This book is basically Percy Jackson, if Percy and Nico were trans, meets The Hunger Games, all in the best way possible. It is a book that deserves the biggest fandom, so I'm really hoping it will be huge!

Aiden Thomas's books, even though they're all fantasy, are all distinctly different subgenres, but they're all super immersive and I once again loved their writing style. Like Cemetery Boys, I think this book will become a comfort read for me.

Our main character Teo is the son of the goddess of birds, and as such he can communicate with birds and he has wings. These wings are a cause of dysphoria for him, because he's trans and the wings look like how a female bird's wings would look, leading him to wear a binder to hide them. I don't want to give too much away, but I absolutely loved how this storyline was handled.

I don't want to give too much away about the Sunbearer Trials either, but they're super fun and engaging to read about, with some twists at the end that make me crave the sequel like nothing else.

this book was amazing, one of the only books that could make me cry. i saw so much of myself in aurelio and auristela, as they reminded me of me and my own twin. i was so happy to see so much representation in one book! when teo got his wings i was so happy, i was literally jumping up and down! i honestly loved every character (except ocelo). there is so much depth and character behind each character in the book. i also loved that this was based on mexican/aztec history! aiden thomas did an absolutely stellar job at this masterpiece of a book and i cannot wait until book 2 comes out!!

The Sunbearer Trials is an exciting new young adult fantasy novel that is enjoyable for all ages. The characters, world building, and plot drew me in instantly and by the end of the novel I was ready for the sequel. The Sunbearer Trials involves elements of young adult classics like Percy Jackson or The Hunger Games, but uses them in a fresh way. The diversity in the cast of characters was included and celebrated from the start. I cannot wait for this book to reach readers who will carry this story with them for a long time as I will.

WOW. I absolutely devoured The Sunbearer Trials. After falling in love with Aiden Thomas’s writing in Cemetery Boys, I was so excited for this one. My expectations were completely blown out of the water. Thomas created a unique word inspired by Mexican culture that somehow felt fresh, yet still encapsulated everything I love about YA fantasy. It was fun, fast paced, heartfelt, and gripping. I honestly couldn’t put it down!

The world building was exceptional. I felt like I was a part of the Sunbearer Trials along with the characters! Thomas paints a vivid picture of the world in your head, which drew me deeper into the story. Also, the trials overall were so fun and suspenseful, I LOVED reading about them.

The characters were also a delight. If you’ve read Cemetery Boys, you know Thomas does an exceptional job creating lovable, diverse characters and The Sunbearer Trials is no exception. Teo was such a fun, chaotic, and lovable MC and the supporting characters blew me away. Especially Aurelio.. I love that boy🥹 As always, Thomas included fantastic rep including, but not limited to, trans and non-binary rep!

Overall, the Sunbearer Trials was a thrilling YA fantasy story full of suspense, adventure, and friendship. The unique storyline had me gripped and at the edge of my seat! Everyone please read this when it comes out on September 6!

Another absolutely incredible story by Aiden Thomas. Teo is such a loveable protagonist. Each and every character is well thought out and add to this amazing story

This book hits with plot and with character development both. I loved experiencing the trials and seeing how all of the characters changed throughout the book.

Every ten years, ten children of the Gods are selected to compete in the Sunbearer Trials. One will earn the title of Sunbearer and one will get sacrificed to keep the world safe for another ten years.
Teo, the trans son of the god Quetzal, is shocked when he is chosen. He is thrown into the games and has to figure out how to survive the competition opposite children who have trained their whole lives for this, while trying to ensure his friends don’t get sacrificed.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 I will be impatiently awaiting book 2😂

3.5 stars

I couldn’t quite connect with the MC in this one as I did with Aiden’s other characters. But I still enjoyed it. A quick read for a rainy day, and filled with beautiful imagery!

The Sunbearer Trials was one of my most anticipated novels of 2022. It was filled with angst, adventure, and heart. The main character, Teo, was likeable and easy to root for. I do wish she of the other characters were more developed.

As a teacher, I will definitely recommend this novel to my students who like adventure and mythology, especially if they enjoy The Hunger Games, Percy Jackson, or other series like that.

Oh my god, I need the sequel right now!!! The visuals of this book were out of this world. I fell in love with each and every character, even the more "villainous" ones. I loved just how much trans/queer rep there was, every time I thought there couldn't be more I was proven wrong. Aiden Thomas' blend of fantasy and modernity was beautiful, and I wish I could live in this world forever. I never wanted this book to end, and I can't wait for book two to come out.

The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas was a fun, enjoyable read with a plethora of unique characters with different powers, backgrounds, appearances, personalities, etc. I'm particularly impressed with the worldbuilding; in addition to a wholly original pantheon of gods (dioses) with their demigod children (semidioses), Thomas created an entire fantasy society. In this book, the characters visit a variety of cities, each one memorable in its own way, as they compete in a series of trials to see who will become the Sunbearer—and, conversely, who will be the sacrifice the power their society for the next ten years. The descriptions were so vivid and colorful that I found it easy to visualize all the different places the characters go to.

My only critique of this book was that the plot was a bit predictable for me, and at times it wasn't the story itself but rather the promise of reading more about these characters that really kept me going throughout the book. It does end on a cliffhanger, but I didn't feel the urgent need to read book 2 and find out what happens next. However, the characters were compelling enough—particularly our main character Teo and his two closest friends Niya and Xio—that I still finished this book relatively quickly and will consider reading book 2 when it comes out. Overall, four out of five stars to The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas!

"you are a loud, impulsive, persistent seeker of justice, and that makes people uncomfortable, but it doesn't make you bad. it makes you very good, in fact.”

to replenish the sun’s power & keep the obsidian gods at bay, each decade 10 semidioses are chosen to compete in the sunbearer trials. the winner gets the prestige of travelling through reino del sol to replenish the sun stones. the loser, however, gets the greatest honor— a sacrifice to sol to fuel the sun stones. the children of the mighty gold gods train their whole life for this trial, unlike the children of the jade gods who historically have never been chosen. until now. until teo. what's a semidiós to do except try his hardest to survive?

(no spoilers, just me yelling about how much i loved this book & aiden thomas, so yknow, just regular things!!)

just as i did with cemetery boys & lost in the never woods, i inhaled the entirely of the sunbearer trials in under 12 hours because i have zero chill & immediately added it to the faves shelf.

simply put, i loved this so much. i laughed, cried, gasped over the gorgeous worldbuilding, sent a dozen voice messages hollering. this book was. the most fun i’ve had in a very long time. wowie what a delight.

for those who have read cemetery boys, teo embodies yadriel’s heart & julian's sunshine soul (& head empty vibes only). for those who have not (what are you waiting for!), he’s a scrappy underdog who you can’t help but root for.

its not just teo though. each character—himbos to beefcakes to kids with hearts of gold— is so strongly developed & written that its impossible not to fall in love with them.

the character cards that mmarsloud has drawn for them is an absolute thing of beauty. each so, so gorgeous & intricate with diverse abilities, identities, and appearances. i eagerly followed along as each character card got revealed & honestly? went a little feral whenever they were.

as you know my commitment issues are Strong but i’m calling it right now— prepare to see this on my end of the year countdown. that’s right i said it !!

anyway. BOOK 2 WHENST

“it was true, he wasn’t a Hero. but it wasn’t like anyone had given him a chance to be.”

every ten years, ten semidioses are chosen to compete in the sunbearer trials. some semidioses spend their whole lives training for the trials. but not kids of jade gods like teo, because they’re never chosen. until this year. the stakes are high because although one winner travels through reino del sol to replenish sun stones that keep the world safe from evil obsidian gods—one loser is the honorable sacrifice that keeps the stones lit. teo knows he isn’t a hero. he just wants to make sure he and his friends survive.

➳ more a raw reaction than a proper review! no spoilers!

if you know me, you know i don’t read a lot of high fantasy. i tend to stick to contemporary and romcoms, where the stakes are usually much lower than life or death. most fantasy i do pick up is low, grounded fantasy with ties to our world with a twist.

but if you know me, you would know i’ve made cemetery boys a personality trait. and i would do anything to be in the worlds aiden thomas creates.

the sunbearer trials is a whole rollercoaster fun. i did literally scream at my book, and i did tear up with emotion. but i also laughed out loud. sometimes all these things happened in a single page. the stakes are high, and you’re at the edge of your seat wanting the words to move faster in your mind but also needing to pause to take a deep breath before the shit hits the fan.

part of what drove me to pick up this book when i did was aiden posting character cards for the ten competitors in the book. they’re all so bold and interesting, spanning a wide variety of appearances, abilities, and identities. it’s easy to pick one of them to root for, whether based on their parent or their attitude, or how much of yourself you see in them.

personally i am a bit of a bitter underdog and dragged for my height by Some People so maybe i see myself in teo what about it.

this book isn’t even published yet and i already crave a sequel. i can’t wait for everyone to read this later this year, how am i gonna survive until 2023??

The Sunbearer Trials was absolutely everything that I hoped it would and more. Casual trans representation in YA literature (trans representation outside of narratives focused on rejection & dysphoria) is not something that I find often, and Aiden Thomas pulled it off beautifully here. The Sunbearer Trials takes place in a world where being transgender is accepted and celebrated. Our MC, Teo, has already been undergoing HRT for several years and has had top surgery. As a non-binary educator I found myself getting emotional at several points in the book as scenes featured transgender characters injecting their hormones, supporting one another, and casually chatting and joking about elements of social and physical transitioning. These scenes were not the main plot of the book, but were interwoven in realistic and important ways. Even better, with The Sunbearer Trials, Aiden Thomas has dared to create trans characters who are absolute jerks, too! The seemingly minor element of trans characters not only being portrayed as the heroes of the story was part of what made me love this book so much.

As I mentioned before, this book is not at all a story about characters coping with being trans. Instead, it is a story about a diverse group of Latine demigods participating in a competition to save the world. The pacing, folklore, and character development made The Sunbearer Trials impossible to put down. The author struck a perfect balance between competition and downtime throughout the book, and even though pretty early on I had a good idea of how things would end, Thomas still threw in a twist that truly shocked me. Honestly, I don't know how I'll survive until the second book in the duology is released.

I cannot wait to purchase this book for my high school classroom. I know my students are going to love it as much as I did.

Aiden Thomas is back at it again with one of my favorite books of the year. The Sunbearer Trials is a fun and warm read. The characters are vibrant and the world building magnificent. I was, unsurprisingly, hooked from the first page. My crops are watered. My skin is clear.

Each decade ten of the children of gods and mortals, semidioses, are chosen to compete in the Sunbearer Trials. The winner carries the light and life of Sol to the land. The loser becomes the sacrifice from which that life force comes. As of the son of Quetzal (goddess of birds), Teo never expected to compete, only to watch his peers and friends endure the trials. He is after all the child of a Jade and Sol has always selected the children of Golds for this honor. But this time is different. This time, Teo and Xio, the child of Mala Suerte (god of bad luck), are thrust into the trials along side their Gold peers. With Niya, the daughter of Tierra (god of earth) and Teo's best friend, Teo and Xio build an alliance to make their way through a system that they were never prepared for, if not to win fame and glory to survive the ordeal.

Aiden Thomas does so many things well, but the magic worlds he builds are so rich and inviting I want to wrap myself in the books and stay there for a long while. Which is not to say there are not real and heavy stakes within this book. It is impossible to forget that at the end of trials one of the competitors is meant to die. Reading this as an adult probably makes that horror more noticeable in a way that I would not have thought about as much when I was younger, in the same way that reading the Hunger Games becomes more horrifying with the context of age. Which is also to say, this is exactly the kind of book my teenage self would have been obsessed with, not that I am not now also obsessed. The premise alone is incredible, but paired with Thomas's queer cast it is everything I was desperately searching for as a child.

I love all of Aiden Thomas’ writing and this did not disappoint! I can’t wait for the sequel! I did not see the end coming at all!

This book is deeply steeped in Latin American culture and mythology, has fantastic representation for queer youth, and brings together a cast of characters who are meant to hate each other, but end up feeling compassion for each other anyway. The pacing keeps you hooked right from the beginning and doesn't let you go until the very end—the fact that we have to wait for book 2 feels unfair! Another excellent read from Aiden Thomas and one that readers will rave about just as much as Cemetery Boys.

The Sunbearer Trials is a fantastically written story about the children of Gods, and the trials they must take once every 10 years in order to protect their lands and people.

Adoring everything that Aiden Thomas writes, I can honestly say I was worried for this book. I'm not a big fan of the hunger games, I'm not a fan of characters I love dying, and I was all around worried that I wouldn't be able to get into this book. But oh boy I was wonderfully, astoundingly wrong. This book pulled me in at every second, had me loving so many characters, and had me crying at the thought of being almost done with it. I was almost unable to finish at the thought of having to wait for the release of the next book.

The characters all have distinct personalities, even those that may not show up as often as others. They have strengths and flaws, and you can tell that Aiden has developed them beyond what the reader is able to see (some of which I hope we get to see in the next book!). Even the characters designed not to be as well loved are amazingly written.

I'm in absolute aw of this book. I will be counting down the days for it's official release, and then the sequels. This story is a wild, wild ride that I am so happy I was able to be on.

I went into this apprehensive--I sometimes feel like I'm too dumb for fantasy novels like this because I can't keep track of all the characters and worldbuilding that gets thrown at you so quickly. And I was a little nervous at first at the wide cast of characters, but I think Aiden Thomas really has a gift for this genre. This is the third fantasy novel I've read of his and it just blew me away yet again. He continues to write fantasy stories that are so affirming and full of warmth with characters I would die for. There is also just such a really genuine sense of humor throughout, and this book is FUN while still maintaining very real stakes. I loved the way the romantic relationship started to develop in this and I didn't see the big twist at the end coming at all... I am already excitedly awaiting the sequel and this one isn't even out yet! I cannot wait to recommend this to teen readers looking for mythology based-fantasy, who like books/series built around competitions, and are looking for queer representation in their reads. For me, Aiden Thomas has gone from one to watch in young adult lit to someone who has really cemented themselves as one of the most exciting authors working in YA, with a unique voice and a metric TON of talent.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me this eARC!!!

So first of all this is an amazing fantasy book and I will definitely recommend it to my friends. Aiden Thomas has really done an amazing job again and I'm pretty sure I'd read anything they wrote.

The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas
4/5 stars

It’s very ambitious (and honestly a little risky) to describe your book as an amalgamation of two of the most celebrated YA books of all time. But Aiden Thomas manages to pull it off with The Sunbearer Trials, which, as promised, is clearly influenced by both The Hunger Games and the Percy Jackson series, but also its own thing entirely.

First of all, I adored the characters in this book. Each one was unique and compelling (although I wish we had gotten to see more of some of them) and I loved the ways they interacted with each other. In addition, the majority queer and trans cast means that we get queer and trans antagonists as well as protagonists; I find a lot of authors make their queer characters very tame and saccharine and undeniably “good” as not to feed into stereotypes or risk being accused of creating “bad representation”, and while this is (on a surface level) a good thing, it’s a double edged sword. To quote Carmen Maria Machado, “We deserve to have our wrongdoing represented as much as our heroism, because when we refuse wrongdoing as a possibility for a group of people, we refuse their humanity.”

In addition, The Sunbearer Trials is a thoroughly fun adventure through a world that I desperately wanted to spend more time in (which makes me ecstatic that this is the first in a duology). At times, I couldn’t put it down; I was on the edge of my seat after each trial to see how the rankings had changed. I will admit that the prose was not my favorite and there were some parts that I found a bit cringeworthy (some of the dialogue and nearly all of the references to social media), but the story itself makes up for it.

Now comes the part of the review where I admit that I find it very difficult to review young adult and middle grade books now that I’m an adult. While I enjoy reading books targeted towards a younger audience from time to time, I don’t typically have a lot of reactions to these books because at this point in my life, I’ve outgrown them. My point is, I don’t know if I can truly critique this book because I am not the target audience. The parts that I found a bit cringeworthy are probably the same parts that people younger than me will find enjoyable. There’s not much else to say about this book other than “I enjoyed reading it.” But I really, really enjoyed reading it.

Ultimately, the people who are meant to read this book will love this book. It’s fun and exciting and rich with good characters. There’s a reason Aiden Thomas has become such a big name in the world of YA, and The Sunbearer Trials is the latest example of his skill as a writer.