Trials Of the Tomb Turns a Class Field Trip into a Collision with Ancient Egyptian Gods
YA fantasy novel by teen author Alana Bertges sends two Montana seniors from a small-town museum to the Duat and back
United States, 29th Jan 2026 – In Trials Of the Tomb, a shattered museum case, a blackout, and a stolen stone sphinx mark the moment high school stops feeling ordinary. The novel opens on the last day of school, with a routine class trip to a modest Montana museum. By sunrise, glass lies on the floor, a mysterious sphinx weighs down a backpack, and by midnight, a god who belongs in legend speaks from a hospital window.
The story follows Connor and Jane, reluctant project partners who share a school assignment but not a worldview. Connor cares about the museum, the exhibits, and the long history behind them. Jane cares about getting through the day with minimal effort and maximum distance from responsibility. When the bus leaves without them, the quiet halls of the museum become their problem, and then their gateway to something far older and far less patient than a teacher with a gradebook.
A Museum, a Missed Bus, and a Door That Never Should Have Opened
From the first chapter, Trials Of the Tomb treats the museum not as a backdrop but as a fuse. The exhibits feel slightly off, the silence stretches a little too long, and small details matter: gold wristbands Connor sculpted himself, an ibis etched into a talisman, a jackal-headed ring that should not fit as perfectly as it does.
When the lights go out and the teachers vanish from the page, the book pushes Connor and Jane into a Montana that no longer behaves like a familiar map. Forests hide things that move wrong. The walk back toward town turns into a run from creatures that should not exist. A hospital that should symbolize safety instead becomes the place where a god appears at a window and calls Connor by name.
From there, geography keeps widening. Whitefish and Helena give way to Cairo and Luxor. Airports, train cars, and streets crowded with camels stand beside mythic spaces such as the Duat and the Aaru. The novel continually sets the practical, bus schedules, winter jackets, hospital gift shops, against the impossible, letting the two grind against each other until something sparks.
Teenagers Under Ancient Contracts
At the heart of Trials Of the Tomb lies a simple, unnerving idea: some gods hold grudges, and sometimes those grudges land on children who never agreed to the terms. Connor’s life has been shaped by promises his mother made and debts his father left behind. A quiet mythology nerd becomes a “bidder of the gods,” sent into one trial after another with the warning that failure to protect what matters most will mean death.
Jane carries a different burden. Death follows her in small ways, houseplants, jokes, the nickname “Death Girl” tossed around like a punchline. That careless label hides a deeper truth: a connection to Anubis and the dead, one that makes her both an asset and a target in a conflict wider than her hometown, her friendships, or her plans.
Their dynamic, Connor’s anxious precision and Jane’s stubborn defiance, grounds the story. Arguments in classrooms and hallways evolve into fights beside rivers of the underworld. A partnership that starts with bribery and mutual annoyance becomes a fragile line between survival and collapse as Ra, Thoth, Anubis, Seth, and the chaos-serpent Apep circle the edges of every decision.
Gods, Monsters, and the Cost of Light
The book populates its pages with a full cast of divinities and near-strangers turned allies. Janna arrives with her own history of divine trouble. Bes, a protective, lion-legged god who looks more at home in a cramped office than a grand temple, offers help that always seems to cost something. Kyle and Elaine pull the story back toward human stakes, reminding the group that ordinary lives keep moving even while gods debate fate.
Battles with griffins, Uraeus serpents, and Apep never feel like set pieces pasted in for spectacle. Each fight carries emotional weight: Connor’s belief that his life functions as collateral, Jane’s fear that her touch harms more than it helps, Janna’s refusal to sit out a conflict that once wrote her off. Violence leaves aftermath, injuries, scars, broken trust, not just dramatic exits.
Throughout, the novel treats light as something more than simple symbolism. Fire, moonlight, and glowing script on a scepter named Sebayt become weapons in a clash where chaos literally eats the sun and order pushes back inch by inch. A courtyard lined with gasoline, a bowl of ashes mixed with gunpowder and blood, and a final stand against Apep in the Duat highlight a theme that runs beneath the action: victory rarely arrives clean. Someone always pays.
A Myth-Soaked Story with a Teen Author at the Helm
Trials Of the Tomb comes from a writer who understood early how much a book can reshape a life. After reading The Outsiders for a school project and learning that S.E. Hinton published that novel as a teenager, Alana Bertges set a private goal: finish and publish a full-length book before the end of freshman year.
That determination lives in the manuscript itself. The voice leans into sharp banter and uncomfortable truths, lets grief and humor share scenes, and refuses to flatten gods or teenagers into simple types. Friendships crack, heal, and carry secrets. Adults make choices that ripple down into the next generation. The story keeps circling one central question: when everything feels rigged by forces older than the sky, what still belongs to the kids caught in the middle?
About the Book
- Title: Trials Of the Tomb
- Author: Alana Bertges
- Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
- Themes: Mythology, found family, grief, destiny, the cost of power
For media inquiries please contact Author Alana Bertges:
Email: Tonyabertges@live.com
Phone: 239-253-2422.
Company Details
Organization: Author Alana Bertges.
Contact Person: Alana Bertges
Website: https://authoralanabertges.com/
Email: Send Email
Country: United States
Release Id: 29012640750