I am loving the Rick Riordan Presents books so far. They all focus on the mythologies of different cultures, and Race to the Sun is about Navajo Holy People.
Nizhoni is a young Navajo girl who has started to see monsters. At first, she thinks she might just have to live with the frightening sights, but things get more complicated when her dad’s new boss is a monster. Now Nizhoni, her brother, and her best friend have to skip school to go on a journey to save her dad from this monster.
I loved Nizhoni’s relationship with her brother Mac. I grew up with series like the 39 clues, where the brother and sister would argue over petty stuff the entire way through. It isn’t a bad thing for siblings to argue, but it does get annoying after a while. Nizhoni and Mac may have small disagreements, but they have massive love and respect for one another. They don’t jeopardize each other in important situations with petty arguments, and they uplift one another when they happen to be struggling.
Davery, Nizhoni’s best friend, introduces an important plotline about the struggles of being mixed-race in a very culture-centric society. He is half-black and half-Navajo, which shouldn’t be a problem. But because he goes to a Navajo school, he is known as the kid who will never fit in. People are always cruelly teasing him, asking if he is “really” Navajo. Being a mixed or generally “different” kid of color can be rough, and I’m glad ti was addressed. Nizhoni was an amazing friend to him, and I wish that there was a sequel to this novel so I could see them again!
All of the action scenes in this book were so addictive to read and kept me on the edge of my seat. I also won’t spoil any of the Holy People that we meet on this, but I loved every single one of them. I read this book almost in one sitting, I just couldn’t put it down.
The only issue I had with this book happens close to the end when Nizhoni meets someone. If you’ve read the book, you know who I’m talking about. To me, it just made no sense why she was able to meet that person and the other people she met at that time. It was nice to see, but I felt like the book could have been just as good without that part. It just seemed rather random, and left me feeling like “what now” at the end. It also made it seem like the character she met was weak, which wasn’t what I thought the author was going for. This didn’t ruin my experience with this book though, and I still enjoyed the overall story!
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a new fantasy MG novel.
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 books.
