He’s mocked for his name and nerdy interests at Chapel Hill High School in Portland, Oregon, and doesn’t speak enough Farsi to communicate with his Iranian relatives either. Iranian on his mother’s side and white American on his father’s side, Darius never quite fits in. When Darius’ grandfather becomes terminally ill, Darius, along with his parents and younger sister, travels to Iran for the first time in his life. Most characters are black Rudjek is biracial (his light-skinned mother and a handful of other characters hail from the north).Īn imperfect but promising series opener.ĭarius Kellner suffers from depression, bullying by high school jocks, and a father who seems to always be disappointed in him. Though the pace is sometimes slow and the page count perhaps higher than needed, Arrah’s a compelling heroine, relatable in her fallibility, and her story is intriguing.
Arrah, aided by her friends (including love interest Rudjek), must mine hitherto unknown depths in herself in order to stop the ascension of the Demon King, who supposedly was vanquished by the orishas long ago. In Arrah’s West African–based world, there are orishas as well as other gods and demons, and orishas are able to converse directly with humans. The magic needed to accomplish such a task has a high cost, and her discovery of the culprit proves to be a devastating revelation.
Heartbroken, Arrah throws herself into discovering who’s behind the recent child abductions in her kingdom. Though she comes from powerful magical lineages on both her parents’ sides, when she turns 16 without developing any gifts, she must finally admit she won’t be blessed with magic. Privileged Arrah has never wanted for anything-except magic.
A teenage girl ashamed of her lack of magic must step up when she discovers evil at work in her kingdom.
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