I loved Ring Shout by this author so this one was a bit of a letdown for me, though middle grade can be hit-or-miss. The writing style just did not jive with me and I found the main character to be too juvenile. I dnf-ed it after a couple chapters.

I have loved P. Djeli Clark's works in adult fiction and he has brought that storytelling mastery in this coming to age story. This middle grade book would be an amazing book to get a kid that wants to get into fantasy but can also relate to the character. I love the lore of the song and the part that it played in the story.

Abeni’s Song is an African-inspired fantasy story for middle grade readers. It’s exciting, full of likeable and fun characters, and has a propulsive plot moving it along. I think a lot of kids will enjoy it for those elements alone.

That being said (and I say this having read a few of Clark’s other books), the author is doing way more than that in these pages. I hope lots of adults read this book. It explores themes of blood diamonds, the slave trade, and child soldiers in it. Nothing is commented on directly but rather exists in the structure of the plot and the setting. I am still pulling apart all the elements in my mind.

I also appreciated the presence of music in this book in the form of Abeni’s song, which celebrates and cements the story of her village and her adventures, contrasted with the discordant song that leads the children away from their villages and preys upon their wishes. It is dark at times but done with a light touch. I would give this to one of my fifth grade students without hesitation. I do think perhaps Clark is still figuring out his middle grade voice. It was, at times, too simplistic and pedantic for me. Other than that, I loved it and can’t wait for the second installment in Abeni’s adventures. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

I normally love everything P. Djèlí Clark writes. Unfortunately, I had a tough time getting into this book, which is surprising as this has so much that I love: a kind and tough main character in Abeni, who must find her strength to save the people she loves, while learning magic and dealing with spirits.

Abeni's entire village is kidnapped one night by warriors with blades and fire, led by a mysterious figure with a flute whose music captures the minds of the village children.

Abeni is rescued by a tough old woman, who teaches her magic and some martial skills. When the old woman is killed, Abeni sets off on a journey to save a young spirit and save her people. She meets various spirits who help her, argue, and motivate her. Abeni also learns some shocking things about the warriors, and knows that her journey is not done by the end of this book, as there are still ghost ships further westwards that she must learn more about and more people to save.

I'm not sure what happened with this book and me; I just kept finding my interest waning every so many chapters, and while I loved the sheer variety of spirits and the magical world Abeni was brought into, I did not enjoy this as much as I wanted to.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Tor Publishing Group for this ARC in exchange for my review.

When Abeni's village is attacked and everyone kidnapped, she sets off to find them, get revenge, and return everyone home with the help of a witch named Asha.

It took a while for me to get into this. While something happened at the very beginning, it felt like there wasn't much plot for a while. I did like the plot when it picked back up. I also really enjoyed the worldbuilding and the characters.

I really enjoyed this book! Honestly, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect when I started this book, but it turned out it was exactly what 12 year old Victoria would have absolutely loved as a child. I 100% plan on having my oldest daughter read this book. I know she will love it as much as I have.

I loved how well this story handled grief and healing. I loved the FMCs and the descriptions throughout the book.

It honestly reminded me of both Ella Enchanted and Skyward, which was an interesting combination. But Ella Enchanted was a big part of my preteen years, and this book has every marker of becoming that for many little girls out there in the world. The journey and friends you meet along the way aspect is what reminded me of Skyward.

I think this book would be a phenomenal addition to any library or classroom setting. I think it will resonate with all readers young and old.

I received an advanced reader copy of this book from TOR Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The thoughts and feelings contained in this review are my own.

Will be featured in next Arc Wrapup on Youtube Scheduled for August 15th
Imgur Link goes to Instagram graphic scheduled for August 11th - This may change as I intend to purchase my own physical copy (but due to money concerns I'm unsure if that will be before or after August 11th) Regardless it will have an Instagram post on August 11th
Blog Post goes live August 11th
Amazon review is pending amazon system approval


Abeni's Song by P. Djèlí Clark is a fantastic coming of age story about a young girl who sets out to save her family. It's clearly the first in a series, and I can't wait to see more of it. The story follows Abeni who watches her entire family and village taken by living ropes, seemingly commanded by Storm Women and a man in a Goat Mask. She is saved by Auntie Asha, the witch who was used to protect their village but seemingly can't anymore.

I'm going to be honest, the start of this didn't quite get me. The opening chapter isn't even from Abeni's perspective but from another girl as the children of her village are kidnapped by a song. Then we move to Abeni and it's a bit of a slow start. Then as the Storm Women attack we begin to see magic and once we're with Auntie Asha? It kicks into full magical mode. Auntie Asha's everything is magic. The House, the grass, the blankets, and Asha herself is an intriguing and fantastic character. That same level of magic and lovability bleeds into everyone and everything. Abeni is adorable, she acts and thinks like I remember acting and thinking when I was a young girl at times. Her friends she meets along the way all have unique and interesting stories. The darkness of the world around her is hinted at, not completely revealed and having kept up with P. Djèlí Clark's backlist I know it's going to hit when it does.

The book is also metaphorically dealing with a lot of big and heavy topics but in ways that I think are well executed. The slave trade, blood diamonds, etc. It's clear but done in such a way that kids won't feel spoken down too and adults will also enjoy. This was a great middle grade, one I was hesitant about though this author is a favorite. I honestly should have just known going in I'd love - he never lets me down.

4.5 fighting blankets (the blanket was my favorite character, I'm sorry I loved it)

Abeni's Song is the Middle Grade Fantasy debut of beloved and award-winning SFF-author, P. Djèlí Clark. I love reading Middle Grade and have found a lot of joy over the years within the genre. As soon as I heard about this, I knew I had to read it. I've really enjoyed Clark's writing in the past and was super interested to see what he would do in the MG-space.

In this story we follow Abeni, a young girl, who on Harvest Festival day, loses everyone in her village to raiders and a man playing a cursed flute. The villagers are marched away, lured by the song, to ghost ships set for distant lands. Abeni isn't sucked in by the spell though. Instead she is whisked away by the old woman who lives in the forest abutting her village, reputed to be a witch.

Although Abeni feels like the witch's prisoner, she has in a way been saved and her unwanted magical apprenticeship begins. Still, even though she isn't being harmed, Abeni is distraught and heartbroken over what happened to her village and her loved ones. Over the course of the story, Abeni learns about magic, history and herself, all while focusing on her mission to rescue her people and bring them home.

Abeni's Song is a solid story, with plenty of room to grow as the series continues.

I love and respect P. Djèlí Clark tremendously as a Fantasy writer. He's incredibly imaginative and I love some of the dark imagery he conjures up through his stories. There's definitely some of that beautiful, darker imagery here. I am also excited he's branching out into the Middle Grade space for the first time. It's important to have this type of representation and culturally-influenced stories for young people to discover, but overall, this one was just okay for me.

IMO, this didn't feel like a Middle Grade Fantasy. It read more like an Adult Fantasy with a young protagonist. The chapters were quite long and more heavy-handed in the settings, descriptions and inner thoughts of our MC, than with action, witty dialogue or fantastical elements.

Because of this, I didn't find myself enjoying this as much as I have some other Middle Grade Fantasies. It's still a great, well-developed story, with strong character work, but just in comparison with other stories in the space, it was a little more challenging to work through.

With this being said, there is so much to love about this book. Abeni is a memorable character, who really matured over the course of the story. I know so many Readers are going to love and connect with this.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Starscape and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review. Clark is such a phenomenal writer and I look forward to picking up more of his work in the future!

I was provided both a print and audio ARC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

Clark has quickly become one of my favorite SFF authors. I love how he weaves culture into his stories and uses sci-fi or fantasy (or both) to deal with real world issues. This is his middle grade debut and he really leans in to African Lore and storytelling. If you pay attention he is really using Abeni's magical journey to tell you about the horrible things that were done historically in Africa. It is one of the things I love about his writing style. He tells you about big and important topics while taking you on an amazing adventure.

This follows Abeni on quite the journey. On her 12th birthday, her village is attacked and everyone she knows and loves is taken away. Abeni alone is saved by an old woman who she comes to know as Asha, a spirit who has protected the village for many years. Abeni wants nothing more than to find her family and loved ones, but to do so she must learn what Asha has to teach her. Abeni has a good bit of character development as the story unfolds as she begins as any 12 year old girl, a bit stubborn and petulant, but she quickly discovers that she has to put aside her own wants and needs if she wants to find those she loves. She is also put in many challenging situations where she has to be brave and make tough choices. Does she always make the right choice? No, but she is always trying to do the right thing, and the friends she makes along the way are there to help guide her and teach her. There are quite a few lessons to be learned, and Abeni always takes them in stride.

The worldbuilding in this book was excellent. Clark gives us a luscious landscape and describes the characters in such detail that you can really get a sense of what they look like but he doesn't go overboard with the descriptions. If you are a fan of folklore any mythology I highly recommend this for middle grade readers, adults, and everyone in between. I think it is written such that any age group can enjoy it.

This is the first book in a series, but I really appreciated that this first part of Abeni's storyline ended with closure. We see that there is more to her journey to come, but this part of the story feels complete. I look forward to seeing what challenges Abeni and her companions faces on the next part of their quest.

If you’ve read anything from the Dead Djinn Universe, but most especially a Master of Djinn, you know P. Djèlí Clark writes with magnetism, humor, and complexity, but he is also a ‘literary DJ’—taking in various genres, global mythology, times, places, and religions, and mixing them up to make music on the page.

In his first middle-grade novel, wittily and lovingly dedicated to his twin daughters, Clark is back in his bag. From West African folklore and gods; to tales from the American South and Caribbean; to tricksters from everywhere and real warrior women from Dahomey: Abeni’s Song is mixology served up for little girls who are looking for a mythic hero who is “brown like me” but could also be unlike any hero they’ve had before.

Abeni is a young girl who lives in a village that has been protected by a witch for ages. That protection ends and payment is due. Before becoming the apprentice to the Witch Asha, Abeni watches as wicked spirits use a song to enchant the children of her village and steal them away. Abeni decides she can never again stand by and watch as bad things happen to her people. She learns everything she can from the Elder Sage Asha and an animated Strawman, and sets out on a quest to reunite her village, while building a super-team of other girls along the way.

There is struggle and pain but also magic and discovery in a story set to enrapt you with new myths, inspired by folktales that have long been ready to take the stage in fiction.

Ahoy there me mateys!  This is the start to a new series and I think it is lovely even if it has dark themes.  The world building is wonderful.  Abeni is a fantastic main character.  She loses her family when her village is destroyed and all the people kidnapped.  Abeni is determined to find them.  The interesting part for me is that there is no simple magical fix even if magic is real.  Abeni is continually learning and growing and works hard.  She has to rely on the help of her friends.  She finds new family while never forgetting about her old one.  She has prejudices about others that she has to overcome.  She has to learn that adults don't always have the answers.  Abeni is certainly someone to root for.  I also loved Asha and the other secondary characters.  I think this is a great book for younger readers and older ones alike.  Highly recommended and look forward to reading more of Abeni's journey.  Arrr!

I'll preface by saying that I'm not the intended audience for this book, so I'm rating it more softly than I would if this were.

First off, I like P. Djeli Clark quite a bit, having read and enjoyed both his adult-oriented novellas and his debut novel A Master of Djinn. So when I saw that this book was available on NetGalley I was eager to check it out. The fact that it was billed as a young reader's adventure story in a non-Western setting was of further interest.

Unfortunately, I wanted to like this book more than I actually enjoyed it.

There's no way to avoid saying as much: Abeni's Song is a slog. After a strong initial start, in which young Abeni's village is raided by mysterious and powerful "storm women" who swiftly capture all the villagers save our protagonist, the story slows down immensely. We spend a long time in the house of Asha, the mysterious witch who rescued Abeni from the storm women, but just as it looks like she's going to start teaching Abeni how to wield magic Asha's house too is attacked by the forces of darkness, cutting Abeni's magical apprenticeship short--a jarring change, when said apprenticeship was indicated as the main thrust of the story by the book's blurb.

After that things just sort of...happen. Abeni wanders through the jungle collecting shapeshifting spirit friends, and eventually confronts the leader of the storm women who raided her village and stole away her family (though the storm women themselves are curiously absent). But there's never much sense of urgency to Abeni's trek through the woods, nor any real sense of what drives the character beyond a vague desire to find a competent adult.

The bones of a decent story are there, but they're buried under a meandering plot and a lot of tepid prose. It's especially jarring because I know from his other work that Clark is a talented writer, but it seems that in shifting to a middle grade audience he's made the choice to downgrade his prose style to shorter, more simplistic sentences, which I think is a disservice to both his skills and his audience's level of comprehension.

The ending clearly leaves space for a sequel, but if one comes out I'm going to ignore it in favor of his adult fiction.

P. D’jeli Clark is a master of world building in his Dead Jinn Universe.

So it should be no surprise that his debut middle grade novel would be any different. If anything, Clark’s whimsy and creative imagination, for me, was even more impressive.

If you couldn’t tell, I absolutely loved Abenis Song!

One day during the Harvest Festival, a tragedy occurs when an entire village is captured and carried off in ghost ships toward an unknown land.

Well, not quite an entire village.

Abeni, a twelve year old villager, is magically whisked away by an older woman the community has long believed to be a witch. Longing to find out what happened to her friends and family, Abeni must grow up quickly if she wants to find a way to save her village.

From the sensory descriptions of the Harvest Festival and a magical hut in the forest with dozens of ever-changing rooms, to talking pots and straw men, you’ll be enchanted with the world Clark’s created. It was one my favorite parts of this book! I was always surprised and delighted to see where his imagination took the story.

The character relationships were wonderful, too. Lots of found family goodness! Abeni changes from hot-tempered and rash to someone who develops self-control, responsibility and compassion.

The ending was very satisfying, with a completed arc of its own which is refreshing. But it left just enough of a plot tease for the sequel that I’m very much anticipating it!

I’d highly recommend this book for readers who enjoy highly whimsical middle grade novels such as The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill, if you enjoy African inspired folktales and myths, or Western African inspired fantasy.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group/Starscape for the digital arc. All opinions are my own.

Abeni’s Song is the middle-grade debut of P. Djèlí Clark — an author whose adult works I’ve very much enjoyed. Continuing in the trend, I really enjoyed the world of spirits and adventure created here. Abeni is a protagonist who is young and very much still trying to figure out who she is, and when tragedy strikes that process is interrupted by grieving for what she’s lost. Her relationship with Asha was endearing and convincingly fraught for the situation, as well as the additional friendships she forms along the way. The ways Abeni grows, sometimes in the wrong ways and eventually correcting that, was very satisfying to see unfold. Her story is only just beginning in this book, clearly setting up for a series. Not resolving everything that occurred in this book worked well to keep the pacing from being too breakneck and the resolution from feeling too simplistic, I think. I look forward to seeing the next stages of Abeni’s journey in following books.

Fantastic African inspired middle grade novel. It has everything a middle grade book needs like adventure, magic, found family, fun characters, innocence, loyalty and friendship. At the same time, it also has incredible world building and some heavy themes which makes it work for all ages. I recommend it for everyone, not just kids.

Video Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL4tV70gCeE

It’s been along time since I was a “young adult”. However, I am a big fan of the author and have enjoyed all of his work. I felt it was worth taking a chance on the story. I was not disappointed.

He has tempered his style considerably for the younger audience. While the words and sentences are simpler and the violence tamer he does not shy away from big themes. Family, loss, friendship and vengeance are just a few of the big ideas that roll through this story.

The author is applying his talented and unique perspective to what happened in Africa as that continent was exploited by the rest of the world. In some respects, I was reminded of his book “RingShout” and it’s fantastical take on the American south during the 1920s; don’t worry this book is for a much younger reading audience

And what a story it is! A young girl is chased from her village by an invading army, is saved by the witch who used to watch over the village, goes from protected to protector, and begins a magical journey through mythical realm. Along the way she is joined by some memorable characters who add considerably to the story. Just when you think things could not get stranger – they do; and it works effectively!

This is just the beginning of what could be at least another if not even more books. I look forward to seeing where the author takes this. After seeing some of the nonsense that is on students summer reading list, I think this would be a worthy replacement and encourage parents to consider it. I coach a team of 8, 9 and 10 year old softball players. I would not hesitate to recommend it to everyone of their families.

A middle-school fantasy of a young girl about to come of age who witnesses her entire village captured and carted off. Now, "apprenticed" to a woman who might be a witch, some found family and spirit friends she is determined to find a way to save her village. It is clearly associated with real world issues of the African slave trade, its legacy and other affairs but it isn't mired in these to the point where you lose the story. There is good world-building here along with strong female characters. Also, there is a sense of fun and wonder.

While written for middle school age, anyone can enjoy this book. Adventure, magic, multifaceted characters. What more can you ask for? A well-written story and Clark also delivers that.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

I wasn’t really sure what I was going to get from this book, but I had read previously from this offer and really wanted to continue my journey with Clark. I have to say I really enjoyed this book. I say similarities to Clark’s other book Ring Shout in theme, character work, and pacing. So much happens in this book and it never feels rushed or crowded. This book flowed from one scene to the next in a page turnery way. Every single character is fully fleshed out and realized which is a testament to Clark’s writing. The themes in this are an exploration of the slave trade that is a stain on our history as a country. Be prepared to read reviews calling this book woke trash, that is indoctrinating our youth (this book is a middle grade) because it is coming, This book is beautiful and it needs to be read by as many children and adults can get their hands on this. 5 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Publishing Group/Starscape for the eARC. This is an honest review.

I typically do not pick up much middle grade, but I love Clark's writing and couldn't resist this one. "Abeni's Song" by P. Djèlí Clark is a captivating middle-grade fantasy novel that weaves together African-inspired elements into a lush and magical story. The story follows Abeni, a young girl who embarks on an unexpected magical apprenticeship after her village is attacked and her loved ones are captured. Abeni's journey is filled with danger, mystery, and the bravery of a young girl determined to save her people.

Clark's storytelling is enchanting, and his world-building immerses readers in a rich and vibrant setting. Though young and at times foolish, the characters are relatable and endearing, making it easy for readers to root for Abeni and her friends. The representation of a low-vision character adds even more diversity to the narrative.

The book may be darker than expected for a middle-grade novel (in a positive way), but it is suitable for young readers who enjoy thrilling adventures. Clark's writing is engaging and able to capture the sense of community, making it a heartwarming and empowering read.

This will sweep young readers away into a world of magic, courage, and the power of friendship.

I loved this! Reading books with settings and magic systems different from what’s commonly used in western fantasy is so interesting.

Abeni is such a fun character and I found her so adorable. The friends she meets and makes along the way are also just as interesting. I really liked that her growing friend group was (almost) all girls. I feel like often in books like this the group tends to be more boys than girls but that wasn’t the case for Abeni. The relationship between Abeni and Asha is so complicated but done well and I loved that Abeni just kind of became the guardian for more girls along the way.

This book gets the story moving quickly, it didn’t have that expositional drag some books tend to have in the first 20%, which I appreciated.

Thank you to NetGalley for making this available in exchange for an honest review!