The Trials of Apollo: The Burning Maze by Rick Riordan

Summary from Goodreads:

The formerly glorious god Apollo, cast down to earth in punishment by Zeus, is now an awkward mortal teenager named Lester Papadopoulos. In order to regain his place on Mount Olympus, Lester must restore five Oracles that have gone dark. But he has to achieve this impossible task without having any godly powers and while being duty-bound to a confounding young daughter of Demeter named Meg. Thanks a lot, Dad.

With the help of some demigod friends, Lester managed to survive his first two trials, one at Camp Half-Blood, and one in Indianapolis, where Meg received the Dark Prophecy. The words she uttered while seated on the Throne of Memory revealed that an evil triumvirate of Roman emperors plans to attack Camp Jupiter. While Leo flies ahead on Festus to warn the Roman camp, Lester and Meg must go through the Labyrinth to find the third emperor—and an Oracle who speaks in word puzzles—somewhere in the American Southwest. There is one glimmer of hope in the gloom-filled prophecy: The cloven guide alone the way does know. They will have a satyr companion, and Meg knows just who to call upon.

Review:

The weird thing about Rick Riordan books is that I always have to talk them up to make myself excited for them. I’ve never not finished one of the books. And they always keep me riveted in suspense. So, I’m not really certain as to why I don’t just jump into them right away. Maybe it’s the need to remember all the stories that came before (there are a lot of them), or maybe it’s the formula I’ve gotten so used to. Regardless, I almost always love his books, and this was no exception.

Riordan definitely has the whole suspense thing down. There were moments I literally had to postpone plans, so I could keep reading. I love the introduction to new mythological creatures and characters also. I was fascinated by the bad guy this time around: Caligula. Oh, and I also loved the prophetess who spoke in crossword puzzles. I feel like I might have actually survived the high stakes adventures here because I love crossword puzzles.

And I guess what I love even more than Riordan’s introductions to new mythology and high stakes, suspenseful adventures, are his characters. I have grown to love Apollo, and I never really thought I would. I was always entertained by him, sure. But, I never expected to love him. He has won me over. And with each book, as I’m sure is intended, he becomes more human, more loveable, and more endeering.

I also love all the connections in this series, to series of the past. Past characters return, help out, and battle. Spoiler sentence ahead: One past loved character even dies. As I said on Goodrads, I wasn’t expecting to feel such sadness in a humorous book. Again, this is Riordan at his best. He has me laughing out loud one moment, jaw literally dropping in shock another moment, and tears of sadness another moment.

I did feel like there were a few preachy kind of moments about the environment. And I guess they mostly made sense in the context, but I didn’t like that. I never feel like books for this age group should be preachy. Maybe one or two mentions of mass climate change and human destruction is okay…but more than that, and I can see some young people putting this down. We don’t read these books for that.  We read them for adventure, mythology, suspense, great characters, magic, and love.

All in all, I really enjoyed this one. I can’t wait to keep reading Apollo’s story. Hopefully, the next one is a little bit happier? I’m excited to reunite with the characters who will come (mentioned at the end). I give this a 9/10.