The Sunbearer Trials is a book with a lot of heart and a lot of dedication put into it. You can feel how much love and how much of their heart Aiden Thomas put into this book from the very first pages. The story starts off a bit slow, but Teo was an interesting enough character to keep me interested. I could also tell how much thought and passion went into the worldbuilding and I was really excited to see how it would all come together.
One after the other, I really fell in love with the other characters as well, especially Niya and Xio. The characters are by far the strongest part of this book-- even the gods themselves felt natural and more than one-dimensional. Something I loved was that Thomas was able to humanize some of the gods in ways that I haven't really seen stories with god characters do before-- not without taking their godhood away (I'm specifically thinking of Rick Riordan's works in this regard). I loved Teo's relationships with other characters-- I loved the brotherly bond between Teo and Xio, I loved Teo's relationship with his mom, I loved his friendship with Niya-- who is absolutely HILARIOUS. Teo's romantic relationship definitely wasn't a focus in this book (nor did it need to be), but I foresee the development between him and his love interest happening in the next book, for sure.
So why isn't this a five-star book? Well, I hoped it would be one, but unfortunately, the book has some issues I just couldn't ignore. One thing, which other reviews have pointed out, is that the book doesn't feel very YA, and instead feels like an upper MG book and I tend to agree. Teo doesn't feel like a 17-year-old, he feels much more like someone in the young teens and even the swears in the book don't really do much to help me feel otherwise. Additionally, the end of the book started getting really messy, particularly with the twists that Thomas was trying to pull off. Some of them, particularly in the final few chapters, really felt like they came out of nowhere, and left me feeling really frustrated, instead of really hyped for the second book. Now I'm still going to read the second book when it comes out-- I care too much about these characters not to-- but I definitely will have lower expectations.
Overall, despite the issues I had with it, I did really enjoy this book and I don't regret reading it in the slightest. I loved the characters: I loved how different each of the semidioses was-- from their powers to their personalities. I enjoyed the worldbuilding, particularly how Thomas handled gender and sexuality in this world and allowed us to have a wonderful cast of queer characters where their queerness didn't need to be the focus (or the cause of angst). This book really DOES feel like Latinx/e Percy Jackson and the Hunger Games-- but don't expect the same tone/themes of either series. Embrace The Sunbearer Trials for its own specialties!
An early copy of the book was provided in exchange for an honest review from Bookish First. Thank you to them, as well as Macmillan, for this opportunity!
One after the other, I really fell in love with the other characters as well, especially Niya and Xio. The characters are by far the strongest part of this book-- even the gods themselves felt natural and more than one-dimensional. Something I loved was that Thomas was able to humanize some of the gods in ways that I haven't really seen stories with god characters do before-- not without taking their godhood away (I'm specifically thinking of Rick Riordan's works in this regard). I loved Teo's relationships with other characters-- I loved the brotherly bond between Teo and Xio, I loved Teo's relationship with his mom, I loved his friendship with Niya-- who is absolutely HILARIOUS. Teo's romantic relationship definitely wasn't a focus in this book (nor did it need to be), but I foresee the development between him and his love interest happening in the next book, for sure.
So why isn't this a five-star book? Well, I hoped it would be one, but unfortunately, the book has some issues I just couldn't ignore. One thing, which other reviews have pointed out, is that the book doesn't feel very YA, and instead feels like an upper MG book and I tend to agree. Teo doesn't feel like a 17-year-old, he feels much more like someone in the young teens and even the swears in the book don't really do much to help me feel otherwise. Additionally, the end of the book started getting really messy, particularly with the twists that Thomas was trying to pull off. Some of them, particularly in the final few chapters, really felt like they came out of nowhere, and left me feeling really frustrated, instead of really hyped for the second book. Now I'm still going to read the second book when it comes out-- I care too much about these characters not to-- but I definitely will have lower expectations.
Overall, despite the issues I had with it, I did really enjoy this book and I don't regret reading it in the slightest. I loved the characters: I loved how different each of the semidioses was-- from their powers to their personalities. I enjoyed the worldbuilding, particularly how Thomas handled gender and sexuality in this world and allowed us to have a wonderful cast of queer characters where their queerness didn't need to be the focus (or the cause of angst). This book really DOES feel like Latinx/e Percy Jackson and the Hunger Games-- but don't expect the same tone/themes of either series. Embrace The Sunbearer Trials for its own specialties!
An early copy of the book was provided in exchange for an honest review from Bookish First. Thank you to them, as well as Macmillan, for this opportunity!