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 it’s dark past. But will the nefarious townsfolk and a mysterious Doctor stop her before she gets started?
The breathtaking debut novel from Darcie Little Badger features an asexual, Apache teen protagonist – and combines mystery, horror, noir, ancestral knowledge, haunting illustrations, and fantasy elements, in one of the most-talked-about books in years.
- A national indie bestseller
- Nebula award finalist
- Lodestar award finalist
- Time’s best 100 fantasy books of all time
- NPR best of the year
- Booklist’s top 10 first novels for youth
- A BookPage best of the year
- Chicago Public Library “best of the best”
- PNBA bestseller
- Publishers Weekly best of the year
- Buzzfeed’s best YA SFF of the year
- Shelf-Awareness best of the year
- AICL best YA of the year
- NECBA windows & mirrors selection
- NEIBA award finalist
- Kirkus best YA of the year
- Publishers Weekly flying start
- American Indian Youth Literature Award finalist