Trials of Apollo Review {Spoiler Alert}

~Spoilers for Trails of Apollo.~

As you may know, the Trials Of Apollo series recently wrapped up with Tower Of Nero. And I thought, "You know what I should totally do? Finish that post I've been writing for a literal year." So here I am, about to complete this year-long rant.

So first up, let's talk about the Hidden Oracle. Let's start with Meg. Meg was an amazing addition to the Riordanverse with just the right mixture of smart, sassy and demigod. We discover her as a child of Demeter early on in this book and the hint at an old rivalry gave Apollo just the right amount of apprehension about her. Her backstory was amazing though in this book very little is revealed. We see a bit of Apollo's regret and remorse although this becomes much more apparent later in the series. So, Lester. I think Lester was a great body for Apollo, but I would have liked to see more complaining early on the book (I wrote this post over a long period of time, and I'm not sure what past me is saying.. Apollo was already being whiny about it. Stupid past me.) As we go into the book, we discover how hard it is for Apollo to adapt to his mortal body. I would also have liked to see more of Percy in this book, and way more of Annabeth but Magnus Chase (I'll probably review that as well) kind of made up for that. The plotline for this book was great. I loved the plot twists, the dramatic reveals and the massive moment when we discover Meg's stepfather. I also love the limerick prophecy, it was beautiful. Oh, and by the way... SOLANGELO IS CANNON! (That situation called for caps)

The Dark Prophecy was even better if that's possible. We got a whole host of new characters along with some old favourites (Hunters of Artemis, that's directed at you) We got some representation of the LGBT+ community and some impressive new characters. The setting worked well and the way Meg and Apollo's relationship moves forward was incredible. We also get some more backstory for Meg here, though her character remains a mystery. We get some defiance against Nero from Meg, something that for her is huge character development. Emmie and Jo were amazing additions and the reveal that Apollo might be Georgina's Dad was very impressive. The loss of Heloise the gryphon was a great way to invoke some grief and guilt on Apollo before making it worse in the third book.

Ah, the Burning Maze... The book which made me refuse to read for a week… (I read so much more last year than I do now. It's honestly kinda sad.) Instead of jumping straight in at what we all remember this book for, I'll start from the beginning. Meg and Apollo are travelling through the labyrinth, which seems to be a favourite setting of Rick's, with an old favourite who we all missed, Grover. Bringing him back was one of the best things Rick did in this book because we'd mostly forgotten him. Meg's backstory was finally revealed, and I loved it. Her connection to the house, the dryads, her dad, the Triumvirate, we got all of it. The next pair of the seven came in in this book, after having Percy and Nico (I'm counting him) in the first and Leo and Calypso (counting her as well) in the second. Piper and Jason. Wow, that was a ride. They went from friends to lovers, to haters, to begrudging allies. I thought their break up was horrible, but that was nothing compared with what was to come. Introducing Medea's lair was done very well. And I've run out of storyline to procrastinate with, so here we go. Apollo, Meg and Piper had to go meet up with Jason, who was currently attending a boarding school in the area. While there, Jason tells Apollo to remember what it's like to be human, which brings me to tears every time. I adore how much Apollo remembers this promise because it becomes a huge character point for him. A few chapters later, Apollo tries to sacrifice himself. I don't know about you, but that may be the most human thing he's done yet. He thankfully misses his heart. Okay, I tried to write about Jason's death several times, but I can't. All you need to know is that I will not be the same for a long time. To be honest, the trauma of what happened on Caligula's yacht kinda made me forget the epic final battle, but I loved the word games. Word games are my speciality. Also, the prophecy was great in this one. But that just might be that I love acronyms.

Tyrants Tomb is my favourite of the series so far (This part was written before TON, TON is my favourite now.). That could be because I love the Roman characters, but it's still my favourite. The last part of this post was way too long, so I'm going to try and keep this one short. Okay, first up, Lavinia is perfect. I just... ahhhh I love her so much. We got more Reyna, general Roman action, plus my OTP, Frazel. Which I was more than happy about because they FINALLY got the book equivalent of screen time (Page time?) that they deserved. They should have got it really in HOH when they had key roles in the final battle, but Percabeth got it instead, which, not going to lie, I'm a little sour over. The scene with Frank being blown up destroyed me, as did the scene were Hazel finds out about it, and Jason's funeral, and Don's death. And basically, this book caused a lot of emotional pain. Also if I hear one more person who still thinks Reyna is a lesbian after she joined the Hunters I will actually flip because we know from TDP that they aren't allowed to date girls. Reyna is aromantic in my eyes and always has been. (Except that brief Reynico phase I had, but we don't talk about that.) MOVING ON!

And finally Tower Of Nero. I have only just come out of the reading slump this book put me in, and it took one hell of a book to get me out of it. (If anyone cares, it was Yankee Girl by Mary Ann Rodman.) I fell in love with this book incredibly quickly. I think it might be my favourite Rick Riordan book. We finally got some nice Will content which I LOVED. (Also Misty is an Apollo kid and I'm changing her contact to Over-Achieving Nightlight and you can't stop me.) And Rachel came back! I love Rachel and I'm so glad she got some storyline outside of the love triangle. The final battle against Python might be the best final battle I have EVER seen. Not just in a Rick Riordan book, but any book. Actually... Second-best. Wundersmith's battle at the Ghastly Market was awesome. Anyway, I was slightly disappointed that Apollo became a god again but I think it worked. And the last page had me ugly crying. Just thinking about it makes me sad.

So yeah, that was my review of The Trials Of Apollo. It started off semi-organized and understandable and ended with a sleep-deprived me procrastinating doing my homework.

- Rhianna