by Darcie Little Badger, Illustrated by Rovina Cai
Levine Querido
10/31/23, paperback
SKU: 9781646142767
A Texas teen comes face-to-face with a cousin's ghost and vows to unmask the murderer.
Elatsoe--Ellie for short--lives in an alternate contemporary America shaped by the ancestral magics and knowledge of its Indigenous and immigrant groups. She can raise the spirits of dead animals--most importantly, her ghost dog Kirby. When her beloved cousin dies, all signs point to a car crash, but his ghost tells her otherwise: He was murdered.
Who killed him and how did he die? With the help of her family, her best friend Jay, and the memory great, great, great, great, great, great grandmother, Elatsoe, must track down the killer and unravel the mystery of this creepy town and its dark past. But will the nefarious townsfolk and a mysterious Doctor stop her before she gets started?
A breathtaking debut novel featuring an asexual, Apache teen protagonist, Elatsoe combines mystery, horror, noir, ancestral knowledge, haunting illustrations, fantasy elements, and is one of the most-talked about debuts of the year.
Target age: 13 to 17
Reviews:
"Beautiful. Sinister. Deeply enjoyable from start to finish." - NPR
"The 100 Fantasy Books of All Time" - TIME
"A strong heroine, a supernatural mystery and a unique and powerful Native American voice."- BOOKPAGE (starred review)
About the Contributors:
Darcie Little Badger is an Earth scientist, writer, and fan of the weird, beautiful, and haunting. She is an enrolled member of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas.
Rovina Cai is a freelance illustrator based in Melbourne, Australia. She works out of an old convent building that is possibly haunted. Her work has been recognized by the Society of Illustrators and the Children's Book Council of Australia. Recently she has illustrated books by Patrick Ness and Margo Lanagan.