Sometimes, I enjoy reading the novels from Rick Riordan Presents because it’s an easy way to explore/get an intro to mythology and folklore from other cultures, and it also allows me to support a brand I like (diversity and representation are good things). Other times, I am reminded how much I am not the target age range for these.
This is the second one in this specific series within the Rick Riordan Presents novel, and I’m not entirely sure why but I didn’t enjoy this one as much. Maybe it was just a matter of me picking it up at the wrong time, but I just wasn’t as invested in this one and thought some of the plot turns didn’t work quite as well.
The premise for this one is that Sik, while visiting the UK for the summer, comes into the possession an artifact, the Tablet of Destiny, that grants wishes to its owner, and he wishes for his dead brother back. And of course, there are so many consequences. Because the tablet doesn’t simply grant the wish but resets the world to create a world in which Mo didn’t die – which means a lot of things happened differently. I think one of the reasons I struggled with this one is that even though this seems like a reasonable wish for a grieving brother, Sik had seemingly done quite a bit to work on his grief in the previous novel, and coming to a certain degree of acceptance.
So … since I was struggling with the wish that sets everything into action, it was hard to get to into the novel even if there were a lot of other good parts.
