Elatsoe

by Darcie Little Badger, Rovina Cai (Illustrator)

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Part fantasy, part mystery, and entirely engrossing, Elatsoe is a unique story about a 17-year-old girl in an alternate version of America who possesses the ability to raise animal spirits from the dead. When her cousin dies in a mysterious accident, Ellie sets out to uncover the truth. Firmly rooted in Lipan Apache lore, Elatsoe is a true homage to the art and power of storytelling.

One of TIME Magazine's Top 100 Fantasy Novels of All Time — Now in Paperback! 

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, Ellie, 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?

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.

AWARDS

Locus Award Winner—Best First Novel 
A National Indie Bestseller
Nebula Award Finalist
Lodestar Award Finalist
Ignyte Award Finalist
American Indian Youth Literature Award Finalist

P R A I S E

“Groundbreaking.” —TIME

“Deeply enjoyable from start to finish.”—NPR

“Utterly magical.” —SyFyWire

“Atmospheric and lyrical...a gorgeous work of art.”—BuzzFeed

“One of the best YA debuts of 2020. Read it."—Marieke Nijkamp

★ “A fresh voice and perspective.”—Booklist (starred)

★ “A unique and powerful Native American voice.”–BookPage (starred)

★ “A brilliant, engaging debut.”—Kirkus (starred)

★ “A fast-paced murder mystery.”—Publishers Weekly (starred)

★ “A Lipan Apache Sookie Stackhouse for the teen set.” —Shelf-Awareness (starred)

BEST OF THE YEAR

NPR • Buzzfeed • BookPage • Chicago Public Library • Publishers Weekly • Kirkus • Shelf Awareness • Reactor • Booklist

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781646140053
Publisher:	Levine Querido
Publication date:	08/25/2020
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 5.80(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

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. Her Locus Award-winning debut novel, Elatsoe, was a National Indie Bestseller, named to over a dozen best-of-year lists, and called one of the Best 100 Fantasy Novels of All Time by TIME. Her second novel, A Snake Falls to Earth was longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature and received a Newbery Award Honor.

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. Instagram @rovinacai

Editorial Reviews

“A brilliant, engaging debut… It seamlessly blends cyberstalking with Vampire Citizen Centers and Lipan Apache stories.” - KIRKUS REVIEWS (starred review)

“[A] refreshing voice. Indigenous myths, modern-day technology, and the supernatural successfully blend to build a fast-paced murder mystery.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Creative and meticulously plotted… a Lipan Apache Sookie Stackhouse for the teen set.” - SHELF-AWARENESS starred review

“Groundbreaking.” —TIME

“A fresh voice and perspective, weaving in folktales, omens, and urban legends of the protagonist’s Lipan Apache culture.” - BOOKLIST (starred review)

“A strong heroine, a supernatural mystery and a unique and powerful Native American voice.”–BOOKPAGE (starred review)

★ “This absorbing and haunting speculative fiction debut challenges expectations at every turn.”- HORN BOOK (starred review)

“Utterly magical.” - SYFYWIRE

"The 100 Fantasy Books of All Time" – TIME

“Beautiful. Sinister. Deeply enjoyable from start to finish.” - NPR

From the Publisher

★ 2020-05-17
A teenager with supernatural gifts must solve her cousin’s murder before it’s too late.

Aside from the fact that she owns a ghost dog named Kirby, Ellie is like any other comic book–loving, ice cream–eating Lipan Apache teenager. Her non-Native friends include her childhood buddy Jay, who is white, and her cousin Trevor’s Latinx wife, Lenore. Yet Ellie does have traits that set her apart: She has inherited the talents of Six-Great-Grandmother, her powerful Lipan Apache forebear, and plans to skip college to work as a paranormal investigator. When Trevor dies in what appears to be a car accident, his ghost appears to her briefly, begging that she protect his wife and child. Ellie must call upon her strong lineage to rid her ancestral land of an ancient curse. Even as she discovers some of her own tribal relatives have been complicit in historic wrongdoing, she must save her family, animals, and community from destructive forces and restore balance to the world. A fast-paced whodunit set in a contemporary world like our own, this is a creative fusion of Indigenous cultural influences and supernatural fantasy. A brilliant, engaging debut written by a talented author, it seamlessly blends cyberstalking with Vampire Citizen Centers and Lipan Apache stories. This groundbreaking introduction to the fantasy genre remains relevant to Native histories even as it imaginatively looks to the future.

Educates about settler colonialism while also entertaining with paranormal twists. (Speculative fiction. 13-18)

Kirkus Reviews

A strong heroine, a supernatural mystery and a unique and powerful Native American voice.”

BookPage (starred review)

Kinsale Hueston’s youthful tone shapes the narration…Hueston gives Ellie a fearless tone to start, and a slight perkiness appears as the story unfolds…Together, Ellie and Hueston remind us that we all have a bit of youthful curiosity.”

AudioFile

”A Lipan Apache Sookie Stackhouse for the teen set.”

Shelf Awareness (starred review)

Indigenous myths, modern-day technology, and the supernatural successfully blend to build a fast-paced murder mystery.”

Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Utterly magical.”

SYFYWire