Synopsis
Welcome to The Sunbearer Trials, where teen semidioses compete in a series of challenges with the highest of stakes, in this electric new Mexican-inspired fantasy from Aiden Thomas, the New York Times bestselling author of Cemetery Boys.
“Only the most powerful and honorable semidioses get chosen. I’m just a Jade. I’m not a real hero.”
As each new decade begins, the Sun’s power must be replenished so that Sol can keep traveling along the sky and keep the chaotic Obsidian gods at bay. Sol selects ten of the most worthy semidioses to compete in the Sunbearer Trials. The winner carries light and life to all the temples of Reino del Sol, but the loser has the greatest honor of all—they will be sacrificed to Sol, their body melted down to refuel the Sun Stones, protecting the world for another ten years.
Teo, a seventeen-year-old Jade semidiós and the trans son of the goddess of birds, isn’t worried about the Trials . . . at least, not for himself. His best friend, Niya is a Gold semidiós and a shoo-in for the Trials, and while he trusts her abilities, the odds of becoming the sacrifice is one-in-ten.
But then, for the first time in over a century, the impossible happens. Sol chooses not one, but two Jade competitors. Teo, and Xio, the thirteen-year-old child of the god of bad luck. Now they must compete in five trials against Gold opponents who are more powerful and better trained. Worst of all, Teo’s annoyingly handsome ex-best friend and famous semidiós Hero, Aurelio is favored to win. Teo is determined to get himself and his friends through the trials unscathed—for fame, glory, and their own survival.
The Good
I. Funny, sweet, and wholesome.
A. The kids chosen for trials feel like teenagers and good people.
B. The story could have easily made certain people villains but did not.
C. Friendship and folks being nice is always a plus for me.
D. There are so many peaceful things about this story.
E. Niya is my favorite character.
F. It was funny and wholesome!
II. Representation
A. Reading this while experiencing the first few episodes of Rings of Power & House of Dragon (and all the discussion around them) I’m just excited to be in the middle of something that is: centering folks of different skin tones, gender identity, race, sexual orientation, disability and body types. There is something peaceful about representation just being automatically the default/ fabric of story. Not to mention there is a softness/peacefulness to this story in general.
B. I enjoyed being on the tour of the Mexican inspired fantasy world.
The Bad
Repetitive? Towards the latter half of the story, I felt it was not moving forward enough.
The Meh
The trials were interesting at certain points but not as cool as they could have been.
Thoughts
I. Representation
Starting up House of Dragon & Rings of Power while in middle of reading this really made me think so much about representation.
A. I spent so much time trying to quantify why I felt so automatically connected to Sunbearer Trial characters/story in a way that I was not with Rings of Power or House of Dragon.
B. So much of the heavy lifting of representation is in my reading. It makes me more aware of how monumental Sunbearer is and so many stories I read are.
C. I got exhausted a bit because representation is such a large encompassing conversation (thus should not overwhelm my review of a really good book).
II. Inspiration – Hunger Games
A. What is the difference between Sunbearer and The Hunger Games?
B. Gods vs Mortals
How is sacrifice viewed between mortals and gods? In this story we see sacrifice of gods through eyes of the gods.
III. Mudding Waters of Age Range
A. Does this story read like middle grade? Or does it represent the innocent/younger aspect that can be present in teenagers? The question of how this reads also has to be weighed with the marketing/pushing of ya to adults conversation. Is ya out of touch with teens? What does that mean to think a story reads like middle grade or reads young in a category that many feel reads adult?
B. So much is put to adult vs young adult but what about middle grade vs young adult. You can have middle grade stories that have a full cast of teenagers (Ex: Ever After High/Monster High).
C. Publishing is creating a “grey area” blurring the lines between what is ya, adult, and middle grade. The grey area is a bad and good thing. I wonder if it is becoming more of a problem now because skewing of young adult to be adult.
IV. Miscellaneous
This would be good to read on a cruise because it is basically going from place to place on a ship.
I won this from Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group via bookishfirst
themollyweather 