Maya and the Lord of Shadows

by Rena Barron

Overview

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?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780358106333
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	09/13/2022
Series:	Maya and the Rising Dark , #3
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Rena Barron grew up in small-town Alabama where stories of magic and adventure sparked her imagination. After penning her first awful poem in middle school, she graduated to writing short stories and novels by high school. Rena loves all things science fiction, ghosts, and superheroes. She’s a self-proclaimed space nerd. When she’s not writing, she can be found reading or brushing up on her French. Follow her at @renathedreamer and renabarron.com.
 

Editorial Reviews

…world-saving heroics bring this West African–infused series to a satisfying end.” — Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2022-09-14
The evil Lord of Shadows makes his move and the godlings-in-training at Chicago’s Jackson Middle School rise up to help their orisha mentors save the universe in this follow-up to 2021’s Maya and the Return of the Godlings.

Being still in the early stages of learning to control their various powers, Maya Abeola and her classmates continue to be schooled at every turn by the Lord of Shadows and his darkbringer minions—particularly after the veil that keeps him from this world is finally torn open in the school library and the full scope of his fiendishly clever scheme is revealed. Even the powerful orishas like Maya’s Papa and Yemoja, protector of rivers and oceans, seem outmatched. Along with tricks and betrayals, Barron chucks ravening werehyenas; shape-shifting, blood-sucking fireflies called adze; and other monsters into the escalating brangle. But despite being regularly outthought and outfought, Maya never loses heart, and with help from her magical family, she finds a way at the last tick to send her nasty nemesis on a long, possibly permanent, vacation. Instant general healing and an overall lack of fatalities make the violence cartoonish rather than threatening, and a subplot involving a hunky darkbringer for Maya coupled with conciliatory rather than vengeful overtures from the orisha council adds buoyant notes to the tidy close.

Uncomplicated world-saving heroics bring this West African–infused series to a satisfying end. (Fantasy. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews