Book Review: "Serwa Boateng’s Guide to Saving the World" Proves That You Can’t Keep a Good Vampire Down
Serwa Boateng’s Guide to Saving the World is a well-crafted narrative detailing the highs and lows that one teen will go to so that her family will be whole again. Roseanne A. Brown has built on her brilliant first two books to blend an action-oriented story into a character study of love. Brown has given readers a new spin on vampires with her Serwa Boateng series for middle readers.
When we last saw young Serwa Boateng, she was trying to meld her new dark magic powers with her vampire slaying abilities and making sense of many family secrets. Her grandmother, Nana Bekoe, who has just escaped years of captivity, is a powerful dark magic user that is looking to destroy the veil between the living and the dead. Nana Bekoe doesn’t want anyone to have power over her again, and she will shatter the balance of life and death to ensure she will never be captured again.
Realizing that your grandmother is psychotic is one extreme, but Serwa is also dealing with the fallout of actions that left her friends, Mateo, Gavin, Roxy, and Eunju wondering which side of the battle she is on. With her newfound dark magic, and the desire for blood thanks to her vampire tastes, Serwa Boateng is a deadly threat.
When a quest brings them in search of the Keepers and they meet River and Nevaeh, Serwa and her friends develop a plan to defeat the all-powerful Nana Bekoe. Much like many teens and pre-teens, Serwa doesn’t tell her friends everything, and this leads to a crisis of friendship, and possible serious harm for everyone. Thankfully, the vampire/slayer has a rock-solid friendship, and learns from her missteps and the family’s generational mistakes.
The question that Serwa Boateng must answer is, can she defeat her grandmother, and live to tell the tale, or must she sacrifice herself for the greater good.
Author Roseanne A. Brown has done something that even Bram Stoker could not do, she made me like a vampire story. Traditionally, vampires are portrayed as monsters of the past or cover ready models of today. I never liked the traditional vampire story, and I had absolutely no interest in diving into anything in the form of Twilight or what is on the CW television network. Thanks to Brown and the Rick Riordan Presents imprint at Disney Books, I have found my vampire niche.
Brown brings an allure to the vampire saga by rooting the story and characters in Ghanian mythology. That alone has me interested. The world building with mythological tales enables the readers to step into Serwa Boateng’s stories with comfort and then enjoy the ride as we journey along with our lead character.
Serwa Boateng’s Guide to Saving the World is a fitting conclusion that allows fans of the story a chance to see how Serwa has grown since we first met her and gives the opportunity and time for the lead character to put into action her plan to save the world. Make no mistake about it, if Serwa fails the world is doomed, and as we journey through the story from page one to the last word, we get the small humorous side bits of advice from Serwa, but readers will be enthralled by the entertaining and deeply family oriented story of one girl as she tries to make sense of the past, and help right the course of her family. This is what makes this novel not only a great conclusion, but a fantastic example of how great middle grade novels build fantastic worlds with compelling characters, but enough room and time to place the mechanisms for resolutions into effect without feeling rushed.
Serwa Boateng is heroic, reckless, and selfish, but demonstrates a desire to help those that she cares about. Threading the needle of what makes a great middle grade novel is hard. There must be action, heart, vulnerability, and a compelling story that hooks the reader to want to continue reading no matter how many pages are in the book.
Brown gives us a return of all the characters to the story that we know, including Serwa’s friends from Rocky Gorge, but the author goes further by introducing River, and shows how the people who keep the history of the past alive can be powerful allies. Naturally in a mythological story we need to see some gods, and we get the appearance of Owuo the god of death. He doesn’t dominate the story, but he is helpful to Serwa.
Serwa Boateng’s Guide to Saving the World succeeds because of the deep connections a young girl has at making her family whole. Readers will hold their breath at the final battle, and fans of Brown’s brilliant addition to the Rick Riordan world will have them wanting more. Serwa Boateng’s Guide to Saving the World is one book that readers will stay up late at night reading because it is a story that you don’t want to interrupt with sleep.