*I received a copy from TBR Beyond Book Tour via Little Brown Boks for Young Readers. All reviews are my own.*
First, let me thank TBR and Beyond book tours for allowing me on their original middle-grade tour, Amira & Hamza: The Quest for the Ring of Power. I didn't have the time to participate fully in the tour (reading and reviewing), so I'm grateful they let me spotlight the book for future readers. Fast forward eight months, but I finally picked up the first book in the series, Amira & Hamza: The War to Save the Worlds. It is a DNF for me.
"On the day of a rare super blue blood moon eclipse, twelve-year-old Amira and her little brother, Hamza, can’t stop their bickering while attending a special exhibit on medieval Islamic astronomy. While stargazer Amira is wowed by the amazing gadgets, a bored Hamza wanders off, stumbling across the mesmerizing and forbidden Box of the Moon. Amira can only watch in horror as Hamza grabs the defunct box and it springs to life, setting off a series of events that could shatter their world—literally.
Suddenly, day turns to night, everyone around Amira and Hamza falls under a sleep spell, and a chunk of the moon breaks off, hurtling toward them at lightning speed, as they come face-to-face with two otherworldly creatures: jinn.
The jinn reveal that the siblings have a role to play in an ancient prophecy. Together, they must journey to the mystical land of Qaf, battle a great evil, and end a civil war to prevent the moon—the stopper between realms—from breaking apart and unleashing terrifying jinn, devs, and ghuls onto earth. Or they might have to say goodbye to their parents and life as they know it, forever.…"
Wow. Straight like that, huh? Eh, I just don't want to drag out the review. A&HTWTSTW reads very young. Yes, I know it's middle grade. But if I was to scale how middle-grade the book is, it's on the level of still adolescent but hasn't grasped maturity yet. Kind of like looking at a 25-year-old and knowing they are never going to grow up mentally. They will forever be a grown-ass child.
Anywho, I think the constant squabbling and bickering from the siblings turned me off the most. I know kids always fight and argue, hell I have brothers and sisters, but these arguments seemed so trivial for ten and 12-year-olds. I forgot they were that age. I couldn't get past it.
Overall I have no rating. I DNFed at page 65, so it's not enough for me to really give a rating. It's just not for me.