Summary:
Twelve-year-old Aru Shah has a tendency to stretch the truth in order to fit in at school. While her classmates are jetting off to family vacations in exotic locales, she'll be spending her autumn break at home, in the Museum of Ancient Indian Art and Culture, waiting for her mom to return from her latest archeological trip. Is it any wonder that Aru makes up stories about being royalty, traveling to Paris, and having a chauffeur?
One day, three schoolmates show up at Aru's doorstep to catch her in a lie. They don't believe her claim that the museum's Lamp of Bharata is cursed, and they dare Aru to prove it. Just a quick light, Aru thinks. Then she can get herself out of this mess and never ever fib again.
But lighting the lamp has dire consequences. She unwittingly frees the Sleeper, an ancient demon whose duty it is to awaken the God of Destruction. Her classmates and beloved mother are frozen in time, and it's up to Aru to save them.
The only way to stop the demon is to find the reincarnations of the five legendary Pandava brothers, protagonists of the Hindu epic poem, the Mahabharata, and journey through the Kingdom of Death. But how is one girl in Spider-Man pajamas supposed to do all that?
My Rating:
“People are a lot like magical pockets. They're a lot bigger on the inside than they appear to be on the outside.” I loved this book!! I expected to like it, but I didn't expect to enjoy it this much. Firstly, I need to say it's so amazing how this series has Hindu mythology!! It has so many stories, and is truly epic, and yet so underrepresented in ya and middle-grade fantasy, so I was really excited about this book when I found out about it. Plot: “The world had a tendency to trick people.” Aru's day started off perfectly normal, but once she awakens the Sleeper, she sets off on a quest with her spiritual sister Mini and her new pigeon friend, Boo, to stop the end of time. The plot was engaging and it kept me hooked the entire time. It was pretty fast-paced, and each chapter brought new interesting characters and places, that Aru, Mini, and Boo encountered. Characters: Aru: I loved Aru! She's so funny and relatable and has a unique personality that really stood out to me. And also she's not perfect!! She had a habit of lying at the start of the book, and seeing why she did it, gave her character so much more depth. By the end of the book, however, she stops lying as much and comes to the realization that she's good at lying because she has a great imagination, and maybe she should use it more. Also, as a random note, the scene where she "cursed" that girl with food after the tissue incident was EPIC!! lol, this probably sounds weird to you if you haven't read it, but if you have then you know what I'm talking about :) Mini: I liked Mini's character from the moment she was introduced! She's fearful of so many things and even had a list of "Top Ten Ways I Don't Want to Die", but she's also really smart! Boo: Boo is such a fun character! He's sassy but also really supportive of Aru and Mini! Something that confuses me/Cover Note:
The cover is really nice, but in the book didn't it say that Aru had chin-length hair? Then how come on the cover, she has a long braid? I might have read it wrong, but that's what I thought.
I went back and found a quote:
"The headband was nice and all, but Aru wouldn't be caught dead wearing one. Headbands made her chin-length hair fan out weirdly around her face so she ended up looking like a frilled-neck lizard."
Other than the cover though, I didn't have any problem with the book, and I really enjoyed it!
This was such a fun read, and I'm really looking forward to the next books in the series!
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