Brief Synopsis
“Tree of Wishes” is the third book in the Aru Shah series by Roshani Chokshi, and sees Aru Shah and her Pandava sisters set off to rescue two girls, one of whom is about to utter a prophecy that could mean the difference between victory and defeat in the coming war. And her father, the Sleeper, is hunting these two girls, too…
Content Warnings: Violence (PG)
What Do I Think?
I did not think that the Aru Shah series could actually get any better. The first two books delighted me to no end, and Roshani Chokshi did an excellent job of blending Indian mythology with snarky humor, quirky antics, and plenty of action. After finishing “Song of Death” I thought that surely the series would go downhill from here. Surely there would be a flop somewhere, and where else than in the middle of this series?
Boy was I wrong.
“Tree of Wishes” starts of incredibly strong, with the Pandavas (and Pandava-adjacent) on a mission to recover two targets. We reintroduced to our primary characters – their personalities and their powers – succinctly and in a way that manages to avoid the dreaded ‘sequel recap’ some books in a series suffer. From there, the story refuses to slow down, hopping from one beat to another at rapid-fire pace. Okay, it does take time to slow down when it needs to, but it isn’t often, and the quieter moments often serve as moments of reflection for Aru and Company.
Speaking of slower moments…”Tree of Wishes” makes me want to go back and rate “Song of Death” lower, because this is the novel that feels like a true proper sequel to “End of Time.” This book sees Aru grappling with the knowledge that her father is the Sleeper, the primary antagonist of the novels and one who is fated to destroy the world, in a way that the previous iteration simply didn’t. Here Aru gets to see that while her father is a terrible shadow-monster now, he wasn’t always, and has to reconcile the fact that he fought very hard to try and avoid the prophecy of his turn to evil. There is a level of emotion in this novel that was not achieved in “Song of Death,” and it elevates “Tree of Wishes” to a level high above its predecessor.
In short: I cannot wait to jump right into “City of Gold.” I don’t know how Chokshi could possibly top this book, but I am certainly excited to find out!
Jacob Ryckman 