I adored book one in this duology, and while I liked this second and final book, I struggled with Xio's storyline and the overall pacing of the novel. I felt like Xio's villain/redemption storyline was very uneven, and I didn't really buy in to the speed of his turnaround. I still really love the world Thomas created, and Teo, Aurelio, and Niya were so much fun to spend more time with. Overall it's a satisfying finale to a really excellent book one, but I think it might have benefited from a couple more rounds of edits. Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group | Feiwel & Friends for a digital review copy.

Absolutely blown away! I have eagerly been awaiting the sequel and I was thrilled to receive an advanced reader copy. Everything about this book kept me on my toes while I was reading it, and I was turning pages late into the night to get to the end. I love the world that Thomas has crafted, the characters, and the suspense of how things will turn out . So well done!

I was absolutely thrilled to be back in this beautiful world with Teo and Niya! I love Teo and his journey to learn how to be a hero and his utter devotion to his friends and family. He has a total heart of gold! So does Niya. She is probably my favorite, with her confidence and boldness. I also liked watching her confront and overcome some of her anxieties in this book. And I love Aurelio. He and Teo are so cute together, and I was thrilled by all their little moments. He also got fantastic development. Lastly, I was initially apprehensive about Xio’s chapters, but I came to love them and really enjoyed their growth. Along with the characters, the plot was also amazing. The quest sort of nature of the story paired with the nature based godly powers reminded me a lot of ALTA. I also liked how it caused the characters to question the system they had grown up in and eventually change it. The only thing I didn’t totally love was the ending. But overall this book was everything I had hoped it would be and I highly recommend this duology.

Celestial Monsters picks right back up where The Sunbearer Trials left off. The Sun is gone, the world is in chaos, and monsters are wreaking havoc on Reino del Sol. Teo teams up with Aurelio and Niya on a quest to rescue the captured semidioses and restore Sol, all the while fighting the Obsidian gods and dealing with the betrayal from their friend Xio.

I absolutely loved that the POV switched from both Teo and Xio, where we got to see Teo’s blooming relationship with Aurelio as he proves his worth within the trio and Xio’s conflicting feelings as they deal with the guilt of abandoning their adoptive father to make proud their biological father.

I thoroughly enjoyed the scenes where Teo got to show off his communication skills with birds and learn that the relationship between the gods and humans wasn’t as perfect as it seemed. I also liked seeing Xio discover their worth besides being a pawn for their father and their character development as they realized who their true friends/family were.

*I ended up reading this with my ears instead of via e-book, but still LOVED this. Thanks for the arcs!!*

This series is truly everything I love about YA fantasy. It’s just so much FUN. I genuinely love Aiden’s story telling style and how he crafts his worlds and characters. It’s always so immersive and I’m always sad to leave.

This book picks right where Sunbearer Trials left off. Which I LOVED. This has some truly edge of your seat action & fight scenes, and scenes that made my heart absolutely soar. And the ending was so incredibly satisfying it made me SOB.

I will yap about and recommend this duology for the rest of my days.

Thank you to NetGalley, Fewiel & Friends, and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for this advanced copy! You can pick up Celestial Monsters on September 3, 2024.

I absolutely loved this conclusion to The Sunbearer Duology. Aiden Thomas did a phenomenal job creating beautiful character arcs for our main cast and weaving in heart-pounding action amid important character development scenes. The monsters were grotesque but vividly described, and I was surprised how much I enjoyed the new POV introduced in this book. As much as I love being in Teo's head, it was refreshing to view the world of Reino del Sol through another lens that's been impacted by such vastly different experiences.

The slowburn romance between Teo and Aurelio was also SO incredibly sweet, and I loved every single interaction between them! But this book was about much more than just romantic love – Thomas also focused on the importance of friendship and the complicated love that exists within families. Every relationship just felt so achingly relatable, and it made the ending that much more emotional (yes, I did cry at my desk at work).

And, of course, it's beautiful and refreshing to see a queer-normative fantasy world full of people from diverse backgrounds (including disability rep!). I can't wait to see more books embrace this, and I'll be picking up the rest of Thomas's book expeditiously!

10/10, will always recommend.

Celestial Monsters picks up exactly where The Sunbearer Trials left off and it’s a wild ride from the start! The world building in this series was already so lush, but it was expanded upon in this second book and I loved it. The plot did drag a little in the middle, but I am not too upset about that because the characters made up for it. I love Teo and Aurelio so much! Niya kind of annoyed me at times, but I also get that they’re also teenagers and are supposed to be annoying. The writing was also so so so good. It was so lush and descriptive without being purple. I just love this series so much and I was so thankful I got to listen to an advanced copy!

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is the follow up to (& apparent conclusion of) the excellent YA novel, The Sunbearer Trials. The Sunbearer Trials was so good it would have been hard to beat, so perhaps it isn't surprising that this volume feels a bit underwhelming compared to its predecessor. The narrative switches back and forth between Teo and Xio, with the Teo chapters coming across as much stronger. Xio seems to be completely unable to acknowledge that there should be consequences for their actions and because of this doesn't seem to ever evolve over the course of the story, which significantly lessens the impact of both the reasons for their betrayal at the end of The Sunbearer Trials and their ultimate redemption arc. The story also felt rushed at several points, which further exacerbated the problem with Xio's story line, and the conclusion was so sudden and out of nowhere it almost felt as if the author was actively trying to end the series in a way that would preclude more stories within the world being written. Based on that conclusion, I'm guessing we won't be returning to the world, which is a shame.

I wish I had re-read The Sunbearer Trials before reading this one, because after a couple years I forgot who most of the characters are. That being said, I still enjoyed this book overall, and Aiden Thomas is quickly becoming an author whose books I will always pick up. Reading their books feels like watching a movie, and it is always a fun time.


I will say I remember the first book having tighter pacing than this one; there were a couple of meandering plot points that made sense by the end, but in the moment reading them I was anxious for the story to advance. 


Overall this was a satisfying conclusion to this duology, although I would recommend refreshing yourself on the events of the first book before diving in to this one.

The story being told here is vital for today's youth. It's one that I wish people in my generation had had more access to stories like this when I was younger. The representation and diversity is well done, age appropriate and key for so many of my customers. We carry the first book, and I look forward to adding this one to our inventory as well.

"Celestial Monsters" by Aiden Thomas is a captivating blend of magical realism and science fiction, drawing readers into a world where celestial phenomena unite a diverse group of characters. Thomas' vivid writing and strong character development create an engaging and emotionally resonant narrative. Themes of identity, belonging, and unity are skillfully woven into a plot filled with unexpected twists and heartfelt relationships.

I read The Sunbearer Trials almost two years ago I think and was super excited to get a chance to finish the duo logy early!

If you loved the characters in the previous book, you get to know those characters even better. Some of the side characters become main characters while also trying to save the world. I love the discussions about how the world that they live in isn't catered to the humans, but the gods and their children.
If you love Percy Jackson, but want more of a twist on that world with own voices latinx characters and world building, along with trans, non binary, and multiple queer relationships, this is a great duo logy to pick up.

A YA high fantasy steeped in Latinx mythology, full of incredible characters in an ever-changing world of monsters and magic. We follow a lovable main character who might have accidentally brought about his world's apocalypse and now is responsible for saving it. Great for those who loved Avatar: The Last Airbender and Percy Jackson.

trans mmc | high fantasy | Latinx mythology | friends-to-enemies-to-lovers | gods and monsters | queer friend group | banter | queernorm world

I really appreciated that this book focused so tightly on Teo, Niya, Aurelio, and Xio - by limiting the amount of interactions outside of this core group, we really got to see them bloom. I especially liked the way that Niya’s and Aurelio’s fears/anxiety manifested and how Teo and Xio come to understand just how much pressure is placed on even the privileged Golds.

Strangely enough I really wanted to see a bit more of Teo’s weakness? He keeps up really well with the others whose whole lives have been spent in training for physical exertion - and even though he TALKS about how exhausted he is, we don’t really see it. I wanted to see some consequences of that in the same vein as Aurelio’s and Niya’s emotional collapses.

Also props to the two times when there’s a fight, someone goes “actually I’m trying out these other pronouns” and the other side goes “I hate you but I’m going to respect your pronouns” and then continues fighting. Also also the sheer shared devastation when all of the prisoners have their hands bound and they all riot on behalf of the deaf character who now has no one to interpret the captors’ words or anyone else’s. It shows that 1) fantasy absolutely can be inclusive and 2) that Thomas really really wanted to put in the effort to prove 1.

Content warnings: violence, imprisonment, mental and emotional torture, sensory deprivation, murder, suicide

I honestly wasn't sure if Thomas was going to be able to wrap this whole thing up in only two books with SO MUCH happening, but CELESTIAL MONSTERS has one hell of a final battle and wraps up most of the loose ends with a satisfying conclusion. The twist of how the conflict finally ends had me in tears. This one has very different vibes from the first book and overall there is less action but they complement each other well.

I need a Niya spin-off because our girl was amazing and I loved seeing more of her humor and her emotional struggles with not being able to save everyone all the time. The Xio reveal at the end of the first book still had me reeling and I liked what Thomas does in this book to give readers a more in-depth picture of who Xio is and why they did what they did. There was a moment towards the end where Teo stepped up to be the voice against the powerful gods and I was cheering.

Overall this was a great read and a solid duology that I look forward to putting into the hands of our teen patrons.

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, and Feiwel & Friends in exchange for an honest review.

Listen. I loved The Sunbearer Trials and expected another five-star read. I still liked this one, especially Xio, the boy I already had a soft spot for in the first book, but somehow, it couldn’t hold my attention like its prequel did. It might be because it dragged sometimes, and it took me a week to finish it, the longest in years, or because Celestial Monsters didn’t surprise me as much as Sunbearer. Anyway, I still loved Teo and Aurelio, I still had fun, and I still love this duology.

This was one of my most anticipated books of the year and I literally squealed when I saw that I'd received the ARC! Celestial Monsters picks up right back to where readers left off and immediately dives into exciting adventure. Aside from the budding romance, which had me grinning the whole time, what I really loved in this book was the way that Teo, Aurelio, and Niya observe their world, the mistakes that their parents made, and other ways to live. It was such a good lesson of not repeating the mistakes your parents made and gave me hope about the new worlds that can be created if we think outside of the box and look towards the things people are doing right now that are working. I'm sad the duology is over but it was a delightful read and one I will definitely recommend and return to.

4.5/5

Celestial Monsters

This was such a fun sequel that brilliantly caps off a duology that I can’t help but recommend relentlessly and vigorously. The characters are so vibrant and warm, they’re each so unique and interesting and as a big found family, this had me smiling from start to end.

While there were a couple things I would have loved to see / see more of— like Sol and the history of the trials, a reckoning with Lumbre, and a final battle that was more exciting, this was a satisfying end and largely delivered and surprised.

The jokes really land and I loved seeing these characters come into their own and mature, while not completely feeling too adult and unrealistic. They have cute crushes and awkwardness, they’re emotional and volatile, they’re eager to please their parents and heroes, and yeah they don’t have a solid “save the world plan, but they also have that air of bravery and invincibility like only the young can have.

I love what the author did with Xio’s POV, and the overall themes and messages of acceptance, equality, and love were well written. There were so many rich elements of Mexican culture included which made my heart so happy. From the food to our legends and myths, everything about this is a beautiful celebration of the vibrancy of Mexican culture, community, cuisine, and history. Down to TúTube which constantly made me giggle.

Since this picks up right where The Sunbearer Trials, a warning that everything from here on out will be a spoiler.

I was so pleasantly surprised to see this told in dual POVs with Xio have nearly the same amount of page time and chapters at Teo. It was fascinating to take us into Xio’s head right after the betrayal and as he begins to war with himself and everything he thought he gained with the Obsidians. Xio makes for a good villain at first but an even more interesting nuanced character as we delve into his thoughts and emotions. You really start to see how all his life experiences led him to this betrayal and can’t help but feel for him. This was executed perfectly and Xio’s arc was my favorite.

Maybe it’s because of this that I felt like Teo was more of backseat character than the main character. And it’s not because he isn’t featured prominently, but maybe it’s because I just didn’t get the emotional arc from Teo that I expected. He feels guilt for the consequences of his actions sure, but I didn’t feel there was enough time spent really sitting with Teo with those emotions. This lack of setting in and feeling all the emotions since the betrayal is hinted given that the crew must immediately go on a quest to save the world, but it made Teo’s part in this book more forgettable.

I also felt the romance with Aurelio and Teo was a bit too stilted and awkward, and not because they’re young teens, but mostly because the emotional connection felt so stunted. There’s a lot swirling around emotionally with Aurelio which we see in bits and pieces which made me curious about our quiet emo love interest, but we just didn’t get enough of a big emotional breakthrough with him and Teo, so it felt a bit unfinished.

Adding to this is the lack of reckoning with Lumbre. We learned a lot about how terribly Lumbre treats her semidiose children, especially Aurelio, but there’s even more that Aurelio reveals and which we see directly at the end of CM. What bothered me is that there is never really a reckoning specifically with Lumbre. No other gods set her straight after Teo’s speech, and even when Sol makes his decision to remove the Gods from earth, I expected lumbre to argue back and be put in her place, instead, she and the other gods just stay silent and do nothing. There’s never even a quick reconciliation between Lumbre and her children or even signals that Auristela finally sees her mother for who she is. It was a missed opportunity for a big emotional payoff moment.

The ending in general felt a bit lackluster and a sacrifice is still needed for Sol. This felt unnecessary and honestly just lends credence to the belief that a sacrifice was always needed at every Sunbrearer Trial. So I wasn’t sure that it stuck the landing in the message that none of this was really needed and the power structure was warped. It would have hit home better had we seen that a sacrifice was not needed in fact. Instead it felt a bit confusing and empty. Will the obsidians be able to return from the stars banishment again without a sacrifice? If not, how did the sacrifice even start and why? If the world can just go on without the gods being there and ruling entirely, then why did Sol wait so long? It just didn’t make sense to simply say “ok humans, govern yourselves the gods are in time out” and deflated the overall power system a bit. It also makes me wonder in semi dioses will even continue or if gods will be allowed to procreate with humans or if Teo and his class are the beginning of the end of semi diocesan existing? I might be reading into it too much but it made me wonder about the overall sustainability of this world in the aftermath.

Lastly, while I loved the scenes of the semi dioces fighting the obsidians in the end, I wanted more of the gods themselves stepping in. I wanted to see more of their powers and what the semidioces might one day grow into power wise. The Sunbearer trials were so exciting as we saw how the semidioces used their powers in unique and challenging ways.

So ultimately, while I think this continued to build on the wonderful representation and themes of the first book, there were aspects that did fall a little short. I can forgive this since we got so much from Xio’s POV and arc, but I did wonder if maybe this lost the thread a bit on Teo and his journey.

Overall, still a wonderful story and duology that checks so many boxes and brings a breath of fresh air to a saturated genre!

Celestial Monsters tosses us right back into the world of The Sunbearer Trials – and the end to this colorful & charming duology did not disappoint.

Teo and his friends are forced to go on a monster-filled quest to return the sun and stop the chaos. Their crew doesn’t have much time, and they’re still reeling from the betrayal of a friend, the guilt of putting the world in danger … and the start of a romance.

Just like in The Sunbearer Trials, I deeply appreciated how inclusive this journey was. I teared up a few times while reading just thinking about how meaningful this story will be to so many young readers. While the heavy-handedness of some topics may be a bit off-putting to adults, I think both the clarity and optimism around a queernormative magical world working on reshaping their societal structures was perfect.

And the world expanded to be even more delightful! Beyond the magic and fun and incorporation of Mexican mythology, there’s also some beautiful community care and futuristic ways of building societies here (avoiding violence and prioritizing hearing from all voices). That was awesome.

I think my biggest stumble has to be with Teo. It kind of felt like he’d done it all already - like, checkmark on his growth - and I wish that wasn’t the case. He had a wonderful arc in the first book, and I’m not sure why he plateaued here. Xio and Aurelio and Niya all felt like they had much bigger arcs (some of them actually happened too rapidly), and I wonder what it would have been like to have Niya as a narrator. I was really interested in her worldview and maturation here.

Aurelio had an equally big shift, but we get to puzzle through that through Teo’s eyes. And Xio was a little bit of a mess (some decisions felt like plot decisions rather than in-character choices - and it all happened way too quickly).

It also felt like their journey was a tad too easy with their godly gifts and tools. I wanted them to face more challenges and figure out how to work together and combine their strengths as a team.

I think, overall, most of my issues were that this felt like a trilogy (or even longer series) that was condensed. The arcs were awesome in theory and a bit awkwardly fast on the page.

But the villains were deliciously villain-y, the world expansion was wonderful, and I loved getting more of our fierce little group of semidioses. The romance is super cute. There will be moments that crush your heart, but the ending and epilogue were very sweet.

Yay for an ending that challenges the status quo!

CW: death (parent/child), blood, violence, torture, fire

i was thrilled to get an ARC of this, one of my most anticipated reads! It did not disappoint. The plotting and pacing were perfect and I'm glad it was a duology rather than a trilogy - more YA duologies please! After the cliffhanger in The Sunbearer Trials, I was excited to see where this one was going to go with action etc and it kept everything going smoothly. Teo and friends are trying to get the stone facing dangers and trials and personal tribulations. But there is still humor and lightness.