This story was completely original to me. I’ve read many stories and I expected another children cliche, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was funny, the authors used a lot of metaphors and had a creative yet easy way for all-ages to imagine a particular scene or place, i appreciate that a lot in any type of writing. It was kind of face paced, however, there was air of thriller to it. Keeps you on your toes. On top of that, Orabella has dyslexia, normalizing having reading and writing difficulties is important because many kids feel like they’re not good enough at their certain age compared to others even though they try their best.

There were a lot of cultural references which made me happy to see; some of my favorites are using Oma/Opa instead of just mom/dad, and the little input about the African Baobab tree:

“In Africa, each tree can grow as high as thirty meters, and its trunk can grow to fifty meters in diameter. Baobab trees can provide shelter, food, and water for animals and humans, which is why many savannah communities have made their homes near them.” - excerpt from the book.

i liked this one especially because it made me google the tree, which made this very book an interactive read. I very much enjoy this kind of retelling that urges kids and all-ages to discover and understand what they read.

The only thing that set me off aside from the fast paced plot was the dialogues, the characters responses were a bit staggered and didn’t feel like a connected conversation, but maybe that’s just because “!” Was used a lot at the end of every sentence, so I imagined the characters yelling/ excited/ alarmed most of the time.

Free copy from Netgalley for review ~ A quick read but I still struggled with wanting to pick it up and finish it. On paper this sounds like something I would enjoy but I found it annoying in the end. Part of my problem was the writing style and all the myriad of *lengthy* explanation passages that interrupted the story. I just couldn’t care about all the gods and goddesses and oodles of special powers. I also couldn’t figure out how people could just ignore the fact that the kid’s parents had been vanished for twelve whole days and do nothing. Even Orabella seems to forget after about the middle of the book,

The main character is also A Chosen One and super unique in every way. I wish there had been more time traveling, and adventuring to save her parents, because that’s what I was promised—but she only goes back in time once.. >.<. I did like her family though.

Overall, average to underwhelming for me. Probably a young reader who loves myths will enjoy it much more.