"The Cursed Carnival and Other Calamities: New Stories About Mythic Heroes" by Rick Riordan, et al.

This solo book post features a middle-grade anthology from the Rick Riordan Presents imprint. It features nine stories from the imprint’s contributing authors with the tenth story contributed by Rick Riordan. Riordan also edited the anthology. As with my more recent solo anthology posts, I will give summaries of each of the short stories and wrap it all up with my concluding thoughts.

            Welcome to the Multiverse Mansion.

The Cursed Carnival and Other Calamities: New Stories About Mythic Heroes (Sept. 28, 2021) by Rick Riordan, et al.

   1. Calamity Juice by Carlos Hernandez.

            Rainbows smell like horse barf. Unicorns’ horns grow out of all parts of the body (leg, back, stomach, etc.). And Sal Vidón and Gabi Reál can travel amongst an infinite number of universes (or multiverses). This is a handy skill, as their universe’s Gladis is missing, but there’s also PrankGladis. They must retrieve both of them, but one’s on a unicorn, and how does one track a unicorn? Enter the gallant Norberto. But treat him with the proper respect. Or he will precision-barf you into an entirely other universe.

   2. Beware the Grove of True Love by Roshani Chokshi.

            Just because Urvashi, an apsara, teaches dance and poetry does not mean she will be understanding when the Pandava sisters fall asleep in her class. Nope. Sunday Errand Day for Aru, Mini and Brynne. Five tasks. Five Sundays. Easy peasy, right? Haha. Nice try. From getting attacked by Urvashi’s powerfully enchanted dry cleaning to almost drowning when picking up “special” vitamin water, the Pandavas feel beat up (and, in Brynne’s case, extremely hangry). The final task should be a simple pick-up, but they wind up in The Grove of True Love, and they have to fix something. They’re training to defeat the Sleeper. How does learning about love stories contribute to their training? “You’ve seen some of the world’s teeth, but you have not yet felt their bite on your soul” (p. 81).

   3. The Cave of Doom by J.C. Cervantes.

            Eyeless birds (creepy). A slimy, human-shaped being with white scales (creepier). Ixtab, goddess of the underworld (watch out). Zane and Brooks are sent to Isla Pájaros by Zane’s Uncle Hondo to look for the human-shaped thing that cries like a baby and is the reason that Maya Adventures received its first negative review. Too bad Bartholomew Butts III was right. But what is the being? Zane’s trusty dog-slash-hellhound, Rosie, accompanies Ixtab to the surface to try to get some answers, but her “so-called enough was no more than a lousy crumb!” So the eyeless birds know that Zane and Brooks are sobrenaturals (supernaturals or godborns, in this case), but that doesn’t help them know what the “species of being” are. Ixtab calls them monsters, but that is not exactly specific.

   4. The Initiation by Yoon Ha Lee.

            Attending a place called the Gray Institute sounds less-than-exciting until Kim Min (remember, with Korean names, the surname is first) is told that it’s a spy school. It’s technically her first assignment for the Thousand Worlds’ Domestic Security Ministry, and she’ll have to appear 16 years old instead of her actual 13. Good thing her gumiho (fox spirits) abilities allow her to shape-shift, but unfortunately, gumiho tend to get a bad reputation. Min not only has to keep her heritage a secret, but she can’t let on that she’s also accompanied by her brother, Kim Jun. That wouldn’t normally be a significant deal, except Jun is dead; he’s a ghost, and ghosts are typically viewed as bad luck since ghosts that linger tend to not be around for friendly reasons. (Jun is an exception. He wants to travel the Thousand Worlds.) She’ll gain teammates in Trainee Group Nine: Hansoo (human), Duri (they are of dragon heritage), Chinsun (goblin) and Haru (human). And she’s concerned that Commandant Paik seems power-hungry. But the training is only eight weeks. How much trouble can Min get into in that short span of time?

   5. The Gum Baby Files by Kwame Mbalia.

            Being a small (about a foot tall), living doll is tough. All Gum Baby wants is to “be the best adventurer this world has ever seen” and take her turn with the “shouty stick” (it’s Ayanna’s staff-turned-baseball-bat) but instead she’s mostly viewed as a nuisance who gets in everyone’s way and messily oozes sap (on Nyame’s, a West African god, throne, or in people’s hair -- she’s not particular where she saps or sap attacks). While at a museum, she gets left in the LOST AND (HOPEFULLY) FOUND, meets a magic woman called Granny Z and notices a “ghostie” trying to make people forget. Forget what?

   6. The Demon Drum by Rebecca Roanhorse.

            It’s the Ancestor Club’s first field trip, and they’re going to the All-Nations Assembly in Albuquerque. Hundreds of Indigenous people from all over North America and beyond will come to the event. It’s an intertribal celebration “with people from all Native Nations participating.” Nizhoni and her brother are of Navajo heritage, and that heritage has given them unique abilities to sense monsters. She’s not expecting any monsters on this trip with her best friend, Davery, and other club members Maya, Darcy, Kody and Toni. But when Nizhoni notices that so many things are off – from her frybread tasting rotten to arguments breaking out amongst assembly-goers to that awful drumbeat that keeps getting louder – she admits that the powwow is cursed. As in, there’s a monster about. Time to locate a demon drum.

   7. Bruto and the Freaky Flower by Tehlor Kay Mejia.

            There is something wrong with Bruto, but Paola Santiago cannot take him to the vet, because Bruto is a chupacabra puppy. Yes, chupacabras are monsters, and they have been fearsome enemies to Pao, but Bruto is like a puppy dog. Albeit a puppy dog that loves Starbursts, wrappers and all, and used to have tentacle-like spines. Pao is given a vague idea of what will perk Bruto up, and she needs it pronto or she fears that Bruto will die. Together with her friend, Dante Mata, the two head into the desert to find a flower that exudes the smell of raw meat. Not only do the two have to locate the flowers, but battle rock creatures and hopefully pulverize them before they’re the ones pulverized. Oh, and is that a pack of chupacabras running this way?

   8. The Loneliest Demon by Sarwat Chadda.

            What do you do when Rabisu, the demon of deformities, repeatedly calls you a “puny mortal” and threatens you with death on the daily? If you’re Sikander Aziz’s mother, you invite her into the family’s home/business, of course, because she’s lost and alone in a strange city. That’s true. Rabisu, being a demon, is of Kurnugi, the Mesopotamian netherworld. Despite her threats and bluster, all she really wants to do is return to her home. Sik probably has an object that will open the gate to make this possible, but it’s a mission abort before the doors can open. The Anunna are just on the other side, and it’d be very bad if they made it from whichever multiverse they should stay in to the one Sik and Rabisu are in. Which, by-the-way, is the same one you and I are in, as long as you also reside on the same Planet Earth that I do.

   9. My Night at the Gifted Carnival by Graci Kim.

            The one night a year spent at the Gifted Carnival should be the best, but for Riley Oh, it’s a reminder that she is a saram. That is, she’s non-gifted, whereas her sister, Hattie, will be formally initiated into the Gom (healing) clan, as she will turn 13 next summer. As “amazeballs” as the Carnival is, the promise of magic is just a reminder of what Riley will never be able to do. So she refuses to have fun. She doesn’t want to indulge in deep-fried choco pies that’ll make her fluent in “Elvish, Parseltongue, and Klingon for an entire hour.” She won’t eat a pinch of rainbow-colored cotton candy to see a Haetae horn manifest atop someone else’s head. She refuses to even enjoy the international troupe in the performance tent, except it totally sucks her in. So much, in fact, that she realizes Hattie didn’t return from the bathroom until after the show’s over. Hattie discovered something, and it’s a story of nightmares. Unfortunately, the Dalgyal Gwisin is real, and instead of being confined to one of the Spiritrealm’s hells, she’s somehow become tangible in the Mortalrealm. You can’t kill someone who’s already dead, so how do you banish such a someone?

   10. My Life as a Child Outlaw by Rick Riordan.

            Clan Morna warriors came to kill Demne (pronounced DEV-nah) when he was eight. He was forewarned by Bodbmall, one of his foster mothers, a druidess and a hunter, and further sent along running by Líath Lúachra, a fénnid like Bodbmall. He spends time amongst a group of skin-condition-riddled men. They are traveling craftsmen (or áes dána). He spends months with Fíacail the Reaver. For the record, reavers are not the same as outlaws (or fénnidí). Outlaws follow a code of honor such that even kings recognize their value, but reavers murder and pillage however they please. Demne’s foster mothers eventually find him with Fíacail, and surprisingly, the reaver doesn’t put up a fight when they take him back. Back with the women, he tries to make friends, but that goes alarmingly bad. He may even have been betrothed at one point at the age of 10, but no matter, because he’s already been running from Clan Morna again, trying to find work and someone to take him in for a spell. He tries not to share his name or his lineage. In the end, his name won’t matter. He will still face his worst heartbreak yet.

            Concluding Thoughts: I have read at least one book by eight of the ten featured authors. While I can say that having read the books that I have has been helpful in understanding backstory references and knowing who various characters are, the anthology is accessible without having read any of the full-length novels. (But you should if you haven’t, because all that I’ve read have been excellent.) While I have favorites amongst the short stories, I’m not going to rank them, as the collection in its entirety is captivating and satisfying. The multiverse contained within these stories is expansive, and I would love for there to someday be another anthology featuring these authors and these characters. I love mythology across all worlds, and the diversity of it all is stunning, as there is so much to learn. Reading these tales in one storybook is like taking a grand and gratifying world tour of adventure, magic, wonder, awe and heritage. For anyone who enjoys mythology (and magic, heart, humor, chaos and imaginative brilliance), this is a must-read no matter which universe you reside in!