Aru Shah and the End of Time

Rating: 3 /5 Stars

Roshani Chokshi and Rick Riordan deliver an entertaining tale of gods, heroines, and other wonderful elements inspired by Hindu mythology and the ancient tales. I don't know much about the fascinating and vibrant array of Hindu tales and I found a lot of beauty and entertainment in this story. That being said, I honestly think Chokshi's tale was held back by Riordan's formula. I am interested in seeing where the story goes in future books, however, I felt like Riordan's comical tone just didn't mesh well in parts with the story. I wanted to know more about the tales, since I am not familiar with them. I enjoyed the latter half of the book. The beginning felt like it was still trying to figure itself out and there wasn't much substance to get me, the reader, to care about the characters. Aru tries to save the group of kids that essentially are bullying her. Why would I care about that? Why would I care if Aru saves them or not? There is mention of her mom being there too, but it was too fast and I don't care about those people enough to care whether or not Aru saves them.

I want the Percy Jackson-spin off books and series, I really do, but I want them to develop their own voices and their own styles. I could match plot points from this book to that of Percy Jackson and the snarky humor is all the same. I ended up being fine with it at the end and I hope that the future books find their own voice and style, but that is mainly why I rated this 3 stars