The Burning Maze (The Trials of Apollo, #3)
by Rick Riordan (Goodreads Author)

4 out of 5 stars

Zeus punishes Apollo by turning him into a mortal human. Apollo must complete various trials and serve a demigod named Meg, so that he can regain his godly status. But Meg has a complicated relationship with her stepfather, the evil emperor Nero. In this third book, they are travelling with Grover the satyr to find the oracle imprisoned in the burning maze that is part of the Labyrinth. Anyone who enters the maze will fall into fire traps, but the fire is also burning aboveground in some places and causing wildfires throughout Southern California. The dryads and other nature spirits are suffering from drought and fire, and Grover vows to help them. They enlist Jason Grace and Piper McLean to help with their quest, but Jason and Piper have their own problems.

The adventure is exciting, and I liked learning about even more obscure Greek and Roman legendary creatures and myths. Just when I think I know every myth and legend there could possibly be from Ancient Greece and Rome, Riordan brings up something new!

I really loved the hilarious narration from Apollo’s perspective! He is so ridiculous sometimes, but there are also many moments of heartbreak in this book, so it was interesting to see how Apollo deals with those more serious emotions of grief and anger.
Apollo’s character development continues as he gradually lets go of his narcissistic attitudes and starts to put others first. I really love how he reacts as he is forced to grow and mature, and how he gets inspired by the heroic demigods who assist him on his quests.

Through their adventures, Apollo, Meg, Grover, Jason, and Piper go up against the evil emperor Caligula, and they see a lot of people get hurt and even die trying to help them free the oracle. There is one character death that hit me really hard, even though I already knew it was coming. I just cried and cried, and even worse was seeing how the other characters react in their grief and that made me feel it even more. It was brilliantly written to ruthlessly break your heart and make you think about how grief really feels. Brilliant and cruel. I think this sadness is going to stick with me for a long time.

To see minor violence and other sensitive content in this book, you can check it out on the Screen It First website! https://screenitfirst.com/book/the-burning-maze-trails-of-apollo-3-34504