Originally posted to I Should Read That

I was sent this book in exchange for an honest review.  This review is spoiler-free.

Dystopian novels are funny for me -- they either work really well or they just don’t click.  I was intrigued by The Rising Storm due to its use of weather phenomenon and climate change as the catalyst for the dystopian society that our characters find themselves in. The Rising Storm is a fast-paced and punchy dystopian read with a great opening chapter -- I nearly missed my bus stop reading it, and if that isn’t a great endorsement I don’t know what is.

While there were parts of The Rising Storm that I really liked, I think that it overall needed a little more work.  I am a reader than really enjoys rich worlds and certain writing styles, so a lot of my criticisms come down to taste.  The world building felt a little incomplete and I don’t think that certain aspects of the plot and world were explained in a satisfying way.  We got some very basic explanations of certain plot elements, but we are told that they were important rather than being shown why they matter so much.  One of these examples is why Carter is such a symbol of hope for both the Industry and restless citizens. We sort of get a sentence or two about this, but I didn’t really believe it.  We were told that he’s an important, game changing figure but there wasn’t really anything in the plot to indicate this in a satisfying way. We get a lot of these instances of telling rather than showing, and I think it does a disservice to such a compelling plot.

The Rising Storm is also a split narrative.  I don’t often enjoy split narrative books because one story is inevitably more interesting than the other, and this was definitely the case here.  I was completely engrossed in Carter’s story, but didn’t care for Alice’s story until the book was nearly finished. This obviously comes down to personal taste, but it really felt there was one story that was much stronger than the other.

We have Carter and Alice as our POV characters.  Both are about 15 years old, although Alice’s story starts when she’s 12, and they’re living at different periods of time.  As mentioned above, Carter is definitely the stronger character in terms of personality and story arc, but I really liked Alice’s attitude toward the destruction of her way of life.  Her life actually improves when the Storms hit, making her a bit of a grey area character (and you guys know how much I love my grey area characters). I just wish her story was just a little more interesting.  Carter also has shades of grey to him, as he is trapped between loyalties to two different causes. I enjoyed reading through his thought processes as everything he knows is turned on its head and he is forced to make some serious decisions throughout the novel.

Overall, I thought The Rising Storm was a fun, if a bit generic, dystopian novel.  I saw potential for so much more though! If you’re looking for just a quick holiday read, I’d suggest checking this one out for some fast-paced beach reading. Just don't miss your bus stop.

Originally posted to I Should Read That


This is a spoiler-free review.


The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a book I’ve been hearing about over the past year or so.  Trusted blogging pals have absolutely loved this book -- in fact it seems like everyone is loves this book.  I love all things old Hollywood, so I was eager to see what this book was all about.

Although this book is a split-time narrative, we spend most of it in Evelyn’s world.  From the Hollywood backlots of the 1940’s, to the sweeping epic films of the 1960’s, to the AIDS crisis in the 80’s, Reid manages to cover decades of time in a concise and compact way.  She really builds an incredibly vivid world and it’s so easy to fall into the glitz and glamour of Evelyn Hugo's life. I actually caught myself reaching for my phone to google the images and events described in the book -- it all felt so incredibly real.  While the past is beautifully built and written in this book, I really feel like the present day timeline was lacking.  It’s obviously the less important of the two, and well, it really felt like it. I had almost no interest in Monique, her mess of a life, or the great secret that Hugo was dangling over her. When people look back on this book, I don't think they’re not going to remember the present day timeline at all, and I think that’s just a sign that Reid just wasn’t as interested in telling this part of the story.

Evelyn Hugo is, of course, the star of the show.  She is a combination of Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth, and Elizabeth Taylor, with a dash of other old Hollywood starlets.  Monique describes how Hugo commands a room and it really comes through in the narrative. She dominates the narrative with her strong voice, convictions, and her strange, yet rigid moral code.  While Hugo is not a woman most of us would admire when learn about the choices she has made, there’s something so refreshing about a woman who is so unapologetically cutthroat and will do whatever it takes to achieve her goals.  I think what works so well with Hugo’s characterisation is the fact that she is so unapologetic. She stands by every decision she has ever made, whether it hurts her or the ones she loves, and truly believes in what she’s doing.  She’s a brilliant morally grey character and through her we see the darker side of fame and fortune.  She's someone who will stick with me for a long time.

A side effect of Hugo being such an amazing and strong character is that everyone else is a little dull by comparison.  From Monique in the present to Celia in the past, Reid just doesn’t capture any other character in quite the same way.  They’re really all just pawns in Hugo’s life, which honestly works so well with the story. The only character who stood out to me was Harry, Hugo’s lifelong best friend.  I truly believed in their relationship and enjoyed his time on the page. Everyone else? Well, they’re pretty forgettable.

I really enjoyed this book because of the strong world building and Evelyn’s voice and character.  It’s a great summertime read that is fast-paced and sure to sweep you away, whether you’re a classic film fan or not.

Originally posted to I Should Read That


I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.  This review is spoiler-free.


I won’t lie, I was initially interested in Adrift because of the exceptional cover.  I'm really happy to have stumbled upon this book (and its beautiful cover) because it was exactly what I needed.  I’ve been craving good thrillers recently, and this sci-fi thriller was the perfect summer page turner.

Adrift far surpassed my expectations.  It’s a gripping, claustrophobic thriller with relentless action that will keep you guessing until the very end.  It's a classic survival story -- our characters are stranded in a dangerous place and tensions within the group are rising.  But Adrift is so much more than just a standard thriller because of the way it twists familiar tropes and archetypes.  You have many of your standard survivor thriller tropes -- the group of strangers, the shortage of food and water, high tensions between survivors, and disaster lurking behind every corner.  However, Adrift still manages to feel exciting and new despite these tropes. As the cast struggles to survive, it becomes more apparent that these characters are more than just those archetypes.

Although the book is strongly plot-based, the characters are what really drove the story for me.  I loved that the reader's perception of each character changes over the course of the novel as motivations and back stories are introduced. Boffard develops his characters in such a way that they have strong arcs and really keep the reader interested.  I have a couple favourite characters that I won't divulge due to spoilers, but this book is a great example of flipping tropes and defying expectations.  You may think you have these people figured out, but they’ll still take you by surprise.

Like most thrillers, I feel like I can’t say too much without spoiling the book so I’ll end this review here.  I really enjoyed Adrift and think it’s a great choice for veteran readers of science fiction and those who are new to the genre.  The science and technology is easy enough to understand, the characters are interesting, infuriating, and so memorable, and the fast-paced plot makes it the perfect summer page-turner.  

Originally posted to I Should Read That


This is a spoiler-free review for both City of Stairs and City of Blades.


As you guys may have already seen, I absolutely loved City of Stairs, the first book in this trilogy, to the point where I couldn’t actually figure out how to review it.  I was hesitant about reading City of Blades for several reasons, the main one being the dreaded second book syndrome. Some of my recent favourite books have had seriously disappointing sequels, however I was delighted to discover that City of Blades did not have this issue.  Not only was it just as good as its predecessor, I think it may have actually been better.

It’s so hard to compare City of Stairs and City of Blades.  While Stairs is an incredibly unique spin on fantasy, Blades is more like an espionage/military novel.  It has a completely different tone and a mostly new cast of characters outside of Mulagesh, however old favourites do drop in.  It is not a direct sequel – it takes place about 5 years after the events of the first book and follows a completely different storyline – these books are like a combination of a companion novel and a sequel.  It was sad to not get more of Shara and Sigrud's exploits, but Bennett manages to make the story just as engaging.

Despite continuing along in a world that is very much the same as the first, Blades feels completely fresh and new.  So many sequels pick up the characters and move them to a new location.  Often, I find this doesn't work well because the reader misses the familiarity and the world building feels a little bit wasted.  However, Blades is one of the few books that manages to pull this off -- I was just as interested in the events of Voortyashtan as I was in Bulikov.  In addition, I also felt like we got everything out of Bulikov in the first book and it was time to explore a new part of this fascinating world. Based solely on the first two books in this series, I'm going to boldly say that Robert Jackson Bennett is one of the best world-builders writing fantasy today.

Like Stairs, Blades is a deeply character drive novel. Mulagesh is a secondary character in Stairs, but she’s the main character in Blades.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone take a side character and develop them so fully, so completely, and so beautifully. Mulagesh is an incredibly complex woman and the exact kind of woman I've been wishing for in fantasy for years. From her past as a young soldier through to her role in wartime atrocities and her attempts at redemption, to her time as a disgruntled political figure, she has such a complex and complicated background.  Despite this, you really get the sense that you know her by the end of the book -- she's one of the best written characters I've ever read. I loved her in the first book because of her grouchiness and humour, but her role in the second book really blew me away. She is now one of my favourite characters in fantasy fiction ever.

I can’t keep going without fangirling – the fact that I have made it this far without bursting into tears and shipping you all copies of this book is pretty remarkable.  Robert Jackson Bennett is an author you all will get really tired of hearing me talk about because he’s one of my new favourites. If you’re looking for books that feature interesting non-Western fantasy settings, compelling women who are so far from the ordinary, friendships between men and women, incredible character arcs and development, and sharp, witty writing that will have you both laughing and crying, I cannot recommend these books highly enough.  Start with City of Stairs, thank me later.

Originally posted to I Should Read That


I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.  This is a spoiler-free review.


The Hazel Wood is a book that has been lurking at the back of my mind since 2017 – it’s a book that sounded absolutely perfect for me.  I love a dark fairy tale, so when you throw in a New York setting and fuzz the barriers between fiction and reality it basically becomes my catnip. However, I think that my own expectations got in the way of my enjoyment of this book.

I really loved the world building in The Hazel Wood.  The blending of realistic and fantastical settings was really well done.  Even when they left New York and went to try to find the Hazel Wood itself, which is where the story itself fell apart for me, I felt that it was just so well executed.  Albert’s descriptions of the settings, from the hectic city streets to the quiet forests of Upstate New York, really painted a picture for me. Her marvelous world building is one of the reasons that I bumped up my rating from two to three stars – it really won me over.

In terms of plot, the book starts out so strong.  The first half was just fantastic. Albert creates an element of tension that adds a level of discomfort and tension to the narrative that I loved.  I was immediately swept away by Alice and Ella’s run of bad luck and the life they settled into when it looked like they finally had the chance to settle down.  It went a little off the rails after they left the city in search of the Hazel Wood. This was in part due to the plot, but I really found that the characters just fell apart.

Alice is our main character, and while I liked her I really didn’t feel like I knew her at all by the end of the book.  We get her motivations and her inner thoughts, but there was just something missing from her and I’m not sure what it was.  To me, she just seemed a little flat. There was a lot of potential for her to be a great character, but she fell a little short.  This is particularly noticeable as the story progresses and the Hazel Wood reveals its secrets.

The other character worth mentioning is Ellery.  I really loved him! It’s funny that he wasn’t a POV character, however I got a better sense of his personality and motivations than I did for Alice.  Perhaps it’s that he’s just like the rest of us – he has his troubles, his ways of dealing with those troubles, and he has the nerdy obsessions that he uses to escape, namely Tales from the Hinterlands.  I felt myself so much more drawn to him, or at least I did until that point where the plot fell apart.  He was really the character that really suffered after this point. His actions felt jerky and bizarre, almost as though you were watching a puppet on strings.  Everything I loved about him began to fade away, and it was such a shame.

I loved the twists and turns in The Hazel Wood, along with the marvelous world building and pacing.  However, it really began to feel like things didn’t slot together well, as though she had this brilliant idea for a book and couldn’t quite get it down on paper the way she had it in her head.  Despite this, I’m really looking forward to seeing what she comes up with next.

Originally posted to I Should Read That

This is a spoiler-free review for Down Among the Sticks and Bones, but contains major spoilers for Every Heart a Doorway.  I highly suggest you skip this review if you haven't read Every Heart a Doorway yet.


1.5/5 stars

If you have seen my review of the first book in this series, Every Heart a Doorway, you’ll know that I absolutely loved it -- I thought it was perfection.  So I naturally had high expectations Down Among the Sticks and Bones, the second book in the series. It features more of the weird and wonderful worlds McGuire created in the first book.  It tells the back story of two of my favourite students at Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children.  What could possibly go wrong?

The answer is ‘a lot’.  A lot could go wrong, and a lot did go wrong with this book.  Down Among the Sticks and Bones is not only the most disappointing book of 2018 so far, it's the most disappointing book I've read in years.  I finished reading it and couldn't help but wonder what the fuck happened to what promised to be my favourite series of all time.

I think that as with The Hazel Wood, my expectations for what this book should have been ended up influencing my opinion.  Having read and adored the first book in this series, I expected more of the same magic and wonder we got in Every Heart a Doorway.  Instead, we got stilted writing, 60+ pages of completely boring background (which to be fair, the book is 192 pages long. That’s a lot of pages dedicated to uninteresting background information), an underwhelming examination of what were once fascinating characters, and a painfully boring plot.

My main issue with Down Among the Sticks and Bones is that nothing really happens.  What we get is the upbringing of Jack and Jill, or Jacqueline and Jillian as they should be called, and what happened to them before they ended up in Eleanor West's care.  This should have been fascinating, it should have been a brilliant examination of complex women, but it fell so short.  We know that they grew up in this horrible home with horrible parents that wedged them into neat and tidy roles. We know that they went to the Moors and ended up splitting apart, with Jack going with a mad scientist and Jill staying with The Master.  We know that they ended up swapping their tomboy and ultra-feminine personas and were finally free of adult expectations. We know that Jill ends up going bad. We know all of this. So why did we need an entire book explaining exactly what we already knew about these characters?  I just don’t see how this book was necessary.  McGuire had the opportunity to do something really fantastic with their story and for whatever reason decided not to.  A friend put it best – she said it felt like a writing exercise based on the first book, and I couldn’t agree more.  This book reads like fan fiction in the worst way. We gain so little insight into Jack and Jill's story and their time on the Moors. Where Every Heart a Doorway does marvellous things with plot and character development in fewer than 200 pages, Down Among the Sticks and Bones does the opposite.

Jack and Jill were among my favourite characters in the first book, particularly Jack.  I found them so fascinating and fun to read about. I loved the fact that they swapped roles when they got to the Moors and were finally allowed to be themselves.  I love that they defied expectations and felt so unique.  However, something just didn't translate in this book. They’re not shiny and new characters – we already know what they become and what Jill does in order to return to the life she had.  Rather than a deeper dive into the complexities of their personalities and relationship, we get a very flat and uninteresting view of them. They just didn’t come to life in the same way as the first book -- it was almost as though someone else wrote them.  In fact, if the first book simply didn’t exist and Down Among the Sticks and Bones was our introduction to these characters, it would have been so much better. Not perfect, but better.

While the plot did eventually pick up a little and become slightly more compelling, I just felt like it was too little too late.  And most bothersome, this book suffers from one of the most harmful tropes concerning LGBTQ+ characters, which is shocking considering how inclusive and lovely Every Heart a Doorway was.  Simply put, the magic from Every Heart a Doorway was gone in Down Among the Sticks and Bones. I cannot tell you how disappointed I am, and I feel like I am taking this very personally.  I am going to continue the series, as they are companion novels rather than direct sequels (or prequels, as is the case with this one).  However I am much less optimistic about McGuire’s writing and characterisation.  Was Every Heart a Doorway a fluke?  We'll soon find out.

Originally posted to I Should Read That

This review does not contain spoilers for Beneath the Sugar Sky, but it does contain major spoilers for Every Heart a Doorway.  If you are planning on reading the first book, check out my review here instead.



The Wayward Children series has been quite a rollercoaster ride for me.  I absolutely adored Every Heart a Doorway and despised Down Among the Sticks and Bones.  I wasn’t entirely sure how to feel when I picked up Beneath the Sugar Sky, the third book in the series.  Would I be delighted? Disappointed? Underwhelmed? The first two books felt like they were written by two different people -- would I get the writing style I loved so much in Every Heart a Doorway back again?

I’m so pleased to say that I enjoyed Beneath the Sugar Sky -- it definitely redeemed the series for me.  There was so much in this book that was lacking in the second one -- we returned to the lush fantasy worlds beyond the doorways, revisited Eleanor West’s school, saw old favourites, and met marvelous new characters.  This is what I wanted from Down Among the Sticks and Bones, and this is ultimately the reason I will continue with the series.

Beneath the Sugar Sky corrects one of the greatest tragedies of Every Heart a Doorway -- the murder of Sumi.  Sumi was one of the best and most vivid students in Eleanor West’s school and it was so heartbreaking to see her killed off early in the book.  While Sumi doesn’t play a huge role herself in this book -- she is dead, after all -- the attempts of her friends and Rini to bring her back were absolutely lovely and heartwarming with the dash of horror that McGuire nailed so well in Doorway. The gang get to wander through worlds that were only hinted at in the first book, which was one of my favourite parts of Beneath the Sugar Sky.  Most notably, they go to Sumi and Rini’s Nonsense world. This was one of the places I was most curious about, and it ended up reminding me so much of Orléans in The Belles. On the surface it sounds fanciful, ridiculous, and silly, but there’s an undercurrent of rot and horror that the reader soon uncovers. I really liked the way McGuire utilized this world and its citizens to create tension within the story, something that felt lacking in Sticks and Bones (I’ll stop harping on how much I disliked this book soon).

The best thing about these books is the characters.  I loved revisiting old favourites like Christopher and Kade, but also meeting new characters like Cora.  Christopher was the standout for me -- he’s in the first book, but plays such a small role that we don’t really get to know him at all.  His growth is so strong in Beneath the Sugar Sky and I cannot wait for him to get his own novella. I know she’s not the most popular, but I really enjoyed reading Cora’s point of view.  She dwelt on her body image a little more than necessary in my opinion, but I loved how strong, physically and emotionally, she was. She’s such a great addition to the series and I absolutely loved the descriptions of the Trenches, the world that she lived in.  Of all the worlds described in these books, it’s the only one I’d love to go to myself.

The only character that I wasn’t a huge fan of was Rini.  She’s sort of like a budget version of Sumi, who is just astonishing wonderful.  It makes sense that they would be really similar, however I just didn’t think she really lived up to her mother.  The way that she acted made her come across as much younger than she actually was -- I would have assumed she was 11 or 12.  It’s a shame that she was the weakest -- I think she really could have benefitted from having more of a separate personality from her mother.

Overall I really enjoyed this book.  It was so engaging and inventive -- it felt like McGuire got back on the right path for the series.  My faith in the series is now restored, and I cannot wait for the next book.

Originally posted to I Should Read That


I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.  This review is spoiler-free.



Uprooted is a book that I absolutely love and am very thankful for.  It’s the book that broke the worst reading slump of my life, which had been carrying on for months. I love it so much, despite its (romance) problems, and I constantly recommend it.  You can probably imagine my excitement when I heard about her next novel, Spinning Silver.  After months of pining, my copy arrived in the post and I was so thrilled to get reading.

Spinning Silver is loosely based on Rumpelstiltskin, which is something you don’t see very often as it’s not the sexiest of fairy tales.  However, that made the book feel like such a fresh and unique retelling at a time in which retellings are incredibly common. It is a novel-length fairy tale much like Uprooted, however it is a much more complex story.  There are six point of view characters, something that really could have failed but ended up working out very well. I loved the way the different threads of the story came together to form a bigger picture -- I really enjoyed getting so many different sides to the same situation.  Although the pacing is a little slow at times, I thought she did a particularly good job with such a complicated structure.  It's quite a long novel, however I didn't really think anything could be trimmed out.

This is such a character driven book, which is no surprise with six POV characters.  The unsurprising standout for me was Miryem, who is the main character of the book. While Agnieszka in Uprooted felt like a very generic fantasy heroine, Miryem really stands out and is so memorable.  She’s a sharp and capable woman who is completely undervalued by everyone she meets.  From her loving family to the townsfolk, no one quite views Miryem with the respect and understanding she deserves.  To complicate matters, she lives in a time and place in which Jewish people are shunned, and the undertones of anti-Semitism run through the book.  She’s often described as cold and calculating by her parents and the townsfolk who are her clients.  I’m actually not sure if Novik means for us to believe Miryem is actually a cold and harsh woman. To me, she just felt like a modern woman born in the wrong time -- there's so much to admire about her.  She’s easily one of my new favourite characters in fantasy.

Irina and Wanda were other favourite POV characters in this book.  They both possess a similar inner strength to Miryem and stand out as well-written and interesting characters.  The women in Spinning Silver are all fantastic -- they embody the quieter side of the ‘strong female character’ trope and were just so well written.  Similar to Uprooted, I thought the male characters, such as the Staryk king and the Tsar, were considerably weaker than their female counterparts -- it felt like Novik just didn’t have the same interest in writing and developing them as she did in the women.  In fact, I thought that the weakest of the point of view characters was Stepon, Wanda’s youngest brother. It’s hard to be a standout POV character when you’re an eight-year-old boy and the others are adult women though, so I give him a little bit of a pass.  However I found myself reading through his sections quickly to get back to our heroines.  When readers think back on this book, the women will be the ones they remember and the men will fade into the background.

Spinning Silver is a brilliant, wintery fairy tale that is a perfect escape.  As much as I love Uprooted, I do think that Spinning Silver is the better book -- it is complex and compelling and has so many wonderful characters.  I’d highly recommend this to Novik's established fans, as well as readers who loved Katherine Arden’s Winternight trilogy.  If you liked the Russian folklore vibes and strong, interesting heroine from The Bear and the Nightingale and The Girl in the Tower, you’ll probably love this book too.

Originally posted to I Should Read That


I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.  This is a spoiler-free review.


Virginia Woolf is an author I’d really wanted to read more of, having only every picked up Mrs Dalloway.  Wanting to read more of her books, I snapped up the chance to read Orlando. Written in 1928, Orlando has been celebrated as an important landmark LGBTQ+ novels.

What sets this particular edition of Orlando apart is the fact that it has an introduction written by the actress Tilda Swinton, who played the title character in the 1993 film.  While it was interesting to get her perspective on the book, I didn't think this introduction added much to my reading experience. It was great to read about the impact on Swinton, however I tend to prefer more scholarly introductions.

Reading Orlando as a modern reader was a particularly interesting experience.  I have read numerous classics -- I, like so many of us, was a literature major at university -- but my tastes tend to run toward more modern genre fiction these days.  The thing that struck me most was that the plot in Orlando really isn’t important to the overall book. In fact, it feels a bit like Woolf is rushing us along to get to the good bits -- the study of gender and gender roles with Orlando as our test subject.  This wasn’t a bad thing, particularly because it is an incredibly character driven novel, but it did stick out to me. After Orlando’s transformation into a woman, I was fascinated to know how her peers who knew her as a man would react, but they didn’t really react at all.  This, and other examples like this, really messed with my expectations of the book. I think that this is a learning experience -- it’s time for me to pick up more classics and challenge my expectations.

I really loved Orlando as a character and how their experience allowed Woolf to explore gender historically across British society.  Orlando is very aware of their transformation and the social changes across the centuries. Their pondering and musings, particularly after shifting into another century, on gender roles in society was what really captured my interest in the book.  I found this to be a really interesting approach and I appreciate how unique it feels as a reader.

Overall, I liked Orlando, but I think I prefer Mrs Dalloway.  This is a cool edition of the book, however I don’t think it adds a huge amount to the reader’s experience.  If you’re looking for a book that’s a little bit off-beat, a LGBTQ+ classic, or want to read more work by Virginia Woolf, I’d recommend giving Orlando a shot.

Originally posted to I Should Read That


This is a spoiler-free review.


I have been hearing great things about Roshani Chokshi’s writing for years -- she’s the author of the Star Touched Queen novels and tends to incorporate a great deal of Indian mythology and folklore into her books.  I’ve been really interested in reading some books that feature Indian mythology, so when the Indian Literature Readathon was announced for July I knew this book was an obvious choice. I don’t typically read a lot of middle grade fiction, however Aru Shah and the End of Time was a fantastically funny and heartfelt read for all ages.

This is one of those rare books that I genuinely think anyone can read and love.  While it falls into the middle grade age range, both adults and children will find so much delight within these pages.  The book is so incredibly funny, insightful, and well-written.  It weaves together many different types of Indian mythology and it left me wanting more.  This book was such a wonderful and accessible gateway to Indian culture.

Aru is a character I think a lot of us can relate to.  She doesn’t quite fit in, she’s being raised by a single parent who isn’t always around, and she stands out among her classmates because of her heritage.  Aru’s adventures are the result of the lies she tells to impress her classmates, however she takes responsibility for her actions and seizes her responsibilities as a Pandava.  She’s smart, funny, a little headstrong, and sometimes exasperating, but she’s so confident in herself and her ability to pull through in each situation, despite not having the same knowledge as her companions.  It was so refreshing to see a girl, especially a young girl, possess the confidence to stand up against such trials.

As much as I loved Aru, Mini really stole the show -- she’s one of my new favourite characters.  Mini is another Pandava and teams up with Aru, despite the fact that she doesn’t really know what she’s doing either.  Mini is an absolute delight and completely adorably hilarious. She’s a hypochondriac, nervous about everything, is convinced that even the most mundane things will kill her, and is just so delightful.  She’s so sweet and funny and so brave. I really loved her back story and the way she reacts to each situation they stumble upon. The two of them make a great team and have a sweet friendship, which is always incredibly refreshing.

Aru Shah and the End of Time is a marvelous little book that is full of heart.  Not only can it teach readers all about Indian mythology and culture, it shows its young reader that even the most impossible hurdles can be overcome with bravery and a little help from your friends.  If you’re looking for a sweet, laugh-out-loud funny read, look no further.