finally someone feels the same way 😭 the same points were hammered again and again so MUCH throughout the book that i just felt exhausted by the end. and like you, i felt that even by the start of the book nico already made *very, very* clear to the readers his feelings on his past and his trauma and his love for his friends and will that the end of his "arc" and the realizations he came towards the end made me feel like nothing. just "oh, ok, but we already knew that" 😅 and i'm all for goofiness and sillyness in riordan books but i felt like there was just a bit *too much* in here, it REALLY undercut all the important and impactful moments with weird childish MCU-esque jokes and too many pop culture references
it would've been better by the end of the book if nico talked with REYNA, not piper if they wanted to explore the grief of dealing with jason's death. he was closer to her and even, in his own words, saw her as a "sister" (as said in BoO). i get that they put that scene in to explore piper's sexuality and tell people about it, but it felt so *hamfisted* and unnecessarily forced. if they added reyna to the conversation, it would have felt more natural. and technically, reyna knew jason longer, and their bond and friendship was REAL, not implanted by some vindictive goddess. (plus if they wanted to explore other parts of the LGBTQIA+ spectrum reyna is also aroace and aromantic so there's that). plus reyna joining the Hunters and this exact decision being the cause of bianca's demise would have been an interesting thing to explore through nico's POV, but i guess rick and mark oshiro wanted to include piper and her gf here so there's that i guess 🤷♀️
plus they hyped up the "something of equal value left behind" before the book's release and when it actually happened it just felt anticlimactic 🥲 the obvious choice to leave behind would be will, and i'm glad the authors chose not to break them up and give them a happy ending (im tired of the bury ur gays or break ur gays up by the end of the book and leave them emotionally damaged trope as much as anyone) but the actual "equal value" left behind being ... weird little monsters that represented nico's past trauma just had me like 😐 and they *weren't even left behind in the end*, they were brought along to chb 😭 and the equal value being left behind is actually metaphorical manifestations of nico's trauma was amazing during my first read, but the more i thought about it, the more underwhelmed i just felt (plus the book felt a little bit *too* fanfiction-y during times, idk why)
PLUS will is a VETERAN of many demigod wars and is a FIELD MEDIC. he's seen battle and gore and death before, but bc this book is so consistently inconsistent will's made out to be this uwu sunshine kid who's afraid and skeptical of death around him and acts like he's never seen weird monsters or death before. like. ToA better represented solangelo, idk who these people are honestly
the word "percabeth" being namedropped here was so cringe 😭 they both acted so out of character, esp annabeth (couldn't count how many times in the book that i said "he/she would NOT say that) 🙂 and not to mention all those pop culture references would age this book QUICK (which is doubly grating since rick said this book isn't set on a specific time frame, only "just after the events of ToA")
I think that's simply because Rick wasn't really writing Nico, it was the other dude who felt SO much of himself in the character, enough to kinda ruin him for me. I was always a bigger fan of Percy than the edge boy, but bruh, this seems more like a fanfic than an actual story.
did no one else find it weird that a THOUSAND YEAR OLD GODDESS decided to have CHILDREN with a 15 year old gay kid? (or however many yrs old nico is i already forgot lol) AND PEOPLE FOUND THOSE CACODEMONS CUTE ??? (oh im sorry "CocOa pUfFs") and nico brought them back to camp to raise as their own 😭😭 jesus h. christ what is going on with this book
sooo many plot holes during this book, like it saying HYPNOS was the one that put Manhattan to sleep when it was clearly Morpheus, in MoA we're told Nico had 8 pomegranate seeds but in this book with he only had 3, and my copy having a mistake in the print bc it said "my mother is Bianca di Angelo" ?? apparently many others had this mistake printed in theirs too 😭😭 don't even get me started on the OVERUSE of the word "boyfriend" in the book. nico referred to will as his bf MORE TIMES THAN BY HIS NAME, it was irritating me so bad, the word "bf" was said 133 times in this book (yes, im that petty that i counted) while in HoO it was used in less than a hundred times 🥲🥲
finally someone feels the same way 😭 the same points were hammered again and again so MUCH throughout the book that i just felt exhausted by the end. and like you, i felt that even by the start of the book nico already made *very, very* clear to the readers his feelings on his past and his trauma and his love for his friends and will that the end of his "arc" and the realizations he came towards the end made me feel like nothing. just "oh, ok, but we already knew that" 😅 and i'm all for goofiness and sillyness in riordan books but i felt like there was just a bit *too much* in here, it REALLY undercut all the important and impactful moments with weird childish MCU-esque jokes and too many pop culture references
it would've been better by the end of the book if nico talked with REYNA, not piper if they wanted to explore the grief of dealing with jason's death. he was closer to her and even, in his own words, saw her as a "sister" (as said in BoO). i get that they put that scene in to explore piper's sexuality and tell people about it, but it felt so *hamfisted* and unnecessarily forced. if they added reyna to the conversation, it would have felt more natural. and technically, reyna knew jason longer, and their bond and friendship was REAL, not implanted by some vindictive goddess. (plus if they wanted to explore other parts of the LGBTQIA+ spectrum reyna is also aroace and aromantic so there's that). plus reyna joining the Hunters and this exact decision being the cause of bianca's demise would have been an interesting thing to explore through nico's POV, but i guess rick and mark oshiro wanted to include piper and her gf here so there's that i guess 🤷♀️
plus they hyped up the "something of equal value left behind" before the book's release and when it actually happened it just felt anticlimactic 🥲 the obvious choice to leave behind would be will, and i'm glad the authors chose not to break them up and give them a happy ending (im tired of the bury ur gays or break ur gays up by the end of the book and leave them emotionally damaged trope as much as anyone) but the actual "equal value" left behind being ... weird little monsters that represented nico's past trauma just had me like 😐 and they *weren't even left behind in the end*, they were brought along to chb 😭 and the equal value being left behind is actually metaphorical manifestations of nico's trauma was amazing during my first read, but the more i thought about it, the more underwhelmed i just felt (plus the book felt a little bit *too* fanfiction-y during times, idk why)
PLUS will is a VETERAN of many demigod wars and is a FIELD MEDIC. he's seen battle and gore and death before, but bc this book is so consistently inconsistent will's made out to be this uwu sunshine kid who's afraid and skeptical of death around him and acts like he's never seen weird monsters or death before. like. ToA better represented solangelo, idk who these people are honestly
the word "percabeth" being namedropped here was so cringe 😭 they both acted so out of character, esp annabeth (couldn't count how many times in the book that i said "he/she would NOT say that) 🙂 and not to mention all those pop culture references would age this book QUICK (which is doubly grating since rick said this book isn't set on a specific time frame, only "just after the events of ToA")
I think that's simply because Rick wasn't really writing Nico, it was the other dude who felt SO much of himself in the character, enough to kinda ruin him for me. I was always a bigger fan of Percy than the edge boy, but bruh, this seems more like a fanfic than an actual story.
did no one else find it weird that a THOUSAND YEAR OLD GODDESS decided to have CHILDREN with a 15 year old gay kid? (or however many yrs old nico is i already forgot lol) AND PEOPLE FOUND THOSE CACODEMONS CUTE ??? (oh im sorry "CocOa pUfFs") and nico brought them back to camp to raise as their own 😭😭 jesus h. christ what is going on with this book
I still belive the book was set in nico or bobs dream
sooo many plot holes during this book, like it saying HYPNOS was the one that put Manhattan to sleep when it was clearly Morpheus, in MoA we're told Nico had 8 pomegranate seeds but in this book with he only had 3, and my copy having a mistake in the print bc it said "my mother is Bianca di Angelo" ?? apparently many others had this mistake printed in theirs too 😭😭 don't even get me started on the OVERUSE of the word "boyfriend" in the book. nico referred to will as his bf MORE TIMES THAN BY HIS NAME, it was irritating me so bad, the word "bf" was said 133 times in this book (yes, im that petty that i counted) while in HoO it was used in less than a hundred times 🥲🥲