The Hammer of Thor

okay so these are sort of not good but they're, like, pleasantly goofy and the protagonist's best friends include a deaf elf who uses ASL, a Muslim girl, and now a trans/genderfluid shapeshifter (who, spoiler, i REALLY LIKE). all the supporting characters in this one are stronger – the family backgrounds of Samira and Hearthstone actually added a bit of much-needed depth. there's some good complexity about toxic family relationships and the pain of trying to be a different person than your parent wants you to be. HOWEVER i'm getting tired of Magnus' snarky teenage voice and pop culture references so i will probably not read the third one for awhile (if ever).

i just figured out there's another series and i guess the end of this is teasing a crossover, but i'm not tryna go read a whole different series of mediocre books in order to “get it” idk