The Serpent's Secret

Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond #1

By: Sayantani DasGupta

Narrated by: Sayantani DasGupta

A new middle-grade fantasy series packed with action and adventure, perfect for fans of Rick Riordan and Soman Chainani.

Meet Kiranmala: interdimensional demon slayer (only she doesn't know it yet).

On the morning of her 12th birthday, Kiranmala is just a regular sixth grader living in Parsippany, New Jersey . . . until her parents mysteriously vanish and a drooling rakkhosh demon slams through her kitchen, determined to eat her alive. Turns out there might be some truth to her parents' fantastical stories - like how Kiranmala is a real Indian princess and how she comes from a secret place not of this world.

To complicate matters, two crush-worthy princes ring her doorbell, insisting they've come to rescue her. Suddenly, Kiran is swept into another dimension full of magic, winged horses, moving maps, and annoying talking birds. There she must solve riddles and battle demons all while avoiding the Serpent King of the underworld and the Rakkhoshi Queen in order to find her parents and basically save New Jersey, her entire world, and everything beyond it....

©2018 Sayantani DasGupta (P)2018 Scholastic Inc.

a bit overwritten, but it could just be the reader

Could not stand the reader. Was bad enough I could barely listen to the book.

As brilliant as any star

Masterfully written, endlessly entertaining and wonderfully humorous. Every chapter’s end leaves me hungry for the next.

Lots of Potential

I like how Kiranmala develops. She's annoying sometimes, but no worse than any other twelve-year-old. Though I roll my eyes at a lot of the "not like other girls" mindset in the beginning, she drifted away from that as time went on.

The biggest point of contention for me is more of a minor note. The narration is sometimes way overplayed and takes me out. DasGupta is great at changing her voice, and each character feels distinct. If she pulled back just a little and didn't emphasize every few words, then it would be a solid performance.

I Definitely Recommend This Book

This book was soooo good! I personally LOVED it and thought that it was very interesting. There are a lot of twists and turns, and a lot of imagery! The characters were fabulous and I thought that they blended very well together. I definitely recommend this book

AMAZING JUST AMAZING

I recommend this book for anyone who listens to audio books and this book is AMAZING

Awful narration. Might read on kindle.

If I'd been reading this I might have liked it more. Narration kills my interest.

EPIC!

Awesome, best book ever ! You NEED to read this book! 😊 😀 😎 😉 😇😁

We enjoyed listening to this book

The principal recommended this book and the girls wanted to give it a try. We loved the story and look forward to trying the next book.

Fabulous, imaginative book!

My ten year old daughter and I loved this book and can’t wait to read more!

Wonderful, colorful story

I loved this story, but i did have some problems with narration. I appreciate having the author read the book, but it reminded me of this one time, when I worked in a call center, I took a call from a person who was using an American Sign Language interpreter. The interpreter was very expressive, almost to the point of it being comical, and it was distracting from the overall call. The same thing happened in this story.
But then, i thought about it more. Both this author and that interpreter are using cultural language and phrases and putting emphasis on words that maybe more traditional westerners don’t know how to appreciate quite yet.
Overall, I loved this. I’m getting the next book and the next and the next. I’m a huge Percy Jackson fan, and as far as *I’m* concerned, this series has a place in that universe, and is just as polished and vibrant. Would love to see DasGupta and Riordan collaborate on an Indian/Greek clash of cultures story.