Aru Shah and the End of Time (2018)

*Premise spoilers.*

I was late to read the Percy Jackson series—it came out during my college/early adult years, and I wasn’t really interested in reading much middle grade stuff then (other than the final two Series of Unfortunate Events books, of course!) I finally circled back around to it in more recent years, and while I found the books enjoyable, the best part for me was discovering that author Rick Riordan created his own imprint to highlight middle-grade fantasies written by other authors, all dealing with different kinds of mythology. This quintet by Roshani Chokshi, the first in Riordan’s imprint, kicked off splendidly with The End of Time.

12-year-old Aru doesn’t fit in well at school, where most of her classmates have chauffeurs and take lavish vacations while Aru lives above the Indian art/culture museum that her mother curates. When an uncomfortable encounter with some snooty classmates at the museum leaves Aru scrambling to save face, she inadvertently releases a demon known as the Sleeper from his captivity. However, this also leads to a remarkable discovery: Aru is the reincarnation of one of the five legendary Pandava brothers, and it’s up to her and one of her fellow reincarnated siblings to stop the Sleeper and save the world.

The archetypal similarities with Percy Jackson in the set-up are a little obvious—misunderstood kid who has a hard time at school, raised by a single mom, suddenly learn that they’re actually the child of a god and need to go on a heroic quest—but the Pandava series quickly establishes its own footing. (By the way, given the whole reincarnation aspect, Aru isn’t the biological child of Indra, the god of the sky. The book distinguishes between “home dads” and “soul dads.”) I really enjoy Aru as a protagonist, a quick-thinking girl who prefers to think of her propensity for lying as an active imagination. Although she’s thrown into the deep end on this quest to stop the Sleeper (and feeling majorly guilty that she was the one who let him out in the first place!), she rolls with the punches and learns on the fly, which includes learning to work together with her newly discovered soul sister, Mini.

Most kids’ adventure series need a “big brain” character, and that’s Mini. She’s channeled her anxiety and many phobias into learning about everything she fears, so she has an encyclopedic knowledge on a wide variety of subjects, along with a good memory for the stories from Hindu mythology that help her and Aru navigate the magical Otherworld. So, while Aru brings a nimble imagination, bravery, and a strong dose of protagonist recklessness to the table, Mini has the book smarts to guide them.

I really appreciate the nuance that goes into the central fight against the Sleeper. Once everything gets rolling, Aru and Mini are swept up, suddenly meeting the otherworldly Council of Guardians and getting claimed by their Hindu god fathers, so it’s natural to assume that they’re fighting on the side of good. But as they get deeper into their quest and start to learn more about the Sleeper, things get less black and white and Aru gets less sure that she’s doing the right thing. It’s a book that defies easy answers, which I think takes this fun/interesting adventure and turns it into something deeper.

Warnings

Scary moments for kids, violence, some “don’t try this at home,” and thematic elements.