Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on February 28, 2023 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.
Momo Arashima Steals the Sword of the Wind is the first in a new middle grade modern fantasy series inspired by Japanese mythology. The book is not part of the Rick Riordan Presents imprint but very much feels like a book from that line - a middle grade fantasy that feels like Percy Jackson except featuring a different type of mythology at its core (in this case, Japanese). And well it's an obviously reliable formula and I've liked a lot of the RR Presents books, so I was definitely intrigued by this book's cover and description when it showed up on NetGalley. And well I've definitely enjoyed a bunch of YA and other books based upon Japanese Mythology, so while it's not my culture, I was very hopeful.
And Momo Arashima largely delivers a very fun middle grade story that deals with some real serious issues even as it has its protagonist Momo going through a very entertaining adventure through its take on Japanese mythology. The story follows a bunch of standard tropes for a book like this - a protagonist with a half mythological heritage she knows nothing about, an adventure that keeps running her into various creatures and beings from that mythology that represent new allies, foes or other challenges, etc. - but these tropes are done well and there's enough kind of originalish here to stand out. Most notably, the story deals with Momo not just being an outcast from her middle grade compatriots, but also her being forced on an adventure with a boy who is seemingly one of those callous jocks even as he was once her friend, an Asian boy adopted by White parents who has seemingly joined the group ostracizing Momo even as he doesn't seem to realize that's what he's doing. And so we have ideas here about rage, about conformity and white privilege, and more alongside the usual middle school protagonist tropes, and it works pretty well...even as it leaves a lot open for future sequels (a second book will be released soon this year).
Plot Summary:
Momo Arashima's 12th Birthday is starting poorly. She's already the outcast among outcasts at her middle school, with a fellow classmate ranking her dead last in popularity in a list that was spread throughout the school...which has only led even the other outcasts to shun her for the sake of their own popularity. But her mom seems utterly ill when she wakes up and to have forgotten her birthday entirely...and when she remember it's only to give her a strange piece of skin for "protection." Meanwhile, she's seeing things: like a fox in human clothing that no one else sees...and that gets her mocked mercilessly when she mentions it near the popular crowd. Thankfully that awfulness seems to be getting better when she's gifted by a myterious sender a bunch of gift cards to use at the mall.
Unfortunately, even that goes wrong as Momo finds herself attacked by a Shikome - a Death Hag - that no one else can see...other than Danny, the boy who used to be her friend before becoming one of the popular jocks in school. Soon Momo finds herself rescued, along with Danny, by the fox she saw - named Niko - who tells her the truth: Momo's mother is a kami of the Island of Mysteries who is dying as the Island is invaded by oni through a portal to the underworld, Yomi. And the only one who can save Momo's mother is...Momo herself, as she is the only one who can both set forth on the island to defeat the Oni who also won't be bound to stay there forever.
But Momo isn't some brave hero - she's a girl who's secretly afraid of all too much and keeps her own anger hidden deep inside, lest she do something bad if she let it out. And her companions aren't much help either - Danny doesn't seem to understand how he and his friends have hurt her in Middle School and Niko the fox just seems to know things but not to have any magical power to do much about them. Will Momo really be able to survive an adventure among the beings from Japanese myth that she's always been told about all her life - among oni, kami, gods and more - and save her mother? Or is she doomed to failure, and the rest of the human world doomed with her?
Momo Arashima plays in out in many ways like a pretty classic tale of myth-driven adventure YA/Middle-Grade fantasy - our heroine is a normal kid in Momo who discovers a hidden part-mythological heritage (her mom is a Kami, or a Japanese spirit) and is forced on an adventure which takes her through various aspects of a culture's (Japanese here) mythology. And so the book takes us from adventures involving death hags to ones involving tengu to quests for famous legendary swords to dealings with an angry underground god, to battles with Oni, etc. etc. As the author makes clear in the author's note at the end of the book, there are many stories involving these myths and many different versions, so this story's version of all these myths and beings is in some ways a combination of various versions and in other ways her own spins on them. And they're some really fun wild spins at times, which gives this book a lot of life and originality, especially for example with her take on the god Susanō and how she explains all the myths in the glossary.
But that fun is tempered well by some serious issues, especially middle-grade/YA issues but not exclusively, faced by the book's characters. Momo is, unlike a lot of myth adventure characters, not someone who craves adventure and certainly not someone who thinks of herself as brave - all she wants is to be normal and to be not an outcast, ranked dead last in popularity in her middle school class and made fun of by every popular girl. So the adventure she's forced on is especially rough as she keeps being forced to be the hero, even when she's on the verge of a panic attack at nearly every second. Making it worse are two separate issues: first, she's accompanied by Danny, the asian boy adopted by White parents, who used to be her friend as a young kid (and who was told the same myths by her mother) but who has since grown into a jock who hangs with the popular crowd who helped ostracize Momo at school. Momo thus has to deal with working with someone who should've been her friend but instead turned into something worse - and to make it even harder, he doesn't even seem to realize that he's done that or that, after the adventure is over, that he might go back on doing that and hurting her emotionally. Secondly, Momo finds power within herself in a rage at all the suffering she's gone through, and she is incredibly afraid of that rage and what she might do if she gives in and who else she might wind up hurting.
The book has no easy answers for Momo's struggles, at least not in this installment (this is the first of a trilogy), but it uses them to tell a strong story with some serious themes that will resonate for many of its young reader-base. It even uses them to discuss the issue of conformity and how people of color often try to code switch and pretend to be white to try to avoid being ostracized...something that turns out to be the case for Danny. The book isn't perfect - some plot twists are pretty predictable for example and will be well telegraphed even for a younger audience - but its themes are excellently done, its characters relatable to both its audience and adults, and it never tries to take an easy way out just to resolve things nicely.
It all ends up being a pretty enjoyable middle grade book package, one I'd definitely recommend for a younger audience. The book resolves its plot arc well, so readers could stop here, but also has a sequel hook that will lead into its 2024 successor, and I may be back for that. Worth a pickup for younger readers or for adults looking for media for their teens.
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