Review: Maya and the Rising Dark

Maya and the Rising Dark by Rena Barron

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Maya and the Rising Dark, first in a new middle-grade series by Rena Barron (Kingdom of Souls, gives us Maya, a middle-grade student living on the South Side of Chicago, who starts noticing some odd things in her classroom and gym at her school. She and her friends Eli and Frankie also encounter the neighborhood's bullies, who just aren't acting like themselves. Soon enough they are caught in the dark with some pretty scary werehyenas and have to be rescued by... the twin old ladies who live down the block. Wait a minute, what?! Her papa has long been telling her stories about all kinds of strange creatures from the world of the Orishas. She thought they were just stories but now they are showing up in Chicago? How does her father know about these creatures and why is he away for work all the time?

Maya and the Rising Dark is a great fit for a child who's loved the Aru Shah series. Similar in vein, mixing action and humor, with a hidden world filled with Yoruban spirits, this is a story with a rich underpinning of African and Latin American magic, sure to delight middle-grade readers. I enjoyed the roles of friendship and community in this book. It takes a village to keep children safe, to rescue a father, and to defend the world.

The audiobook, narrated by Soneela Nankani, who narrates the Aru Shah books, is highly enjoyable and complete with amusing sound effects.


I received a digital review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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