The Sunbearer Trials A Breathtaking, Mexican-inspired YA Fantasy

Teo is forced to compete in the glorious Sunbearer Trials, a competition held every ten years to banish the evil gods and to honour Sol, god of the sun. Problem is, while his competitors are able to bend the elements to their will or turn into animals, his only ability is flying- and that is something he hasn't done in a long time. That marks the diference between the Golds and the Jades, and yet, Sol chose him to compete, one of the only two Jade semidióses in over a century. So with his best friend Niya and fellow Jade semidiós Xio, he embarks on the journey to compete in the trials, with the main focus on Not Dying, and his secondary goal being to avoid his annoyingly pretty, ex-best-friend-turned-kinda-enemy-now-competitor Aurelio. Which he might like more than he'd admit even to himself. Perchance. One of my favourite fantasy books of all time, most of my friends could assure me that I never stopped talking about this book if I tried. Casual queer rep, epic trials, great fantasy worldbuilding, amazing and likable characters (likable as long as they aren't trying to kill our protagonists), and generally you'll just have a really good time reading this. I picked it up after reading Cemetery Boys, thinking to myself "Oh this will be good, but won't be better than Yadriel and Julian", and I was WRONG it was AMAZING. Just be warned, it's a duology with an evil cliffhanger, and I read this assuming it was a standalone- I'll never recover from the psychic damage that realization gave me.

Hunger Games meets Percy Jackson, but make it Queer! After reading "Cemetery Boys" I was immediately forced to buy this story and it was so worth it! It was easy to fall in love with the characters, the story, the world and with the trials! The descriptions of the many cities was so great, even I, someone without a good imagination while reading books, got an epic picture in their mind. It felt like I just had to turn the open book upside down and all the colours might fall out! I really enjoyed that the queerness of characters, while very present, was not the main topic of the story, it was simply normal and I wish for more media to do this. Also, while I always thought I would get behind the plot and it's secrets, I was still surprised by the twists in the story. This book kwpt me on edge the whole time! It was a good mix of humor, excitement and pure dread. I hope we don't have to wait too long for the next part, otherwise I just might burst due to impatience! Dear Aiden Thomas, you blew my mind for the second time in just two weeks!