sleep deprived riordanverse nerd

It absolutely breaks my heart watching people tear this book to shreds, and not because I somehow think it was perfect or void of problematic elements.

But I was active in the fandom when HOH came out. And maybe you were too and you still feel differently than me, that's fine. But to me, the reason I feel so fiercely protective over tsats is cause I remember the absolute shitstorm that came after HOH. After Nico came out/was outed. I remember the joy, the rage, the support and the condemnations. I remember articles critiquing the book for it's "strong homosexual themes" when it was literally just a fourteen year old boy confessing to having a crush on another boy. I remember it all so fucking vividly. And I especially remember the very real fear a lot of us had that Rick was going to kill off its then only gay character. And instead Nico actually got a love interest! This was so huge! And yes it was sloppy, and rushed, but to a lot of us, we were just grateful that a queer character in a popular children's book series got to be happy! And out in the books, and not just after it finished.