Maya and the Rising Dark

In this highly anticipated contemporary fantasy, 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. Perfect for fans of Aru Shah and the End of Time and The Serpent's Secret. Twelve-year-old Maya is the only one in her South Side Chicago neighborhood who witnesses weird occurrences like were hyenas 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.

In this highly anticipated sequel, Maya and the godlings must return to the sinister world of The Dark to retrieve the one thing keeping the veil between the worlds from crumbling: her father's soul. Perfect for fans of Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky and Willa of the Wood. The threat from The Dark is far from over. Twelve-year-old Maya knows this. After crossing the veil between the two worlds, saving her father, and narrowly escaping the sinister clutches of the Lord of Shadows, tensions between the human world and The Dark are higher than ever. And even worse, Maya's orisha powers as a godling are out of control. Now a guardian in training, Maya spends her days patching up veils with her father and cleaning up near-disasters like baby wormholes that her erratic powers create. But when Maya and her friends discover that something went terribly wrong during their journey to bring her father back to the human world, they are forced to return to The Dark and restore what they left behind, the one thing keeping the veil from falling: her father's soul. The Lord of Shadows is mobilizing his forces for an all-out war against the human world. And this time, Maya and her friends will need all the help they can get. Even if that means teaming up with their greatest enemies, the darkbringers.

In the thrilling third and final book in the acclaimed Maya and the Rising Dark trilogy that Kirkus calls "truly #BlackGirlMagic," Maya must face off with the Lord of Shadows to save the human world from impending war with the Dark. War is coming. Despite everything Maya and her father have done, the veil that protects the human world is failing. The Lord of Shadows has raised an army powerful enough to challenge the orishas. And it's only a matter of time before he breaks through the veil and destroys Maya's neighborhood and the rest of the world. Maya and her friends aren't going down without a fight. She's honing her guardian powers, with the help of two new allies—her long lost guardian sister and a mysterious darkbringer (who might be a double agent). But when an attack hits close to home, Maya doesn't have any more time to prepare. She must face the Lord of Shadows or risk losing everything. With her friends—Eli, Frankie, Zeran, and Eleni—by her side, Maya leads the charge in an epic showdown that takes her across worlds and to the edge of the universe. Will she succeed or will Darkness prevail, once and for all?