lizards925's Reviews (411)

I have seen many people say that this book is a mix of the Hunger Games and Percy Jackson but with more queer and Latinx representation. That is extremely accurate but I don’t think that makes it amazing. By comparing it to these big franchises that have had incredible success it makes this book’s expectations way higher for fans of those works. This book is not bad, it’s good and there is a reason that I finished it within a day. The writing feels younger than YA, more like middle grade. Percy Jackson is considered middle grade but still had a good balance between including serious plot information and jokes to ease the tension for a younger audience. This is a personal issue but I really hate when fantasy novels include pop culture references or try to integrate social media apps into the fantasy world under some quick name change. For me it dates the  story to the time that it was physically written it does take me out of the world the author is trying to build. Which is a shame because I love the world Thomas creates for this story and I really enjoyed learning more on the Gods and their realms. It might be because I have started to grow out of enjoying YA but I did find the storyline extremely predictable and the ending was rushed and really only served to set up the next novel. As someone that had to wait until the next book was released, I was not compelled to continue since it didn’t feel as high stakes as the author tried to make it out to be. It’s a fun read but kinda forgetful, I had to reread it before picking up the sequel because  I remembered nearly nothing. Maybe I’ll feel different about this one after reading the sequel.