I Read The Sun and the Star Because I Am a Percy Jackson Fangirl Completionist

My college student got me back into Goodreads, so here's my first Goodreads review in seven years! True to form, my inaugural review post hiatus is a middle-grade Greek mythology fanfic...

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The Sun and the Star: A Nico di Angelo Adventure by Rick Riordan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So, first off:

Did I love this book? No.

Is this book my least favorite from the Percy Jackson universe? Yes.

Will I ever give any book from the Percy Jackson universe less than five stars? No. No, I will not. I am ride or die, for better or worse, in sickness and health, forever and ever amen on the Percy Jackson train. I love all my children equally, even if some of them are better than others (*cough, cough* Trials of Apollo *cough*).

To be honest, this might be the first of the Percy Jackson books that I'm just too old to appreciate. I remember being a fifteen-year-old who got endless enjoyment from harping on and on about my relationships and doing all that self-reflection and feeling like my dreams really meant something, you know? So I would not be surprised if the genuine fifteen-year-olds in the Percy Jackson fandom absolutely eat all of Nico's and Will's relationship talk and relationship thoughts and relationship doubts and the sharing of gentle kisses up. And good for them! Teenagers who don't introspect probably grow up into adults who take Fox News at face value. But personally, I kind of wanted a little more hijinks and lighthearted adventure--some dam plot fluff, shall we say. But when you're slogging your way through Tartarus, your boyfriend slowly dying at your side, I guess you're not really in the mood for middle-grade puns, alas.

I do have some things that I love about the book, of course, other than the simple fact that it belongs to one of my favorite nostalgia fandoms. I grew up in the 80s, where shit was fraught unless you were heteronormative and cisgender, and I'm just so happy for kids these days that I can't even stand it. The entire Percy Jackson series, the thoughtful character depictions, and the existence of Nico and Will would have changed my life for the better if I'd had it as a kid.

I also was definitely a neurospicy kid unsuccessfully masking as a quiet, bookish nerd, and the 12-year-old me who read the entirety of Bullfinch's mythology on a school trip one summer instead of interacting with my peers would have been all over the Greek mythology deep cuts in these books. Greek mythology is one of my Special Interests as an adult to a large part because of the Percy Jackson series, and in every book it tickles me all over again to discover new, obscure characters. This book's favorites include, but are not limited to, Amphithemis and the cacodemons. Poor Amphithemis hurts my heart!

 

Ultimately, I'll take any excuse to live a while longer in the Percy Jackson universe. I'd watch Percy Jackson study to lo-fi hip-hop radio, have a Calypso Castaway screensaver, wear my Camp Half Blood pajamas while eating Camp Half Blood cereal and watching a high school production of the Percy Jackson musical, just to be in that world some more. So even though this isn't the best of the Percy Jackson books, it IS a Percy Jackson book, and it was an excellent way to spend a few hours on a rainy summer day.

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P.S. If you've got a kid who's into Percy Jackson, here are some epic ways to celebrate that love while offering some stellar (and sneaky!) academic enrichment:

• Study and sit for the National Mythology Exam. It's offered for most grade levels and is a great way to inspire an overall love of Greek mythology while building geographic and historical context, increasing reading comprehension skills, and practicing taking a standardized test.
• Host a Percy Jackson party. Take a day trip to Camp Half Blood to play games and earn badges while being creative, building language arts skills, and getting some healthy outdoor exercise.
• Travel. We don't travel internationally often, but Greece was a bucket list trip that we saved up for so that all of us, but especially the kid who's Percy Jackson's biggest fan, could see the real places written about in the myths. We made all kinds of places real there, from Olympus to Delphi to the place where the Athena Parthenos once stood (see The Mark of Athena for more details). Don't have room in your schedule for a trip to Greece right this minute? Find Greek art--and more contemporary art with mythological subjects--in most art museums.