juvenile, but honestly every theme was hammered in, and every arc (ESPECIALLY XIO’S REDEMPTION, EVEN THOUGH HE WAS AN UNCONVINCING VILLAIN) was rushed as fuck. Even the politics felt half-baked? Anyhow; I feel like the only thing that was handled well was Chupacabra kicking Teo, Niya, and Aurelio’s ass the first time they fought because… yeah, there was NO way their power level (and lack of training on Teo’s part) could compare.
The ending was so fucking sad and the author only partially realizes it??? I have my gripes with Xio but my heart still broke in two for them especially. And the implications of how the other semidioses are going to live now were only partially addressed in the epilogue. I feel like there would be a LOTTT more grief from a bunch of teenagers coping with that 🤨
Xio’s pronouns were handled so awkwardly. I was so stoked to have nonbinary he/they representation, but they introduced their pronouns at the most awkward times just so the author could make jokes about other characters talking back to them while gendering them correctly. I’m sure a couple of people will find that funny but I just cringed so bad I put my book down for a couple minutes.
Back to Xio: their POV took a while to grow on me. Their time spent trying to kiss up to the Obsidians was fucking excruciating to read. His motivations for doing so are already obvious, and yet their facade, struggle for validation and obvious lying to themself is analyzed on-page by the narrative.
Settling on a 2.0, but I disliked reading this so much I might just lower it later out of spite (or have my Goodreads review as a “rounded up” rating idk). Can’t tell if I was disappointed because the frontal lobe developed more and I’m just not as much a fan of Aiden Thomas’s humor, or because the plot had to drastically change because of the lack of the Trials (plus so many of the characters I had fun with last book were imprisoned).
I’m aware a trademark of the YA genre is keeping things juvenile, but honestly every theme was hammered in, and every arc (ESPECIALLY XIO’S REDEMPTION, EVEN THOUGH HE WAS AN UNCONVINCING VILLAIN) was rushed as fuck. Even the politics felt half-baked? Anyhow; I feel like the only thing that was handled well was Chupacabra kicking Teo, Niya, and Aurelio’s ass the first time they fought because… yeah, there was NO way their power level (and lack of training on Teo’s part) could compare.
The ending was so fucking sad and the author only partially realizes it??? I have my gripes with Xio but my heart still broke in two for them especially. And the implications of how the other semidioses are going to live now were only partially addressed in the epilogue. I feel like there would be a LOTTT more grief from a bunch of teenagers coping with that 🤨
Xio’s pronouns were handled so awkwardly. I was so stoked to have nonbinary he/they representation, but they introduced their pronouns at the most awkward times just so the author could make jokes about other characters talking back to them while gendering them correctly. I’m sure a couple of people will find that funny but I just cringed so bad I put my book down for a couple minutes.
Back to Xio: their POV took a while to grow on me. Their time spent trying to kiss up to the Obsidians was fucking excruciating to read. His motivations for doing so are already obvious, and yet their facade, struggle for validation and obvious lying to themself is analyzed on-page by the narrative.
Xio shook himself. “Vengeance is the name of the game,” he said, shuttering his guilt behind a well-crafted facade.
(Do not even get me started on their attempts at being properly evil and smug.)
Maybe me connecting all Xio’s dots in record time (despite reading TST over a year ago) comes from me very quickly catching parallels to a character from a show I used to watch and analyze the fuck out of, though…
The dialogue was awful. The tone stays funny despite the high stakes, but it makes almost every character interaction feel like a terrible Marvel movie. I am surprised there wasn’t a “he’s right behind me, isn’t he” moment. (We did get a “you’re the plan guy!” moment, though. WITH A CALLBACK TO IT, TOO. Two strikes.) Even Niya was starting to get on my nerves, which is… something, because I was already used to her having corny dialogue, courtesy of her being a herbo.
As of now, though, I have this above 1 star, so I’ll be listing my reasons for why, despite me writing several paragraphs of scathing criticism.
- First, although I had gripes with both Teo and Xio’s POVs, their juxtaposition was interesting. Xio’s became more fun once I saw them on the path toward redemption and saw them get called out, but unfortunately, their reunion with the main trio was way too quick to provide any meaningful ways for them to make amends.
- Secondly, the lack of subtlety, the lighthearted teenage-appropriate voice with an otherwise dark (but still action-packed) plot, and the casual queer rep felt nostalgic. I’ll hint at why, towards the end of the review.
- Third, there were still some interesting characters, even if their complexity was only a shred—Mala Suerte, for instance. (He seriously grew on me this book.)
- And overall, while the plot is generic, the world itself isn’t, at least to me. I liked learning about more of it.
I can see a younger teenage audience really enjoying this, particularly those that grew up with the likes of kids/teen cartoons like She-Ra, but I personally found it too juvenile. Though, maybe this storytelling style would work best in visual form. I’m not totally opposed to the idea of a TV adaptation. (Maybe that’s because there’d have to be a lack of an internal monologue?)