The Sun and The Star: A Nico Di Angelo Adventure by Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro
(2023) 480 pages

Final Rating: 1/10

Blurb:
As the son of Hades, Nico di Angelo has been through so much, from the premature deaths of his mother and sister, to being outed against his will, to losing his friend Jason during the trials of Apollo. But there is a ray of sunshine in his life—literally: his boyfriend, Will Solace, the son of Apollo. Together the two demigods can overcome any obstacle or foe. At least, that’s been the case so far…

Now Nico is being plagued by a voice calling out to him from Tartarus, the lowest part of the Underworld. He thinks he knows who it is: a reformed Titan named Bob whom Percy and Annabeth had to leave behind when they escaped Hades’s realm. Nico’s dreams and Rachel Dare’s latest prophecy leave little doubt in Nico’s mind that Bob is in some kind of trouble. Nico has to go on this quest, whether Mr. D and Chiron like it or not. And of course Will insists on coming with. But can a being made of light survive in the darkest part of the world? and what does the prophecy mean that Nico will have to “leave something of equal value behind?”

Nico will have to face demons both internal and external as his relationship with Will is tested to the core in this standalone adventure featuring two of the most popular characters in the Percy Jackson saga.

Review: 
This book took me relatively forever to finish.

I was so excited for this book, I mean, Nico di Angelo and Will Solace are going on their own quest and we get to finally explore their relationship? I was on my knees ready to beg for this book to be in my hands. I even bought it the moment it came out, which I don’t do. Ever. For any book.

I was ready for an exciting, funny, and quirky Rick Riordan book that could explore queer characters, only to be bitterly disappointed.

Many things didn’t work with this book. The most bothersome part was that the characters were as plain as 2D as shapes on paper. Nico is the square, Will is the circle, Bob is the parallelogram, etc. Why does Rick Riordan make every single character that’s the narrator (the narrators take turns, so there are multiple) sound like Percy Jackson? That was a question spiraling throughout my mind the entire time.

Next is the boring plot and storyline. It’s the same thing over and over, quest, danger, safety, rinse and repeat. A lot of things didn’t even make sense but were glossed over so the story could continue, but there was barely any story to begin with. The pacing was extremely slow and chunky. Yes, I mean very chunky. The first 200 or so pages literally had nothing interesting happen, and the main fight was only fifty or so pages. The main fight didn’t even make sense at all. Everything that happened was just absolute chaos and magic that doesn’t even make sense. Yes, I know magic doesn’t make sense, but it’s supposed to not make sense in a way that makes sense. This book just felt like the authors just slapped some magic sprinkles on it without cogitating whether it would taste good with the “cake” or not. (Sorry, I’m not writing in a way that makes sense)

The writing was also extremely horrible, and I really hate to say this as someone who grew up wanting to write exactly like how Rick Riordan wrote when I was in middle school. One big problem I had with the writing was that when Nico and/or Will start crying (which happens a lot), it’s almost all the time stated that they “burst into tears” or “broke down into sobs” or something like that. And they “burst into tears” A LOT.

Anyway, that’s just one portion of the lack of detailed and cringe writing that does not grasp the depths of each character’s personality, but I won’t make an entire essay on that.

Overall, an extremely disappointing read. The only thing I can appreciate about this book is the queer representation.