Girl Giant and the Jade War (Girl Giant and the Monkey King #2), by Van Hoang

Girl Giant and the Jade War (Girl Giant and the Monkey King #2), by Van Hoang, is not so much as sequel to Girl Giant and the Monkey King (2020) as the second half of the story.  In the first book, eleven-year-old Thom Ngo accidently frees the Monkey King, who promises to help rid her of her incredible strength.  Thom learns the hard way that the Monkey King can't be trusted, and learns as well that her father, from whom she inherited her preternatural strength, is one of the powerful Immortals.  The first book ends with the Monkey King, who has used Thom to bring back the full extent of his powers, about to attack the realm of the Immortals, Thom appalled by the mistakes she's made, and her mother transformed into a cricket....It's a gripping, fast-paced story that I enjoyed very much!

So I was eager to rejoin Thom as she tries to stop the Monkey King in his tracks.  It is a pretty difficult proposition--she has to find her way back into the Heavens, and figure out if there is any weakness she can use against the Monkey King.  Much of the story involves a quest for allies.  Accompanied by her dragon friend, Kha, and a fox demon who was once a fairy, Thom tries to find someone who will help her get back to the Heavens before the Monkey King and his demons take over...though she's not at all sure what she'll do when she gets there!

Interestingly, the more she thinks about what the Monkey King wants--respect, and a place for demons in the Heavens--the more she can understand his point of view, though she can't condone his approach.  Adding to her confusion are visits from the Monkey King's magical doubles--she can remember trusting him (though memories of betrayal are sharper).  Her friendship with Kha is strained, and when she gets to the Heavens, she has to get the person she herself betrayed most unforgivably, the daughter of the Jade Emperor, to believe she knows what's she doing.

There's all the cultural richness that filled the first book, and plenty of adventures, but it's a bit more thought-provoking, in a good way.   An excellent series for middle grade readers who enjoy kids having their lives upended by magical figures of legend, and a nice addition of Vietnamese mythology to the "books for kids who love Rick Riordan" genre. Thom is a very relatable kid (though the universal "finding one's self" middle school ARC is of course complicated by being the child of a deity, and also complicated by Thom's feeling out of place as a Vietnamese American kid) and even her sometimes questionable choices make sense for someone her age, and work well within the framework of the story.  

This second book closes everything nicely, but I wouldn't mind more....