For a while, I’ve been reading this K.A. Applegate series I found a while back, “Everworld”. I’m on Book 8. A pretty gripping YA book series about four teenagers from Chicago sucked into another universe ruled by old pantheons of gods and monsters by a fifth teen who was born with magic.

However, in Book 7, I don’t think I like how the Orisha are depicted in this. At this point, only Eshu has acted as a character. He is a pursuer who demands animal sacrifice to the orishas from the main characters for entering the orishas’ realm, and basically trolls them by playing with their heads and physics.

Unlike the other pantheons – Norse, Egyptian, Greek, Aztec – only Eshu speaks or shows himself to the reader on behalf of “his brothers and sisters”. Eshu, a trickster orisha who is also the messenger for the pantheon, has no depth for a (demi)god character in this book.