#as somebody who literally grew up with Nico di Angelo it kind of sucks to see him portrayed in the way TSATS portrays him

[jankwritten]

rick doesn’t write nor is in charge of whatever goes on in readriordan they do their own thing over there. also mark wrote the book, which is why characters seem ooc - rick still had input in terms of outlining, plot, editing etc but mark basically wrote it. mark has talked about how much control rick gave him so I can’t see Rick being nitpicky about the details. He doesn’t even seem nitpicky in the books he writes solo. now i understand that obviously not everyone knows that and i personally don’t really like mark’s writing style, but they’re a queer poc who put a lot work into writing a story for kids about love, acceptance and overcoming trauma, something they very personally relate to. i’m not saying it can’t be critiqued at all because of this but some of you aren’t even really critiquing it you’re just genuinely being harsh and mean and refuse to even see past the words on the page to see the message and the impact this’ll have on kids, especially queer ones. but no it’s completely irredeemable and a dumpster fire all because clearly people prefer rick’s writing style to mark’s. I just…..ugh. so so disappointing.

well, actually, my genuine problem with it is the way that it was written. the pacing of it, I mean, the way that the story flows just feels wrong, poorly thought out, and poorly executed.

I'm not saying that people can't enjoy the book. And I understand that it's not written for people my age. But from the standpoint of a writer, the book is genuinely just not as good.

Mark writing the book and pouring all their love and devotion into it doesn't change the fact that it feels like it falls flat from an actual writing standpoint. It feels like it was a surface level first draft, the rough outline for what the story was going to be. It's the barest of bones, full of continuity errors and references that feel jarring coming from the characters they come from, moments that feel like they're trying to mimic the original PJO series and instead fall flat and just feel like a mockery.

The topics that the story wanted to address felt like they were shoehorned in - the whole plot was weird and contrived, the fact that Hades was the one who orchestrated the whole thing, the book itself already doesn't make sense just based on that alone.

And the way that the story went about discussing Nico and Will's trauma, I don't know. It felt like every other second Nico and Will were switching rapidly between being confident and flirtatious to individually nervous wrecks, their thoughts didn't feel entirely grounded, the action sequences felt jerky and uncoordinated, I couldn't ever get into the character's head. I couldn't ever really see it through their eyes, if that makes sense, because things were being TOLD to us the whole time, not SHOWN to us. It's one of the first things you're told when you start writing: show, don't tell.

I will say that you're right. Some of us are just being outright mean to the book, which is our right, just like it's your right have not found anything objectionable during your readthrough. And that's totally fine! We're all entitled to our own opinions, that's the joy of being online. Those of us who are roasting the book, calling it a dumpsterfire or saying it resembles a 2013 era Wattpad fic, we're all being dramatic and mean because that's just how fandom is. That's how fandom has always been. We criticize the new media because it will never be as good as the origal, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

You're right that this book also means a lot in terms of queer rep. It's fucking insanely cool that Riordan and Oshiro got to write such a blatantly queer story about overcoming mental health troubles and navigating a relationship when you're young and traumatized! And they published it through Disney! That's a fucking massive win for representation in media, it's a crazy cool thing to have added to such a popular, well known universe like PJO! I myself figured out I was queer through reading PJO and feeling a connection to Nico specifically, so, yeah, seeing a stand-alone story about him and his boyfriend is actually really really cool to me.

That does not mean that I have to kiss it's boots and act like it's gods gift to gay kids, because it isn't. In the end, it's still a just book. it's still fallible. It is allowed to have it's faults, and I'm allowed to say what I want to about it, just like you are.

peace and love, friend. I hope you have a wonderful evening.

#asks! #tsats #tsats discourse #pjo #like yeah. i'm going to rag on the book because I think it blows. but that's just my opinion and other people are allowed to have theirs #as somebody who literally grew up with Nico di Angelo it kind of sucks to see him portrayed in the way TSATS portrays him #shrug. such is the way of life. #I hope you didn't send this ask with negative intentions or in an attempt to make me feel bad for saying what i've said. #i refuse to take any of it back because I wholeheartedly believe this book could have been so so so much better