Aru Shah and the End of Time

Aru Shah and the End of Time, written by Roshani Chokshi and edited by Rick Riordan, is the first book of Pandava Quartet. The book was released on March 27, 2018.

The book follows the main character Aru Shah, as she realizes that she is a reincarnation of one of the Pandavas and a son of a god in her previous birth. Along with her Pandava sister Mini, she sets to correct a wrong she committed to save the world from destruction in nine days.

Development and marketing
Roshani Chokshi went on a book promotion tour in United States, meeting with fans and signing copies of books.

Chokshi visted Winston-Salem, Menlo Park, Houston, Decatur and San Diego as a part of her promotions.

Unleashing the Sleeper
Aru Shah is a twelve-year-old girl who lives with her mother Dr. K. P. Shah at the Museum of Ancient Indian Art and Culture. She is imaginative and has a habit of twisting the truth, a trait developed to cope with her mother's distant behaviour and to fit in with other students at the elite Augustus Day School. While she is at home during the school break, her classmates—Poppy Lopez, Burton Prater and Arielle Reddy—arrive at the Museum and discover that Aru lied about traveling to France with her mother. They record her on Burton's phone camera to expose her lies. Aru had told them truthfully about a cursed lamp—the Diya of Bharata—in the Museum, which, according to a Hindu legend, if lit, would awaken the Sleeper, a demon who will summon Shiva, the god of destruction, who will cause the end of the world. Unbelieving, Arielle dares Aru to light the lamp and prove it being cursed, lest they consider the lamp too a lie and circulate her video, upon which Aru does so. The lamp explodes with a bright flash of light, leaving Aru unconscious.

When she awakes, Aru finds the entire room frozen in time, including her mother and friends. A talking pigeon sets out through an elephant statue's mouth and seeks to know the lighter of the lamp. Upon realizing that Aru lit it, he is disappointed and reveals that the Hindu gods are real, and that he is fairly positive about Aru being a reincarnations of one of the Pandavas, who are five brothers that wage war against their 100 cousins and win, as only a Pandava could light the Diya of Bharata. Aru is the first female incarnation of a Pandava, which the pigeon finds disapproving. It tells Aru that when one Pandava awakens, so does another, and that they need to meet the other Pandava by travelling thorugh the Door of Many. When Aru enquires about his name, the pigeon asks her to call itself Subala, but Aru feels the name has too many syllables and plans to call him Sue, upon which it tells her that he is a male and Sue is a girl name. She then calls him Boo.

Travelling to the Door of Many
She goes to the Door of Many to summons her awakened sibling. As a reincarnation of a Pandava, she is a child of a God and hence a demigod. Time is frozen, while Aru has to find the reincarnations of the Pandava brothers while journeying through Naraka. She meets Mini, daughter of Dharma Raja, the first germaphobe demigod in the worlds, and finds out she is the child of Indra and reincarnation of Arjuna.

Adventure begins
She goes to the otherworld, where there are moths who form the shape of a crocodile, Makara. He confirms they are humans and opens the gate to the Court of the Sky. Mini has acrophobia. “The sprig of youth". “The bite of adulthood.” “The sip of old age.” are needed to go the Netherworld. They get the first key from Brahmasura. Then they meet Valmiki for assistance, who gives them the mantra “Don’t look, don’t see, there’s no such thing as me." His ants give him what appears to be the first draft:

IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT WHEN GIRLS WITH PIGEON DID TAKE FLIGHT TO STOP THE SLEEPER IN HIS QUEST TO WAKE LORD SHIVA FROM HIS REST.

They realize Boo is Shakhuni in the library and Sleeper takes him with him. The magic headband from Ritus makes Sleeper forget about the vahanas. Uchchaihshravas takes her to a tunnel house. She meets Mini. They hit the fire and poison with stones and manage to get the third key. They journey to Naraka, where the meet Ek and Do (1 and 2) tand Chitrigupta who gives them good karma, soma and a pen. They go to the Palace of Illusions which gives them tests. They meet Shukla,  Guardian of the Bridge of Forgetting and gets Aru cursed. They look for celestial weapons which seem to be rotten. They rely on knowledge from Finding Nemo to get out of a water monster. Their antics reveal the true gifts as Indra's Vajra and  Dharma Raja's danda. Aru realizes her mother loved Sleeper and that she was his son. The share good karma with Past Time and Wish, who let's them go. Meanwhile, general public mistake the supernatural happenings to be a disease called Frozen Syndrome.

Back to Museum
Aru then has a fight with her father in the museum. She is about to kill him, but hesitates and he escapes. She thinks it is the curse of Shukla. Aru's mother and friends are freed, mother first. She blackmails her friends with their secrets and they leave her alone.

The End
Then the story opens at the end of winter break. Aru is invited by Arielle, but she rejects it. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, for three hours, Aru and Mini learned war strategy from Hanuman, dancing and etiquette from Urvashi, and folklore from Boo.

On Fridays, their first class was traditional dance (specifically, bharatnatyam) and etiquette with Urvashi. Hanuman’s lessons were a lot more rugged. While learning from Hanuman, an alarm sounds, and he tells them that something important has been stolen, something even the gods fear. On a Saturday, Mini is at Aru's house and Boo is telling them to practice. A wolf holding a golden bow steps out and transforms into a girl and disappears. Boo tells them she is the next Pandava, leaving them horrified.

Chapter list

 * 1) In Which Aru Regrets Opening The Door
 * 2) Oops
 * 3) Wake Up
 * 4) In-ep-tee-tood
 * 5) The Other Sister
 * 6) Look, but Not Really
 * 7) The Council or Guardians
 * 8) Who's Your Daddy?
 * 9) The Three Keys
 * 10) A Trip to the Beauty Salon
 * 11) Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down
 * 12) Bring On the Next Demon! Wait, Maybe Not...
 * 13) The Hipster in the Anthill
 * 14) A Trip to the Grocery Store
 * 15) Why Are All Enchanted Things So Rude?
 * 16) That Was So Last Season
 * 17) The Library of A-Z
 * 18) A Strange Case
 * 19) I Really... REALLY... Wouldn't Do That
 * 20) Welp, She Did It
 * 21) The Door and the Dogs
 * 22) Who's a Good Boy?
 * 23) Soul Index
 * 24) Dare, Disturb, Deign
 * 25) What Meets the Eye (and What Doesn't)
 * 26) My Home, Not Yours! No Touchie!
 * 27) ...And Then Came the Horde of Godzilla-Size Fireflies
 * 28) The Palace's Story
 * 29) The Bridge of Forgetting
 * 30) The Tale of Shukra
 * 31) This Place Smells Funky
 * 32) 1 on Mini's Top Ten Ways I Don't Want to Die List: Death by Halitosis
 * 33) I'll Be a Cow in My Next Life
 * 34) The Pool of the Past
 * 35) Can You Give Me Better Hair on the Way Out?
 * 36) The TV Started It
 * 37) Attack!
 * 38) Aru Shah Is a Liar
 * 39) Who's the Liar Now?
 * 40) Failure
 * 41) Got All That?
 * 42) Word Vomit
 * 43) Why, Why, Why? Stupid Words
 * 44) Woof

Characters

 * Aru Shah
 * Mini
 * Boo
 * Sleeper
 * Urvashi
 * Hanuman
 * Shiva
 * Krishna
 * Makara
 * Brahmasura
 * Valmiki
 * Ritus
 * Ek
 * Do
 * Shukla
 * Indra
 * K. P. Shah
 * Arielle Reddy
 * Poppy Lopez
 * Burton Prater

Trivia

 * Aru Shah and the End of Time will be the first book released by Rick Riordan Presents.
 * Aru saw a vision that her sisters would turn on her and attempt to kill her.