Abeni's Song
Written by P. Djèlí Clark
Read by Funmi James
Book 28/250
Genre: Fantasy, YA
Format: Audio, ARC
Pages/Time: 336/15hr 39min
Published: 2023
Rating: 7/10
Narration: 3/10

P. Djèlí Clark is an author that has absolutely knocked it out of the park with each of his novels I have read. Abeni's Song serves as a really exciting and whimsical African inspired fantasy that made me excited about a YA series. And while the execution and writing of this book was good, I very much wish that I had read this one physically or digitally as opposed to audio.

I found the performance by Funmi James so distracting that it took me out of the book and really hurt my reading experience. That is not to say that James is a bad narrator, James has a soothing voice and delightful accent that works so well with Abeni's Song. However, this is only for the narration. When she reads dialogue, choces were made. Nearly every character has a high-pitched whiny voice that really took me out of the story. This really didn't work for me and almost brought me to DNFing it. Whenever the sequel to this one comes out, I am most likely going to pass on the audio version.

I absolutely LOVE P Djeli Clark's work so when I saw this one, I immediately requested it. Turns out, this was probably a bit too young for me which is a bummer. The story seemed really great for that age group but unfortunately did not hold my attention. Thank you for the review copy!

I enjoyed it. An interesting story that has a Pied Piper feel to it at the beginning. Love the folklore included. I think kids will really enjoy the adventure aspect of this.

4 stars

I liked this middle grade book a lot more than I was expecting. I don't read a lot of middle grade, but I like Clark, and heard good things. I think Abeni was a very good protagonist and I really enjoyed the magic.

The narration was good as well!

i loved the narrator of this book. I don't think that the story would have come to life in such a way otherwise. I can't even properly put into words how beautiful this story was. The world building is gorgeous and lush, I wanted to just fall right into the pages. The characters are ones that you can't help but love. The thing that excited me the most about this book is the amount of culture and folklore that is threaded throughout this story. There are some extremely important topics in this book that i think were done with so much care and taste. I cannot wait for book two!

I rarely read middle grade novels, but was compelled to pick this one up because I've heard such great things about Clark. I was not disappointed - the world, the characters and the lessons are all incredible and I think this is a fantastic book for young readers.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

The audiobook narrator was not a good fit. She did too much while trying to differentiate the different character voices and made it impossible to take the story seriously - or even understand what she was saying some of the time. And this story is rather serious, despite its silly start, so the over the top voices just ruined the experience for me.

*Thank you NetGalley and P. Djèlí Clark for the ARC of this novel.

This fantasy captured me and wouldn't let go. I fell in love with the world and the magic within it from the start. It is the first in a series and is filled with relatable, complex and interesting characters. It is a solid story with plenty of room to expand and grow. World building and character development are intertwined in this first book and I absolutely love the imagery and the character development throughout the novel.

Actual Rating 1.5

Abeni is excited for this year’s Harvest Festival, as it means there’s only one more year before she gets to perform the ritual to become an adult. But when the old woman from the woods shows up and warns the adults that they are about to be punished for not listening to her warnings, Abeni’s world turns on its head. As her village falls under attack, Abeni is saved by the old woman and begrudgingly becomes her apprentice. Will Abeni learns the skills she needs to save the survivors from her village?

This is not a plot-driven read, which I found to be a little odd for a MG read. I was up for it, until I found that the characters never really became interesting or compelling enough to drive the story, either. So much time was spent telling us things that Abeni did or was spent on random aspects of the world, that the characters were never developed, and did not come across as complex or interesting. It was impossible to form any sort of emotional connection to them. The author’s writing style really isn’t suitable for a MG read, and after looking him up and learning that he’s an adult fantasy author, things make much more sense now.

The passage of time in this one wasn’t entirely clear. By 40% through the book, an entire year had passed. Before it’s mentioned at that point, I couldn’t have told you if it had been a few days or a few months since Abeni’s village was destroyed. Much of the lore that was included was fascinating, and I enjoyed the use of traditional African folklore throughout the book. I loved the monsters, spirits, and the magical house. But these were just bits and pieces of interesting things, rather than cohesive worldbuilding. Some more exploration of the world and its parameters would have been beneficial, especially since the conflicts of this book were larger-scaled, and there should have been less random worldbuilding that didn’t add to the story.

Some of the dialogue is extremely stilted, but I think it was due to the narrator. Unfortunately, while I liked the narrator’s natural voice, her range of character voices was not good and detracted greatly from the audio experience. Most of the female voices were high pitched to the point of sounding like the narrator was impersonating a three-year-old. This was the case for Abeni’s voice, which was especially painful as she spoke often. I know Abeni is a younger character (12-13), but the voice chosen to depict her was much too young. The other voices, generally for the spirits, were raspy, breathy, and stilted, with their sentences sometimes being painfully slow in the delivery. I wish the narrator had relied more on her natural voice and chosen to voice the characters in a more natural way.

I honestly can’t imagine any MG readers enjoying this, as I found it incredibly difficult to make myself finish this book. If you’re interested in MG fantasy set in a world inspired by Africa, then this book might be worth checking out, though I cannot recommend the audiobook version. My thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC!

- I really enjoyed this book! While there's a bit of action at the beginning, there's a pacing dip after that. I usually struggle with slower pacing, but I soon realized how wrapped up in Abeni's world I was!
- The pacing picks up a lot later in the story, and the end was incredibly strong!
- I loved the narrator's voice, but the voice she did for Abeni felt a bit too much like a little child's voice and not a 12-year-olds voice.
- This is a great read for fans of the Riordan Presents books, and it reminded me a ton of some of my favorites!
- This book has some pretty intense themes/topics that may be a little scary for younger kids. The way it described all the people vanishing from the village made it feel closer to a horror book there for a little bit. I had so many students who wanted to read horror books in middle school, and this would be a great recommendation that is still written for middle grades (especially for students who love adventure books!)

I had the opportunity to listen to this audiobook for Abeni's Song. Let's separate the narrator from the story first. For the author this was A really fantastic start to an African-inspired middle-grade fantasy adventure story that is grappling with some heavy issues metaphorically. Many of the issues snuck up on me due to the metaphors used by the author. I would nightly recommend it to everyone I know.

As for the narrator I did not appreciate her voice choices for many of the characters and it took about an hour of listening to get accustomed to the voice choice. Honestly the book being amazing is what kept me coming back for more.
_____

On the day of the Harvest Festival, the old woman who lives in the forest appears in Abeni's village with a terrible message:

You ignored my warnings. It’s too late to run. They are coming.

Warriors with burning blades storm the village. A man with a cursed flute plays an impossibly alluring song. And everyone Abeni has ever known and loved is captured and marched toward far-off ghost ships set for even more distant lands.

But not Abeni.

Abeni is magically whisked away by the old woman. In the forest, Abeni begins her unwanted magical apprenticeship, her journey to escape the witch, and her impossible mission to bring her people home.

Abeni’s Song is the beginning of a timeless, enchanting fantasy adventure about a reluctant apprentice, a team of spirit kids, and the village they set out to save.

Abeni's Song was a book that kept my attention the entire time. I loved listening to the audio book I felt like i was in the story the entire time.

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.

Kept me engaged the whole time. Loved the spirits Abeni traveled with and the general feeling this book had. Love the narrator as well.

I appreciate the ALC copy of Abeni's Song. I found the narration hard to listen to and focus on. I will try to read this book in physical form.

DNF at 43%.
The writing is lovely and I would have enjoyed finishing this had it not been for the narration.
Funmi James' natural voice was enchanting and worked well as the overall narrator of the story.
The issue I had was that for nearly every character she changed her voice to this whiney high pitched screech of sorts. It had me cringing constantly and began giving me a headache.
I could not continue, I will probably revisit this in a physical format.
Thanks to NetGalley & Macmillan Audio for my ALC.

This was an excellent book and that first that I read via audiobook and the ebook. The mythology and culture is strong and really intriguing. I did notice the audiobook used a few different terms than the ebook - for example dumplings in the print copy and balls of fufu in the audiobook. I think students who are fans of magic would enjoy this book.

I was fortunate to receive an advanced copy of the audiobook and wish to thank Macmillian Audio and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I was not a fan of the narrator for this book. I found the character voices to be annoying and a bit too high pitched and mousy. There were times where it wasn’t clear which character was speaking. The regular voice of the narrator was alright and would not have been a problem if other people were used to narrate the other characters in the book. This narrator just doesn’t have a very good voice for multiple characters. I think that Bahni Turpin or someone with a similar level of talent would have been perfect for this book. The actual story is extremely well written, and it is an amazing adventure story that can be enjoyed by both adults and kids. I will definitely be purchasing a physical copy of the book for my home library, but I don’t see myself listening to the audiobook version of this book again. I have given a four star rating as it is an average of ratings that I would give for the audiobook (3 stars) and physical book (5 stars).

I am a huge fan of Clark's writing style and have read all his works. That being said, I was supremely disappointed in the audiobook. The narrative is details, imaginative and has poignant themes for young readers. However, all of this was ruined for me by the narrator. I did not care for the choices used to voice the characters. I understand wanting their to be emphasis for elders and younger children, but these choices deterred from the writing.

This audiobook was not my favorite. After barely being able to complete it, I feel like my experience with this book would have been better served had I read it physically. This is rarely something that i feel, as I love audiobooks and in fact, they make up the majority of my reading.

First, let me say that I loved Funmi James's natural voice during the narration. When she was just reading the story, I was entranced. Her voice is beautiful and her Nigerian accent was perfect for this story, adding an authenticity that other narrators may not have been able to deliver.

With this being said, the problem for me was the character voices work, when she would read the dialogue portions of the story. The voice for Abeni, and a few of the other characters, was practically unbearable. It was so whiney and too high-pitched, it took me completely out of the story.

I wish she could have just read the whole thing in her natural range/voice, as that was so pleasing, which made the dialogue sections all the more jarring. Of course, this is 100% my personal taste, but I would feel remiss if I didn't mention it. **Please note, I did not include this opinion in my review on my blog, or Goodreads.**

Full Review of the story:

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!