Race to the Sun

Race to the Sun is a 2020 middle grade novel by Indigenous American author Rebecca Roanhorse, whose science fiction and fantasy works are notable for featuring Navajo characters reflective of Roanhorse’s Navajo heritage. Race to the Sun is an installment in the “Rick Riordian Presents” imprint of Disney Hyperion, which collaborates with Percy Jackson & the Olympians author Rick Riordan to publish novels that feature different cultural mythologies as written by authors from those cultural backgrounds. The novel, which follows protagonist Nizhoni Begay as she fights monsters to rescue her father, parallels the Navajo tale of the Hero Twins.

The novel received overall positive reviews focusing on its aim of representing Navajo culture in fiction, though some negative critics framed Roanhorse’s adaptation of the Navajo legend as appropriative.

This guide refers to the 2019 Disney Hyperion e-book edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide discuss racist rhetoric, violence, and parental abandonment; they also mention anti-gay rhetoric.

Plot Summary

As seventh grader Nizhoni Begay reflects on her newfound skill, the ability to detect monsters, one such monster appears at her middle school basketball game, distracting Nizhoni from blocking the ball, which strikes her in the face, injuring her nose. She’s embarrassed but feels worse that her father, preoccupied with his potential new boss, Mr. Charles, is so consumed by his job that he doesn’t even notice Nizhoni’s injury until they get back home. Her father also fails to notice that Nizhoni’s brother, Marcus, or Mac, has been punched by a bully. When they get home, Nizhoni realizes that Mr. Charles is the monster she detected at her basketball game.

Nizhoni’s father is thrilled that Mr. Charles plans to take the whole family to dinner. When Nizhoni comes downstairs from changing out of her bloodied basketball uniform, however, she finds Mr. Charles attempting to steal a photograph of Nizhoni’s mother, who left their family when Nizhoni was a toddler. When Nizhoni stops him, Mr. Charles threatens to kill her because of her monster-sensing powers. He intends to kidnap Mac, who he believes has untapped potential powers. Nizhoni tries to fight Mr. Charles, and her dad scolds her, leaving her at home while the rest of the group heads out to dinner.

Nizhoni dreams that her toy horned toad, Mr. Yazzie, has come to life. He tells her that she is destined to undertake a quest to the House of the Sun to ask Jóhonaa’éí, the “Merciless One,” for weapons to fight the monsters. To find the House of the Sun, Nizhoni must first seek Na’ashjéii Asdzáá, or Spider Woman, a Navajo Holy Person. Nizhoni wakes when her dad knocks. He refuses to believe Nizhoni’s claim that Mr. Charles is a monster, lamenting that her mom also used to see monsters.

The next day, Nizhoni forgets her lunch. When she sneaks off campus to return home to get it, she sees Mr. Charles kidnapping her father. In the house, she finds a message from her dad urging her to run. She hurries back to school, where she tells her best friend, Davery, everything. Davery purchases them all train tickets to Arizona so that they can seek Spider Woman. Nizhoni hears repeated announcements over the loudspeaker summoning her and Mac to the principal’s office as she rushes to find her brother. She finds Mac being tormented by a bully just as Mac accesses his (previously latent) water powers to make sprinklers drench his attackers. The siblings hurry to the train station; Nizhoni doesn’t tell Mac that their dad has been kidnapped.

At the train station, Nizhoni encounters a Navajo woman who gifts her snacks even though she doesn’t have money. The woman also gives Nizhoni a song, which the children analyze after they board the train just ahead of the pursuing monsters. The song reveals that they must complete their quest within four days, or else the monsters will be released and all will be lost. Mr. Yazzie comes to life again, this time revealing himself to Mac and Davery as well. To aid their quest, Mr. Yazzie diverts the train, reporting that Nizhoni and Mac are descendants of Changing Woman, a Navajo Holy Person, and they’ve inherited the powers of her sons, the Hero Twins. Mr. Yazzie says that Nizhoni and Mac must use these powers to fight the bináá’yee aghání, shapeshifting bird monsters like Mr. Charles. First, however, they must find gifts for Spider Woman, one from each of the sacred mountains: “a perfect white shell from Sisnaajiní, a piece of turquoise from Tsoodził, an abalone shell from Dook’o’oosłid, and a nugget of black jet from Dibé Nitsaa” (125), which Davery notes are mentioned in the Navajo woman’s song.

Rock Crystal Boy, the guardian of Sisnaajiní, leads them to a massive pile of abalone shells; Nizhoni is only able to find a perfect one after she gathers her self-confidence. The group splits up, with Nizhoni heading to Dibé Nitsaa, Mac and Mr. Yazzie to Tsoodził, and Davery to Dook’o’oosłid, each riding on the back of that mountain’s herald. On Dibé Nitsaa, Nizhoni faces several bináá’yee aghání, who have paralyzed the mountain’s guardian, Black Jet Girl, with their malevolent stares. Nizhoni rescues Black Jet Girl and watches over her while she rests, despite the urgency she feels to complete her quest.

Nizhoni reunites with Davery and Mac only to find that Mac failed to secure the needed piece of turquoise. Nizhoni surrenders her turquoise necklace in its place, even though it is one of very few remaining mementos from her mom. The trio gift their offerings to Spider Woman, who praises their bravery. Spider Woman leads them to the Rainbow Road, warning them that they will face four challenges—“a talking stone, a field of knives, a prom of thorns, a seethe of sand” (225)—that will ultimately lead them to the Sun if they persevere. Nizhoni learns that this road is where her mother failed to complete her quest.

Along the road, they encounter a tunnel in a cliff. A false Mr. Yazzie lures Mac inside as the tunnel walls begin to close. Davery and Nizhoni race to save Mac, but he disappears, having failed his part of the challenge. Davery and Nizhoni continue through a field of razor reeds, which scratch at them even though they protect themselves with mud. They come to the third trial, a high school prom, where high schoolers flatter them into staying longer and longer, until the pair realizes that they are starting to forget their families and their quest. They break free from the prom and arrive at a field of mirrors.

Nizhoni glances into a mirror and plunges into her mom’s memory of leaving the family to hunt monsters. She feels hurt that her mom chose to fight instead of staying with her children but begins to feel that she understands her mom’s choices, despite her anger and pain. She and Davery look into another mirror, but when Nizhoni looks around, Davery has disappeared. Nizhoni struggles with the prospect of completing her quest alone but gathers her fortitude and continues to the House of the Sun.

At the House of the Sun, Nizhoni finds Mr. Yazzie and Jóhonaa’éí, the “Merciless One.” She follows Jóhonaa’éí to a weapons room, despite her desire to find Mac and Davery first. Jóhonaa’éí forges a bow and arrow from lightning for Nizhoni, a book revealing the secrets of defeating monsters for Davery, and liquid lightning for Mac. Nizhoni then goes to the “Lost and Found” (254), where she finds not only Davery and Mac but also generations of failed monsterslayers, including her mom, Bethany. She realizes that, per the song lyrics, she must give up “a dream” to save them and agrees to sacrifice fighting the monsters.

The “lost ones” come back to life, and Nizhoni, Davery, Mac, and Bethany ride the sacred mountains’ heralds to fight the monsters emerging from their cages. They battle fiercely against the many bináá’yee aghání, but when Nizhoni attempts to shoot Mr. Charles with her bow and arrow, he catches it and throws it back at her, knocking her from her perch. On the ground, Mr. Charles mocks Nizhoni’s ineffectiveness, but her confidence remains undamaged. She uses the lightning she’s absorbed from the arrow he thew at her to destroy him, which fells all the other bináá’yee aghání as well.

The victors reunite, and Spider Woman emerges with Nizhoni and Mac’s rescued father. Nizhoni’s grandmother drives up, ready to escort the recovered lost ones to the Navajo reservation. Nizhoni ends the novel confident that everyone she cares about knows the truth of what happened.