Edgbear

I was very happy to see this book on the shelves at my local target, but reading it was a little less satisfying. Maybe it was because it was co-authored, but this did not really feel like a true Rick Riordan book. I love Rick's simple wording with heavy impact, but I barely saw it here. Sometimes the book would try too hard to be funny and it made me cringe a few times. Especially the references to common day things, I understand videogame references or stores but when reading about demigods I do not want to hear about Lil Nas X and Montero. Also, I don't know if I was reading too much into it but when they brought up LGBTQ points in the book, they really hounded it in and forced. The Dream demon having they/them pronouns was amazing I loved it, but we didn't need Will's "who's this guy?" to be a moment of being offended. I was instantly pushed away from the book for a moment. It was sad to see the LGBTQ moments take over a mood because it makes the character just that, LGBTQ. It was weird how we paid more attention to Menoetes' misunderstanding of homophobia (which looked really forced btw) than the fact of Gorgyra's marriage to a river... (which they did go into depth on, but not as much as I personally would have liked) Overall, the emotional scenes were well written and I found myself smiling and being giggly. As a gay trans man I appreciated the book exploring Nico and Will's relationship without the same feeling of being forced like with the Dream Demon (already forgot their name), Menoetes, and his boyfriend. I'll definitely read this again, since Nico is my favourite character, but the faults in it will not make it a 5 stars for me.