Name: The Tyrant's Tomb (the Trials of Apollo, Book 4)
ISBN: 9781368001441

Rick Riordan

It's not easy being Apollo, especially when you've been turned into a human and banished from Olympus. On his path to restoring five ancient oracles and reclaiming his godly powers, Apollo (aka Lester Papadopoulos) has faced both triumphs and tragedies. Now his journey takes him to Camp Jupiter in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the Roman demigods are preparing for a desperate last stand against the evil Triumvirate of Roman emperors. Hazel, Reyna, Frank, Tyson, Ella, and many other old friends will need Apollo's aid to survive the onslaught. Unfortunately, the answer to their salvation lies in the forgotten tomb of a Roman ruler . . . someone even worse than the emperors Apollo has already faced.

The Tyrant's Tomb (the Trials of Apollo, Book 4)

Julia Rutgers

Pia 

You're supposed to stay away from Reyna or-

I’m dying of second hand embarrassment here

“ I could.. you know, be your boyfriend. As Lester. If you wanted. You and me. You know, like... yeah."

Reyna said, "AIl T smell is Lester's shoes. l think ne stepped in something." "A large puddle of shame," I muttered.

I’m so proud of you Apollo lol how far you’ve come 

free two bitter enemies and face the same fate as Jason Grace. It was an easy decision. I turned to Reyna and Meg and thought as clearly as I could: Destroy the fasces. Cut him free.

Yes, I said it. If I was going to die tonight, which seemed increasingly likely, first I wanted to see my sister one last time.

My first punch left a fist-size crater in the emperor's gold breastplate. Oh, I thought in some distant corner of my mind. Hello, godly strength!

If he dies we are gonna have a big problem here because isn’t he supposed to live as long as he has his stick 

Time's up!" he roared. Time's up. Wait ...that was my cue. I was supposed to run. But I couldn't. I stared, frozen in horror, as Caligula buried his dagger in Frank's belly. "Yes, it is," Caligula croaked. "For you."

"If I'm going to burn," he said, "I might as well burn bright. This is for Jason."

I only understood his order a heartbeat later, when Gregorix yelled, "SIGNAL THE YACHTS!" I choked on my tongue

n Then the emeralds fell straight down, right onto the yachts from which they had come.

Yeah I’m already crying but letzt make it worse

The last word Caligula had heard as he got blasted into tiny particles of soot was Jason.

The Arrow of Dodona kept talking in my head: THOU HAST DONE WELL, APOLLO! THOU HAST ONLY ONE JOB NOW: LIVE! “That's a really hard job," I muttered. "I hate my job."

"Oh, look," I muttered to no one in particular. "My ankles are turning gray. Oh, wow. My hands are, too."

"H-how long was I out?" I croaked. "Roughly three seconds," she said. "Now, get up, drama queen."

Rick Riordan sure does know how to make me sob. I would say this book is my second favorite from this series. It was fast-paced and FRANK!!! I love how much Apollo has grown throughout this series, can’t wait to read the last book!

overall, good. 
nice avengers reference like rick used to wrote😝 
amazing character development. 
only one thing missing that couldn’t complete the stars.

Christine

Katelyn Payne 

** spoiler alert **
           Wow! What to say. 

This book was pretty good. I felt it had the right amount of twists and action (as with all of his books). Rick Riordan sure does know how to get you in the feels. 

As soon as Apollo gets to camp it is one event after the other. Apollo gets a dream about the blood moon, he’s visited by Lupa, he has to find a soundless god and find a way to defeat Caligula and Commodus all within 4 days. 

What I really love is the fact that Apollo, Meg, and Reyna run out of time before making it back to camp. Because this makes it feel real. You’re not always going to make when your suppose to or you’re gonna make it right on tine. Sometimes situations like this do happen and I loved it. 

Riordan knows how to play with our feelings, that’s for sure. When Frank was fighting Caligula and used his firewood to defeat Caligula by sacrificing himself, I may have cried. I honestly thought that he was gone forever and that that was another hero dear in our hearts that we had lost. Everyone thought he was dead and for him to come back the way he did was incredible. It was kind of a nod to Jason Grace, when he died and was carried on a Pegasus back that’s what was happening to Frank. It almost gives you sense of grief because you’re remembering what happened to Jason. But then he slides of and lands on his feet and it’s like a total game changer.

You will get to the Tiber alive. You will start to Jive. The former God Apollo is having a pretty rough time of it. Well, for one thing, he's called Lester. But being an awkward mortal teenager is the least of his worries. Though he and his friends (some of them) have emerged from the Burning Maze, they still have a triumvirate to defeat, oracles to rescue, and prophecies to decipher, so that the world may be saved, and Lester can become Apollo once again. But, right now, Caligula is sailing to San Francisco to deal with Camp Jupiter personally, and they have to get their first. Or risk its destruction . . .

Nessa Luna

It took me over a year to finally get past the first couple of chapters of this book. But I finally did it, I tamed the beast. But why, WHY, Uncle Rick must you insist on making me sob all the time?

I loved seeing old characters return, and I loved the new characters we were introduced to. This book kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time, especially during the last couple of chapters, and I anxiously put the book down a couple of times because I just could not read anymore (in a good way).

I am anxious to pick up the fifth book, but I will hopefully do so next month (or maybe tomorrow, we'll see). Still not my favourite series in the trilogy of series (is that a thing? It's a thing now), but I am starting to appreciate Lester/Apollo as a character more.

Kimberly Burgess 

Ahh so I had a hard time with the beginning, because I was still in all the feels from Jason 😭 but all the characters were still very much in their feels too, so it made it more bearable 💔 I was so excited to get Frank and Hazel again, and seeing so many old friends get some semblance of a happy ending was very gratifying. I'm so excited for the next book!

Anna

** spoiler alert **
           WAAAAH Frank j’ai crût que tu allais nous faire une Jason. Bref, ce tome était encore mieux que le précédant. J’ai adoré retrouver les anciens héros : Reyna, Hazel, Frank,… Hâte de lire le dernier tome !

PS : Reyna devient définitivement un de mes personnages préféré, elle est juste parfaite !

Antriana 

Sara

best one so far in the series but the worst cover (no hate to reyna she’s a queen but lester’s face gives me the creeps)

jess

** spoiler alert **
           Let me preface this with the warning that this will have unhidden spoilers for The Burning Maze as well as attempted hidden spoilers for The Tyrant's Tomb. Also, incoherence, profanity, and rambles, etc, because I have no chill when it comes to Rick Riordan. You've been warned. 

When we left Apollo and Meg at the end of The Burning Maze, it was just about the most brutal sendoff to a Rick Riordan book since The Mark of Athena. And by that, I mean, Jason Grace fucking died in perhaps the most brutal way possible: that is, getting impaled by some evil Roman empire, getting his broken body dumped unceremoniously on the beach, and his last hurrah in a coffin, the last we see of our favourite Roman praetor-turned-dork. So. Yeah. I was pretty desperate to get my filthy little gremlin hands on this book after that ending. 

It turns out, Rick's still taunting us for telling him, "Hey, you should have killed more people during Heroes of Olympus," because he continues absolutely brutalizing his readers by re-introducing Jason in his coffin and showing up with a hearse before coming back to our beloved characters last seen several years ago: Hazel Levesque, Frank Zhang, and Reyna Ramirez-Arellano. 

Reyna. Oh, Reyna. I have missed her; it has been five years since we last saw the praetor of Rome. She's probably one of my favourite characters in the whole series because Reyna is so damn powerful and strong and determined. I was absolutely thrilled to see her again as a main character. It's also so lovely to see Frank back in action. I know a lot of people disliked Frank's supernatural body change, and Rick reneged on that a bit, making Frank the adorable teddy bear that could probably kill you but definitely doesn't want to that we all know and love. I missed Frank so much. He's my favourite Chinese-Canadian son of Mars. I also adored Hazel's storyline, and even though Frazel wasn't really my bread and butter during The Heroes of Olympus, they really grew on me here. 

Spoilers from here on out. 

(view spoiler)[We also see a lot of old characters from the last series, which is exciting, but most of them die, which isn't so exciting. Rick took those "Please kill more people, it's war," comments to heart. Rick also seems determined to pick the Seven off one by one, for some reason, and a lot of this book had me absolutely screaming into my pillow. Frank's stick of firewood comes into play again, and the Roman emperors can only be killed by fire, and I'll let you come to your own conclusion about how that plays out. Yeah. There's a lot going on in this book about fate, like in all of Rick Riordan's books, and reading about Frank had me on the edge of my seat and in tears. Unlike literally every other new Riordan release I have read, I was not spoiled for this, so I was genuinely fearful and gritting my teeth for the worst to happen. 

Apollo's entire character in this series can be best described as "suicide by words," because the amount of second-hand embarrassment I got while reading this book is palpable. But Apollo continues to go through so much character development, and considering what an absolute dirtbag god!Apollo was, there's a lot of character to develop. We get more of a deep dig into the mythology of Apollo, what made him him throughout the whole time the Riordanverse has been going on and how he got to hit rock bottom. And I really love how Rick is digging into the obscure parts of Greco-Roman mythology, incorporating mythology from other cultures in offhand mentions (a nod, perhaps, to the series in his imprint), as well as examining the mythology of one particular character closely. It all somehow works very well to build Apollo's character and how complex this doofus actually is. 

Also: Apollo continues to be the single most relatable bisexual character. Romance disaster / I'm poison for guys and gals / You wanna hang out? is one of the chapter titles, and any bisexual who's ever joked about how being bi just gives the opportunity to be rejected by double the amount of people can relate. Zero divided by two is still zero, after all. And Apollo's offhand comment about hot firefighters made me snicker and want to high-five him, because, yeah, mood. 

Even though I do believe that the Trials of Apollo series reads significantly sillier than either of Rick's two previous series, with a myriad of pop culture and history references that people of all ages will get, the themes addressed are far from silly or childish. Running through the series and into this book are the themes on home, found family, and childhood trauma, and Rick really does dig into the last one here. Meg and Apollo are directly stated to be survivors of abusive parents - Apollo even points out Jupiter as his abuser. And even though it's shown that a lot of Apollo's reasoning for his heinous behaviour and bullying as a god is indirectly because of the cracks in self-esteem from his abuse, it most certainly does not excuse him from perpetuating a cycle. Apollo is given the chance to atone and realize his actions were absolutely unacceptable, and he doesn't get any breaks from the other characters in being forced to that realization either. Forgiveness might help, but sometimes, the person who abused you or bullied you doesn't deserve forgiveness, regardless of understanding, and it's okay, as long as you're at peace with yourself. 

A lot of people in New Rome are also suffering from post-traumatic stress as well, this time from combat and the death of friends and family. Unlike in the Heroes of Olympus, it's not glossed over, or brushed to the side. There are some very honest and painful conversations in this book that will ring true for survivors of trauma, or anyone who's ever lost someone close to someone and have had to grieve. Despite the silliness of the narration and the absolute disaster that Apollo is, this book faces these serious topics with a lot more candor and realism than Rick used to. 

I do want to point out something that made me deeply uncomfortable, and that's Reyna's characterization and fate at the end, and especially all that regarding her sexuality. I headcanon Reyna as a lesbian, partially because of my own reading as a sapphic woman and partially because I've read headcanons of other teen and young adult lesbians who deeply resonate with Reyna's story. Rick Riordan seems to be doing his damndest to shut down that headcanon, despite him saying that we're welcome to headcanon Reyna however we want. Some of Reyna's comments seemed not only a dig at the fans who hold that lesbian!Reyna headcanon close, but an absolute failure at, you know, portraying Reyna as straight, and reinforcing the subtext that Reyna is actually a repressed queer woman. Reyna doesn't affirm or deny attraction to either men or women and seems to consider both as equally likely for her to date, but frankly, her attraction to men just isn't there at all, and there's definitely a reading that the fervent denial of her and Thalia being together is evidence that yes, actually, she likes girls. Also, joining a cult of eternal maidenhood with your best gal pen pal? That's not gay at all. /s Whether you see her as lesbian, bisexual, or aro/ace is frankly no concern of mine, because there's valid readings on all sides. 

And I do think it would have been more powerful, more of a self-acceptance plot, if Reyna realized her trying to attatch herself to any male roughly equal to her position romantically was the result of compulsory heterosexuality and, undoubtedly, the heavy trauma that comes with running what's essentially an army of childhood soldiers in wartime as someone who isn't even out of her teens yet. It really does read like Reyna's only "looking for a partner" because she's essentially the parental figure of this army camp full of young teenagers and - knowing Reyna's history with her abusive father, and lack of a mother, and knowing that the majority of residents of Camp Jupiter are also in the same situation - is obligated to find a male parental figurehead to cope, giving the Twelfth Legion the parents that neither of them ever had. But, you know, enough psychoanalyzing here, can you tell I'm an analysis-starved English major? 

I mean, I'm certainly not accusing Rick of being homophobic. We do get a young Jewish tap-dancing lesbian in this book, Lavinia Asimov, and she's so relatable and definitely my favourite new character of this series - in addition to being one of the bravest and most determined characters to show up and save New Rome, which really is saying something. "I love girls too much to even think about joining the Huntresses." Gods. What a mood. But what I am saying is that there's a deeply pervasive divide between how we as a society think about queer women as opposed to queer men that Rick Riordan, unfortunately, falls prey to, and it is worth thinking about, and something that I want to address with more examples across the whole canon of children's literature, when my brain manages to regenerate a couple more neurons. 

On the flip side, we do get Reyna absolutely losing her shit when Apollo asks her out, along with possibly the worst second-hand embarrassment I've ever had, and me cackling right along with Reyna. I am not sure I have ever laughed that hard or been that embarrassed for someone in a book. also can we talk about the fact that Reyna not wanting to tap god!Apollo is even more evidence that she's a big ol LESBIAN okay? no? okay The humor in this book is silly, and it definitely breaks up the more serious story beats, but my absolute favourite moment in this book was Apollo stuttering out a, "Maybe ... I could, um, be, uh, your boyfriend," and Reyna's "HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAA" following Apollo for a good three pages. A delight, 10/10 moment, Rick Riordan played all of us who feared that Reyna and Apollo were about to happen. Prophecies really don't come true in the most direct way, and Reyna got to laugh more than she has in years, so I'm pleased.  (hide spoiler)]

Anyways. Rick Riordan did it again, he destroyed me, and I'm left here waiting for Book Five because, oh boy, I can't believe we're facing another ending of the Camp Half-Blood verse. Again. This series means ... so much to me, in so many ways, and I'm not ready for it to end.

Sandra Tammaru

Reread: gosh tht was so intense and I couldnt be more excited to read the final part! Loved how Reyna was portrayed in this one and how Lester keeps maturing while keeping his wit! Onto the next 😍

mighty dragon 

yay to character development. still weeping over jason though.

jinad

dana

let dead characters stay dead challenge!!

Josefina

3.5*
getting through the beginning of this book certainly felt like a task, but getting to read about Tyson the sunshine, Hazel and Frank made it so much better

Stefanie Sugia

"I understood heartache a little better now. Each person's grief has its own life span; it needs to follow its own path."
Finally, I have finished the fourth book in this series and I only have one book left to read! If the third book gave me a huge shock, this book gave me a mini heart attack because the story is getting more and more intense now. The war between the emperors and Camp Jupiter is truly a life-and-death situation. In The Tyrant's Tomb, Apollo is accompanied by several demigods from Camp Jupiter; some of them are characters that we've met in The Heroes of Olympus series such as: Hazel Levesque, Frank Zhang, and Reyna Ramírez-Arellano. Like all the other demigod characters, they each have special ability that will help Apollo on his quest. Hazel, being the daughter of Pluto (the Roman counterpart of Hades), is especially strong underground. Frank Zhang is a shapeshifter and he's able to change into any animal he wishes. While Reyna is extremely good with her weapons and she's also able to strengthen other people's power—which enabled Apollo to summon his godly power. All of these powerful demigod companions are definitely necessary since Apollo and Meg will be facing three enemies in this book: Tarquin (who controls an army of zombies) and two of the Triumvirate emperors: Commodus and Caligula.

So many things happened in this book right from the beginning; as Apollo and Meg are escorted to Camp Jupiter, they were attacked by Eurynomos—a spirit of rotting corpses. While they were escaping, Apollo was scratched in the belly and that caused him to slowly turn into a zombie. In the back of my mind, I know that Apollo will be able to survive it somehow, but somehow I still felt nervous about it from start to finish 😆. Throughout their journey, we also got to know more about Apollo's character and what he did in the past as a god. My jaw dropped when I read the story of Apollo's history with the Cumaean Sibyl, Apollo's bad relationship with the ravens which leads to him killing his pregnant girlfriend, and how he bullied a minor god in the past. Those stories made me realize that Apollo was not a pleasant being back in his godly days; but that makes his character arc a lot more interesting. Now that he's human, Apollo starts developing conscience and slowly become better through the experiences that he had with his companions. He might not be able to undo all the bad things that he's done, but Apollo is definitely trying to become a better person—which is commendable."That's kind of the point. You do something evil, you feel bad about it, you do better. That's a sign you might be developing a conscience." "Still... I was struck by the way she said I used to be a God. She didn't seem to mean it as an insult. She said it almost like a concession—like she knew what a horrible deity I had been, but held out hope that I might be capable of being someone better, more helpful, maybe even worthy of forgiveness."One of the funniest scenes in this book is the one that involved Apollo and Reyna. Apollo is constantly cautious around Reyna because something that Venus (the Roman counterpart of Aphrodite, the goddess of love) said to him. And when the two of them went on a quest together, Apollo suddenly blurted out some kind of ridiculous confession to Reyna that made her laugh out loud (I giggled and cringed so hard at this scene 🤣🤣; I'm embarrassed for you, Apollo). Not going to spoil the result of that confession, but it was a huge comic relief in the midst of all the action-packed scenes.

The last one that I'll mention in this review is the grand battle in Camp Jupiter. The first one is the battle between Commodus-Caligula and Apollo-Frank. It was a very epic two-on-two battle that Frank Zhang suggested so they could have a fair fight. Apollo went against Commodus who lost his eyesight after witnessing Apollo's divine form in The Dark Prophecy. Since Commodus relied on his hearing during the fight, Apollo took advantage of that. On the other hand, Frank fights against Caligula with a strategy in mind. However, his strategy is one that gave me a mini heart attack. Of course I'm not going to write how the story unfolds in this review, but just remember that Frank's life force is tied to a piece of wood; and his strategy involved that piece of wood. It was crazy but also very heroic at the same time 👏👏."Even if we somehow managed to defeat the Triumvirate, there was still that greatest Oracle, Delphi, under the control of my old nemesis Python. How I could defeat him in my present form as a sixteen-year-old weakling, I had no idea."This book was intense! It was action-packed, one obstacle right after another, a lot of life-and-death situation; and I can't wait to see how the final book is going to unfold! The prophecy doesn't really give us much clue about what's going to happen in the next book, or who their companion will be on the next quest. Am really excited to tag along with Apollo and Meg as they embark on their last quest and come face to face with Nero and Apollo's old nemesis, Python. I'm hoping to see more of Apollo's godly power in action in the fifth and final book! 💪

Read my full review here:
http://www.thebookielooker.com/2021/0...

Lysha Taynish

I am overwhelmed and still trying to process this.

Arden Kowalski

At least this one didn't make me want to file a lawsuit for emotional damages. I really don't think it's fair of Richard Riordan to keep mentioning a specific event that only happened for shock value and makes me very upset on a near daily basis. But whatever. That's fine and this is fine. I was very glad nothing similar to that nonsense happened in this book (although we came close), I don't think my puny little brain could've taken it.

A short list of problems I have with this book. Even I know that the line about Lavinia Asimov's bar mitzvah is inaccurate. Frank is.... seventeen here? Hazel is fourteen? That's a very unhealthy age gap for a romantic relationship. Tyson and Ella were great individually but I wish they weren't together. In conclusion: less romance, better representation, and calm down with the jokes. All the moments of inappropriate humour lessen the emotional impact of different scenes. (view spoiler)[And for some reason Jason Grace is dead, which is a crime against me personally. How dare you. (hide spoiler)]

All that being said, I genuinely enjoyed this book. I got anxious at the final fight scene, legitimately laughed a couple times, and rooted for the sibling-esque relationship between Apollo and Meg. There was so much that was really well-done. Unfortunately, I felt the plot had essentially no interesting qualities and that it followed a rather overdone formula for Rick's books. I feel that there's pretty much endless potential in the world he's created, and it keeps getting squandered for repeating a successful recipe over and over again. The apple pie is great, but I would love to see something that isn't apple pie. I digress, but only because I'm getting hungry.

In conclusion: I was surprised that I actually enjoyed this book. I had fun, and I don't actually have a problem with Reyna's plot. I am... eagerly awaiting the release of the Tower of Nero this fall. (Apparently it's on October 6th - I'll be donating the cost of the book to a group that helps one of the minorities Rick has screwed over in his books. There's a lot to choose from.) This book is really 3.5 stars, so I'm hoping the last one can achieve the full four. I believe.

It’s not easy being Apollo, especially when you’ve been turned into a human and banished from Olympus. On his path to restoring five ancient Oracles and reclaiming his godly powers, Apollo (aka Lester Papadopoulos) has faced both triumphs and tragedies.

Now his journey takes him to Camp Jupiter in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the Roman demigods are preparing for a desperate last stand against the evil Triumvirate of Roman emperors. Hazel, Reyna, Frank, Tyson, Ella, and many other old friends will need Apollo’s aid to survive the onslaught. Unfortunately, the answer to their salvation lies in the forgotten tomb of a Roman ruler . . . someone even worse than the emperors Apollo has already faced.

Sophia De La Garza

Finally got around to reading this book. I will it's probably my least favorite in the series, but definitely a nice bridge book for right before the big battle. 

Also, this book does not pull punches when it came to reminding readers of the deaths that had happened. 

Overall, 3.5 stars and I'm anticipating the final book (more so for the cameos than anything else tbh)

soph

two words: lavinia asimov.

a jewish dancing lesbian with pink hair and a crush on a nymph? yes please.

Things are getting very bad, very fast, for Apollo . . . The former God Apollo is having a pretty rough time of it. Well, for one thing, he's been turned into a human and banished from Olympus. And he's called Lester. But being an awkward mortal teenager is the least of his worries right now. Though he and some of his friends have emerged from the Burning Maze, rescued the Oracle and lived to fight another day, they can't escape the tragedy that has befallen them, or the terrible trials still to face. So, with heavy heart, Apollo (OK, Lester) and Meg have a triumvirate still to defeat, oracles to rescue, and prophecies to decipher, so that the world may be saved, and Lester may ascend into the heavens to become Apollo once again. But, right now, Caligula is sailing to San Francisco to deal with Camp Jupiter personally, and they have to get there first. Failure would mean its destruction

Kaitee Tredway

Ahaana Bhargava

alice nunes

4.75
Woah this is my favorite of the series so far 
So fucking good 
So fucking good 
This right here is why I love Rick Riordan

Kathleen Boyle

This was a fantastic installment and probably the best in the series so far. I've always loved the fourth book in his five book series for some reason the most. It's an interesting trend. Rick Riordan really knows how to set up a finale. He's a master of his craft.
Apollo's journey in this book is amazing. I'm so glad this is first person because we wouldn't be able to get his incredible character growth otherwise. He's growing as a person so much and I hope he doesn't revert back into his old ways... 
I'm eagerly anticipating the final book in the series even though my heart will probably never be ready for it.

The Tyrant's Tomb (the Trials of Apollo, Book 4)

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