As the story progresses, Maya comes to see how even heroes can mess up and misuse their powers, how sometimes seemingly heroic deeds come at someone’s expense and have lasting consequences, and how our heroes can also be someone else’s monsters at the same time. I especially loved that Barron didn’t shy away from exploring and discussing some quite dark themes, despite it being a middle grade book. Barron’s writing style is quirky and delightful, it pulls you in and keeps you captivated until the very last page. The story jumps quickly into action as Maya learns that the forces of the Dark are about to invade the human world and she is the only one with the power to prevent them.

Maya and the Rising Dark is an exhilarating ride through and through. Now it’s up to Maya and her friends to rescue Maya’s father from the Dark and stop the Lord of Shadows from unleashing his army on the human world. They find out that Maya’s father, who is actually the orisha guardian of the veil between our world and The Dark, has been kidnapped by the Lord of Shadows, a terrifying entity who appears in Maya’s dreams frequently. Twelve-year old Maya has always dismissed her papa’s adventure stories as bizarre and unreal, but when she begins to notice creatures straight out of those stories around her neighbourhood on the south side of Chicago whom apparently nobody else sees, Maya tells her friends Eli and Frankie about them, and the trio starts looking for an explanation. Maya and the Rising Dark is a fun, action-packed adventure story based on West African mythology.

The rising dark download free