Maya and the Rising Dark

Twelve-year-old Maya’s search for her missing father puts her at the center of a battle between our world, the Orishas, and the mysterious and sinister Dark world.

Twelve-year-old Maya is the only one in her South Side Chicago neighborhood who witnesses weird occurrences like werehyenas stalking the streets at night and a scary man made of shadows plaguing her dreams. Her friends try to find an explanation—perhaps a ghost uprising or a lunchroom experiment gone awry. But to Maya, it sounds like something from one of Papa’s stories or her favorite comics.

When Papa goes missing, Maya is thrust into a world both strange and familiar as she uncovers the truth. Her father is the guardian of the veil between our world and the Dark—where an army led by the Lord of Shadows, the man from Maya’s nightmares, awaits. Maya herself is a godling, half orisha and half human, and her neighborhood is a safe haven. But now that the veil is failing, the Lord of Shadows is determined to destroy the human world and it’s up to Maya to stop him. She just hopes she can do it in time to attend Comic-Con before summer’s over.

Content Tags:

Perfect for readers who want:

• Adventure akin to the Rick Riordan Presents books.
• Strong friendship bonds.
• Stories based on West African mythology.
• Books involving the Orisha pantheon.
• A strong Black female protagonist.
• Interesting, dynamic fights with a staff.

Many thanks to HMH Books for Young Readers Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Quotes are taken from an unfinished version and may differ from the final product.

I’ve been looking forward to this book since it was announced waaaaay back last year. Patience may be a virtue, but it’s clearly not in my arsenal of tools, okay? So I was super excited to be able to read this eARC.

Maya and the Rising Dark is a middle grade fantasy adventure perfect for readers who want Rick Riordan-esque books with a Black twist. Complete with a Black female lead, and based on West African mythology, this book packs in friendship bonds, adventure, and some awesome staff + magic fight scenes.

Ultimately, this book delivered on the promise of adventure and fun, and I whizzed right through it. I loved that it plays with the God/Godling tropes that have become popular lately but with a unique spin on it. I thought the climax ended up being a little easy, but I have that problem a lot with middle grade books, so it’s probably just me, the silly thing I am.

Am I looking forward to book two already? Obviously. It even has a title already (Maya and the Return of the Godlings) and I’m so pumped! Though, I did feel like the ending of this book was done nicely so that there’s enough making me want to continue the series without feeling like it’s over, but not a major cliffhanger that’ll eat away at my soul for the next year.

This world is based on West African mythology and the Orisha pantheon, and I love it!

As diverse books sink their claws into the publishing world, I’ve been sitting here twiddling my thumbs just waiting for more books about Orisha and West African lore, and I am so here for these books!

When I say this book brings West African mythology to life … I mean it. Literally.

The Orisha exist as characters, and they are fabulous. Not all creatures in West African mythology are nice, though, and our intrepid little heroes run into plenty of those, too!

This book is chock full of adventure and quests, which naturally test the mettle (and friendship) of Maya and her friends.

Hint: being friends with someone on a big quest to save the world is hard. Also hard: trying not to root for this trio. They’re all at an age where friendships are hard in general, but it was refreshing to see them tackling the challenge together, even if they sometimes had disagreements and bumps in the road.

The adventure itself takes us to new places, like the Dark world on the other side of the veil.

Sometimes things are sealed off for a reason. That certainly seems to be the case for the Dark world, where they meet some characters that are … well … not very nice, shall we say? As the name might imply. I mean, it’s not called the Sunshine world, is it?

The plot moved at a pretty good pace, slowing down sometimes but always keeping me engaged and wanting to find out what happens next.

Maya’s weapon of choice is a staff, and the fight scenes include staff-wielding, magic-wielding, and just all-around awesomeness.

First, can I just say how refreshing it is to see a character not using, like, a sword or a knife or something? I like shiny stabby things as much as the next person, but there’s something unique and satisfying about fighting with a staff. Then, when you add magic into the fight scenes? They’re just *chef’s kiss*

Because the Orisha are characters in this book (and they all, of course, have powers), there’s a lot of dynamic, fun fight scenes that include some really impressive shows of power.

I loved seeing the characters fighting together, especially since they all have different styles of fighting and different powers. I don’t want to say too much, but I’ll leave you with this: these were some of my favorite fight scenes I’ve read in a mid-grade book recently!

The villain was defeated a tad easily, but I did so enjoy his villainy, and I’m not entirely convinced we’ve seen the last of him.

At least, I sure hope we haven’t. You know when you stumble across a villain so bad that you can’t help but love him? Yup, this is it. More importantly, the villain totally has a justified grievance. As soon as I heard his motive, I was like … yeah, okay, I get it. Did you take it a teensy bit far? Probably. Maybe we should just turn this dial down to, like, 7 instead of 29. But still.

My all-time favorite villains are ones that I can feel their anger and understand their justification, because they feel much more real and rounded, and that is definitely the case here.

Also, the scenes about him just really gave me chills, in a good “I don’t wanna meet this guy in a dark alley” sort of a way. Everything you’d want in a villain, and I’m not entirely ready to give him up yet. Is it wrong to hope that a villain makes a reappearance in a subsequent book?

Meet the Orisha

If you’ve never heard of the Orisha, they are the pantheon of Gods that belong to the Yoruba religion in West Africa. They. Are. Fabulous. You think the Greek gods have problems and stories? Let me tell you, you need to check out some of the Orisha stories and legends.

I found out about the Orisha waaaay back years ago when I stumbled across James C. Lewis‘ photography series casting Orisha as real people. I’ve linked his official gallery there, and I so highly recommend you check it out. It really gives a nice visual to keep in mind (and the images are breathtaking).

I could tell you about the Orisha or why I love them so much, but honestly? I’m just going to give you a quote about each just to give you a little glimpse of what they can do. You’ll have to read the book for more (and obviously, you totally should).

Oya

Eleggua

Eshu

Obatala and Oduduwa

Nana Buruku

Shango

Meet the Monsters

This book is just rife with all kinds of terrifying monsters, and I love it. Yes, more mythology! More lore! More ways to put these little marshmallow children in danger! Wait, I mean … erm … *cough*

Quotes are from the book, but I just had to share all these creatures! Some come into play more than others in this book, but I’m so excited about this world and what the next books might have in store because of these glimpses!

Kishi – “a creature with a human face on the front side of his head and a hyena on the back side”

Impundulu – “They were magical giant birds that had sharp spikes like fishbones on their bellies. They hardly ever flew, but when they did, their wings sounded like helicopter blades.”

Elokos – “Dangerous forest folk with an appetite for human flesh, with razor-sharp teeth, pointy ears, and scaly green skin. They communicate with each other through thoughts.”

Aziza – “woodland fairies wary of outsiders”

Adze – “fireflies that feed on blood”

Grootslang – “a cross between an elephant and a snake. It had leathery black skin and ivory tusks that were venomous.”

Other reviews:

• Sifa Elizabeth Reads
• She Just Loves Books
• Confessions of a YA Reader

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