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The Hammer of Thor (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard #2) by Rick Riordan

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Brief synopsis (no spoilers): Thor's hammer is missing and Magnus and his team must get it back or the end of the world will commence. 

 Category: YA 
Why I chose this book: Enjoyed Riordan's previous works, was trying to give the series a second chance 
My personal opinion (the review): Awful, awful, awful! I didn't like the first book in this series, but I have enjoyed Riordan in the past so I wanted to give him a chance to redeem himself. How wrong I was. First, Magnus is a terrible character and is written poorly. The pop culture references are so dated. There is quite a bit of LGBT references. This is the scene where I put the book down. Magnus has just met a new character - Alex:
“What did you mean earlier?” I asked. “When you said—”
“Call me she? I’m gender fluid and transgender, idiot. Look it up if you need to, but it’s not my job to educate—”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Oh, please. I saw your mouth hanging open.”
“Well, yeah. Maybe for a second. I was surprised. But…” I wasn’t sure how to continue without sounding like even more of an idiot.
The gender thing wasn’t what surprised me. A huge percentage of the homeless teens I’d met had been assigned one gender at birth but identified as another, or they felt like the whole boy/girl binary didn’t apply to them. They ended up on the streets because—shocker—their families didn’t accept them. Nothing says “tough love” like kicking your non-hetero-normative kid to the curb so they can experience abuse, drugs, high suicide rates, and constant physical danger. Thanks, Mom and Dad!
What surprised me was the way I’d reacted to Alex—how fast my impression of her had slingshot, and the kind of emotions that had stirred up. I wasn’t sure I could put that into words without turning as red as Mallory Keen’s hair."  

 This has no place in literature that is being marketed to middle schoolers. It just doens't. 

 I can't vouch for the validity of this since I didn't finish the book, but I found another review on goodreads that worries me further:

 "Final complaint, and this one guys is the taker of the cake: this series is apparently Rick Riordan's political and social platform and that's unacceptable. He starts us off with Transgenderism. Okay, I get that. He's progressively added things into his series' in the past so I can see and accept adding one new issue. But then he quickly moves onto religion. All of a sudden we're discussing the ins and outs of the Muslim religion and atheism... ok, it took me by surprise, especially considering I'm barely 1/4 of the way through the book. We're really discussing heavy topics. But then he takes a GIGANTIC stab at police officers. I was incredibly offended by this. I kept reading to see if he'd explain himself or share both sides of the issue??? Nope. He just says they are racist and out to hurt people if you're not careful. That's it. We're DONE. In the Kane Chronicles, we touched on race issues and I thought it was done in a classy low key kind of way. I admired that. This series though, ripped that admiration away. "

 I will not be picking up any Riordan books from here on out. He has lost a fan. 
Language: I seem to remember that there were a few words, but I'm writing this several months after reading it
Violence: The usual for Riordan
"Adult" situations: LGBT
Death: Nothing through the part I read

 For series:
Independent or integral: Integral 

Series review as a whole: Don't bother

If you only have time for one, read: Don't bother 

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