I know, it's been a while since I finished a book-

-1
-The Sun & The Star by Rick Riordan & Mark Oshiro

In this spin-off from the world of Percy Jackson, Heroes of Olympus, and Trials of Apollo, Nico di Angelo and Will Solace, two boyfriends, are on a quest to save the being behind the voice calling to Nico from Tartarus: Bob the reformed Titan.

It wasn't perfect.
Spoiler free territory:

There are some bumps to the characters. As some people said, you can tell what Rick wrote VS what Mark wrote.
There's also some grammatical errors at some point, and Nico thinks of Bianca as his Mother at one point (which I heard some people have a version that says Maria at that part, not Bianca. So I may have a pre-reprint copy)

I actually kind of like Will & Nico. They weren't as perfect as people usually made them be in fanart and stuff, and I love how their dynamic is and how they both grow to understand that they have their flaws and need to work on themselves.

Spoiler territory:
(TW: I mention Leo with some abuse he may have suffered from foster families)
(Paragraphed single thoughts will be marked with a " - ", since I understand one big long one may seem more like a jumble to read on here for some)

First off-
A+ for having Nico say Damn. XD
I forget what page, around halfway point. But Nico says "Damn, I hadn't thought of that."
He does say Dam later on (I'll get to that in a second). But like...that's the most any of these books have ACTUALLY had with cussing, as far as I can recall. There were jokes like Dam, and Schist being Jason, Leo, and Piper's Dam, and some mentions of "colorful words" or cut-off swearing, such as little 11 year old Nico about to tell someone to "take their Great Army, and shove it up up their-"
So for the word Damn to actually be said, of course by Nico of all people, was honestly a bit of a shock to me. I stared for a second before I put the book down and walked around. XD
(Though someone did remind me Magnus did say Jackass at one point)

Sometimes, things you can tell were written by Mark feel a little preachy of LGBTQ+ stuff, like around the end. But it's not deal-shattering and has some heart behind it. So I guess it's the thought that count.

There are some inconsistencies, like how Bianca is said to be in Elysium when she chose rebirth in PJO (though this could be written off, maybe, as just a bit of her lingering behind), that Hypnos put Manhattan to sleep when it was actually Morpheus, like I said, there is an error for some where Nico says he's the son of Bianca di Angelo, there's a few grammatical errors here and there, and Nico saying Dam doesn't make sense since it was an inside-joke between Percy, Grover, Zoë (kinda, since she didn't get it), and Thalia (Unless one of them told him. Which would be a little cruel since it happened RIGHT AFTER Bianca got killed), Nico talking about how he saw the Music Video for Montero by Lil Nas X (Aside from the fact the singer has said he doesn't want kids listening to his music, there's also the question of when Nico did this, since demigods aren't supposed to use electronics)

There is the mention of when people were lining up to hit Leo after he defied death in ToA, it was him who suggested it. Which-
Leo, sweetie, no. I don't care if any foster families told you you deserved to get punished that way, that is not okay. Someone needs to get this kid some therapy.
You're never at fault for someone wanting to do physical harm to you because you made them emotional. Which that does kinda needs to be touched on, dam-

Nico using stuff like #OnBrand did seem kinda cringe at first. But it's sort of cute when you remember he's from the 1930s and has spent only 5 years in this new time, is at one of the cringiest points of lifetime (15 is the right time to be cringe AF. All generations had some kind of cringe from that age), he's still learning about this cultural change. It's like when your grandparents try to be "Hip with the times, dude". It's cringe, but it's cute.

Their first kiss being right after Jason died. like, right off-page after Nico walked away when he got the confirmation-
Part of me is like "Wut-", part of me understands because Nico seemed to have been disassociating and considering it was making the grass around him die it COULD have had some bad affects on him or others due to his powers, so it was sort of a comfort he needed.

Nyx making embodiments of Nico's bad thoughts basically the same way Annabeth was born, making these little balls of darkness both hers and his children-
Was, um, a little weird. But at least it wasn't romantic or sexual. Just her creating living versions of bad thoughts. But like...he's a 15 year old boy .-.
But him letting the bad thoughts, called Cacodemons (That he and Will call Cocoa Puffs), choose what they want to do with themselves, and they choose to live with him and become these cute masses of darkness following him around was honestly kinda cute. Basically Nico is these little creatures dad and Will looks like he'll be their step-dad. Or as I've seen at least 2 things say so far, "Will isn't the Step-Dad, he's the dad who stepped up!" That better become more loved around the fandam.

I hear people saying "Nico deserved better" because of how cranky Will was, but hear me out:
First off, they're both kids, queer kids, new to these feelings, they're still just young teens learning and growing (again, this is a time where you're naturally cringey), new to any form of romantic relationship. Last person Nico really let get close was killed. And Will was in a new place that was literally draining him.

Imagine you want to see your loved ones home, but you have a condition where the sun or the temperature drains you and messes with your head and their home is in a place that will affect you as such, and the person you love is also staying closed off. You love them, but of course you would be cranky and speaking before thinking! Do you have crystal-clear thoughts when you're drained, stressed, and the person you cared about is hiding away? Especially if you're new to relationships! Especially if you're going to a place known for its darkness and there are only 2 other people alive to tell the tales of how horrible the place was!
On top of everything being new, he was also scared, understandably. And confused. His boyfriend seemed unsympathetic to some of the things involving death, and he is too sympathetic to understand how desensitized his boyfriend was to all those souls. Sometimes being an empath makes you disregard one persons feelings for a group you see hurting.  And it'd been mentioned that Children of Apollo didn't usually get through quests alive. This is a son of Apollo going to the darkest most evil place in existence. In his shoes, would you NOT be freaked the fuk out and have your thoughts scrambled?

-I honestly kinda liked Will in this. The way he was more built up. He loves his mom, enjoys travelling with her and holds her songs close to his heart, has a fear of pigeons after his first encounter with anything mythical, he has his own worries about being lonely, and was willing to out himself when a misunderstanding made Nico out himself to CHB.
He enjoys listening about True Crime.

-Despite his complaining and loss of power he's willing to try and push through his issues for those he loves, and he learns that his words do have a negative affect and understands why.
He sometimes feels like he's a burden to his boyfriend when really Nico probably would've had a way harder, or even impossible, time to get through everything without Will. They had their bumps, and Nico DID go through Tartarus alone before. But it was more dangerous now and Nyx had her sights set on him this time around. 

-He wasn't perfect, no. But that's the thing, they're not supposed to be! They're kids still growing and learning, including Will. It's more growth than he'd gotten previously.
And he has a lot on his shoulders. On top of wanting to support his boyfriend, he was also the lead healer, head of the Apollo cabin, has seen so many kids, including his siblings, die. He was pushed into this position against his will, and it could be on his hands if people died, he felt. We see those fears come to light when he hears doubtful voices.
To everyone else, he was relaxed, collected, knew what he was doing. He was a doctor, a head doctor, he had to be. But in his own eyes, he had his self-doubts, he had his own problems he had a hard time being open about, his own fears. The calm kid we saw before was his own mask. His mask looked different from Nico's, but it was still there. And despite his fears, despite how weak he was from his time away from the sun, he still tried his best. He literally built a gods dam hut for his boyfriend to sleep in after said boyfriend strained himself. He was tired AF, and he pushed through it to shelter his boyfriend. And when Tartarus took advantage of his tiredness and his anxiety and lead him away, he still left a HitKat for Nico before going to scan around.

-And as someone with some form of anxiety, I felt a personal connection to Will. Especially having to feel responsible a lot. Another reason I can't criticize him too much, because I understand and connect with him. On top of seemingly having it, when you add that to the fact that it's said children of Apollo don't make it through quests and that he was going to a place of all the worst things, that anxiety is going to act up to the extreme and cloud your rational thinking and feelings far fuking more than it already is on the daily. You're never really sure if your thoughts are based in reality or just your fears of the "what ifs".
In a lighter tone, I connect to him as a fellow bisexual with anxiety who's had the leader role pushed onto and expected from them.
(I stumbled on a Tumblr post that I could agree with ranting all about Will and the slander he gets. I'll link it here -->)

-Will has gotten so much slander for not being the perfect sunshine BF. He's literally a child with anxiety who's trying to push through it for his boyfriend but it tugs between his rational thinking, his own feelings, and how he tries to be that perfect person others perceive him, and that's affected his own view of Nico. It gets projected. Something gets pushed onto you enough, you may sometimes push it onto others, maybe without even realizing it. He's trying, and he learns to grow.
Honestly, after this, he became one of my favorite characters.

Like I said, they're flawed, but they come to learn their flaws can be worked on. Not that their flaws should be entirely dumped into a void and erased from them, but they can instead better those flaws.
Nico learns to open himself up more, and also learns to see things from others point of views, why things he likes may be seen as weird to others.
Will learns to accept the dark side of both Nico and himself. He learns to stop trying to change that dark-loving side, and even learns to embrace his own darkness.

Honestly, and I may get flack on this, I honestly loved seeing these twos relationship more than Percy & Annabeth. Like, I was more sucked in and found myself hoping for them a lot more.
We see Percabeth's build-up, and they get together in the end. But we hardly see their relationship struggles AFTER they got together. There's them being loving in HoO, but aside from the fact it feels that things may have been better if they weren't part of the 7, but there isn't their after-getting-together struggles and realism.
Will and Nico, we get to see that. While they're dealing with this quest, and with Will slowly having the energy and even life drained from him, they clearly love each other and we see them actually giving a crap about their issues, and even Nico comes to understand he can't keep waving his fears and thoughts away, that he needs to properly communicate to make a relationship work. Will learns to let himself be more open-minded and see things the way his boyfriend sees.
Like I said, they're kids, kids in their first relationship. Same goes for Percabeth, but difference is we see some of those struggles during the relationship

And I love how usually, as far as fanfiction goes, Nico is usually reliant on Will. But in this, it's switched around. It's usually the same, but being in Tartarus, Will learns to let himself be the dependent one. He doesn't like being a burden to Nico, but it's nice to see his somewhat open to letting Nico be the one to take care of him.

I like how their kisses are just normal occurrences for them instead of being this MASSIVE deal. It was usually when they were especially freaked out and it helped each other. Like when Nico gave Will a small kiss on the back of the neck to calm him down when they were going to Tartarus, or the little pecks they shared.

Nyx felt like a genuine threat. She was darkness, a creator who could also be a destroyer. She can see your worst parts of you, even if you're the kindest, most empathetic, person in the universe. 
She still had that dramatic flair most Demiverse villains had, but she felt like a threat.

I did enjoy the Troglodytes company, and was getting a little worried something would happen to Hiss-Majesty or Screech-Bling (Because we know Rick with his tragedies). And they weren't like these little comic-relief creatures like a lot of things would've done, but well-written characters.

I loved how Persephone was so chill. Unlike Hera, she let herself realize she shouldn't blame the offspring of her husbands affairs, and spoke calmly with Will after he and Nico took some pomegranates from her garden.

I'm honestly a little sad this is probably all we'll get. I enjoyed it, but now their tales are more than likely done unless Rick decides otherwise or make a few short stories.

So I love the book, would like to give it a reread one day. I give it around 8 stars. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

(Did not mean for this to be over 2,300 words. I just really loved this)

The book is on Amazon with $15 for Hardcover, and $22 for Papreback.

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