Get ready to dive deeper into Hmong mythology and hang on for a wild ride of adventure in Pahua and the Dragon’s Secret.
Pahua Moua is ready for the next stage of training to be a shaman warrior, and now, she has a chance to grow in her abilities by enrolling at the School for Shamanic Arts and Spiritual Mastery. Taking a tour of her new school with her mother and brother Matt, the family is shocked upon their arrival. It looks like an abandoned rundown building, and certainly not a prestigious school. Once Pahua is allowed past the reception area, she sees that there is more than meets the eye.
Leaving her family behind, Pahua tours the school and sees that it is a state-of-the-art school that has an outward disguise of neglect which is meant to not draw attention. As she takes a tour of the school, Pahua meets up with her friend Zhong, and her cat spirit Miv joins her on the campus frolic. Not sure what to do about leaving her family, Pahua has her choice made, when a spirit attacks her family at their aunt’s house later that night. Forced to embark on a quest, Pahua is placed in danger immediately and must learn to trust her friend Zhong and continue to have faith in Miv, as they journey through the spirit world. The fact that Miv is the spirit of Xov’s son, the God of Wrath, whom Shee Yee imprisoned long ago, seems to be a help rather than a hindrance to Pahua.
To gain entry to the school, Pahua must complete a quest, and the one that needs to be completed is the mending of the bars on Xov’s prison cell. The only problem is that as Pahua and her friend’s journey to the spirit realm, no one really knows where Xov’s prison is, and to be able to fix what is decaying, the group will need dragon scales that Pahua will have to transform to help bind the bars of the cell. Pahua has no idea how to do this either.
Teenagers will do anything, and Pahua Moua is on the cusp of teenage hood and wants to prove that she belongs in the school. From the school to the mountains inhabited by dragons, Pahua won’t stop until she feels like she has proven her worth. The only problem for Pahua is, can she maintain her confidence to succeed? Will she be able to trust Zhong and her new friend Yulong who just happens to be a dragon.
Lori M. Lee has followed up her debut novel with the Rick Riordan Presents imprint with a masterful sequel that is not only filled with rich and detailed character development but has an artist’s skill in painting the scenes for the reader.
In Pahua and the Dragon’s Secret, we get a more seasoned lead character in Pahua than when we first met her. Not much time has passed between the two books, but a lifetime of growing up for Pahua and her abilities has allowed the readers to meet a girl who isn’t a scared little child, but a confident and capable kid, who could possibly do great things.
This Pahua is someone that has learned to embrace what she has feared, to run to trouble, rather than to run away, and her friendship with Zhong and Miv has given her this stability and foundation for her character growth. I liked Pahua from the moment I started this book, and as the tale dove deeper into the spirit realm and the quest to fix Xov’s prison cell, it would be impossible not to cheer her on.
Introducing a character and a mythology to a reader can be difficult but Lori M. Lee has not only made Hmong mythology and characters accessible, her detailed and descriptive writing about the gods, the worlds, and the stories that have been passed down to generations of people, is exciting, and new.
With descriptions like “Incense smoke swirled around the three small idols,” to “Rou, whose golden comb seemed to glow with self-importance,” Lee has not only set the stage for an exciting adventure with her detailed and incredibly enjoyable character development, but she grabs hold of the reader with sensory filled narrative that jumps off the page.
While the adventure tale is crisp in precision with sentences and filled with detailed moments of sense and wonder that the readers will envelop as they turn the page, Lee also brings out an excellent point about memory.
Mythology stories, whether they are from a thousand years ago, or about someone who is very close to you, always have a way of exaggerating the facts. Pahua forces her friends, and readers, to question how we memorialize people. Shouldn’t a person, hero or villain, whether they are real or a legendary figure, be remembered for who they really were, and not as others have imagined them to be?
This is a deep seeded question of the power of memory, and how the truth of people is often forgotten because legend takes hold and supersedes the truth. Pahua is dealing with ancient gods and warriors from thousands of years ago, but this thought injected by Lee through Pahua, makes this writer reflect on how we view the sentimentality that gets applied to legendary fables, and the actions of our loved ones.
Pahua and the Dragon’s Secret is a fun filled, joyful ride through Hmong mythology with a main character that is not only a delight to follow but would hold her own with another legendary character in a Greek Mythology series from Rick Riordan. Excitement and the thrill of adventure is on every page.
Beneath the joy of the book, Lee has also equipped her main character and book with a philosophical approach of how we view heroes of the past, and whether we should only celebrate what was great, or if people should remember the person for who they were. Pahua Moua will remind all readers that to succeed you must be willing to do some scary things, and sometimes you must battle the biggest demon of all to accomplish what you want, the internal doubt of not believing in yourself.
Pahua and the Dragon’s Secret is a book that exceeds its predecessor in every way and lays the foundation for a third novel that is highly anticipated by this reader.