Book Review: The Queen of Ocean Parkway by Sarvenaz Tash

The Queen of Ocean Parkway by Sarvenaz Tash
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A magical mystery for middle-grade readers!

The Queen of Ocean Parkway is a new, fantastical mystery story for middle-grade readers from the creative mind of author Sarvenaz Tash. Young Roya Alborzi and her precocious new friend and neighbor, Amin Lahiri, travel through time to try and break a curse that makes the women of the Petrov family disappear, never to be seen again.

The main character, Roya Alborzi, is the only daughter of their Brooklyn apartment building’s super, and while only 11 years old, she is carrying an emotional load that adults would have trouble managing. Though her parents are divorced, her father is desperately ill with cancer, and she does all she can to assist her mother in her job to free her up to care for him. Then, one of her favorite tenants, Katya Petrov, suddenly disappears without a trace. She joins forces with Amin, the son of the new family in the building, to find her and break the chain of disappearances that have plagued the Petrov family for the past four generations.

The Brooklyn setting is well-developed, feeling familiar and comfortable. Roya’s descriptions and tales of the other neighbors for her fledgling podcast are entertaining and made me laugh about some of her observations.

The plot thickens as soon as the characters are introduced, and some surprising twists make the story even more suspenseful and intriguing. As time travel is involved, the author must re-describe the Coney Island setting each time Roya and Amin land in the past. The gorgeous cover, rich with jewel tones, attracts the eye and had my imagination working before I even read the first page. I liked how the author populated the apartment building with an array of different configurations of families and enjoyed meeting each one as the mystery of the disappearing Petrovs unfolded.

I recommend THE QUEEN OF OCEAN PARKWAY to upper elementary and middle-grade readers or for reading aloud in the classroom, in afterschool programs, or at home.

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy through TBR and Beyond Book Tours.

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