Publishers Weekly
★ 06/22/2020
Indigenous myths, modern-day technology, and the supernatural successfully blend to build a fast-paced murder mystery in Little Badger’s intriguing solo debut. After 17-year-old, asexual Ellie’s older cousin Trevor is fatally injured in an apparent car accident, he comes to her in a dream, identifying his killer and begging her to protect his family. Lipan Apache Ellie, named for her “heroic ancestor”—her maternal sixth-great-grandmother, Elatsoe, now known as “Six-Great”—has inherited from her the gift of waking and training ghosts, and sets out to reveal the accident as a crime and unmask the killer. Accom-panied by her faithful sidekick, the ghost of her dead dog Kirby, her loyal friend, “white Celtic-and-Nordic-American” cheerleader Jay, and actively supported by her understanding parents, Ellie battles with ghosts, vampires, and exorcists in a series of suspenseful confrontations—including a descent into an underworld of trilobite fossils—that increase in intensity and eventually solidify her place in her strong maternal lineage of Native protectors. Cai’s grayscale spot illustrations imbue the book with shadowy breath and movement, bringing a lyrical undertone to the energetic plot and multifaceted, refreshing voice. Ages 12–up. Author’s agent: Michael Curry, Donald Maass Literary. (Aug.)
From the Publisher
“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
School Library Journal
07/01/2020
Gr 5 Up—Elatsoe (Ellie) is a Lipan Apache teen who lives in Texas, where bizarre supernatural occurrences are the norm and people encounter magic, monsters, shape-shifters, and various supernatural events beyond reason. Ellie has inherited the spiritual skills of her people and has raised the ghost of her dog Kirby. A shimmering mass, Kirby is a loyal companion who alerts Ellie to danger and has the ability to move through walls. Ellie uses her supernatural abilities and keen observation skills to investigate the gruesome, suspicious death of her cousin Trevor. The story opens deceptively slow with abundant character introduction, but the turning point arrives when Ellie dreams about Trevor and he reveals the murderer's identity. Ellie and her friend Jay visit a library to research the paranormal history of the Texas town where her cousin was killed. They discover that the blood of vulnerable people is a key to one doctor's cures. In a time-bending web of travel between past, present, and the underworld, Ellie confronts the killer. The dramatic ending will engage readers, and is a worthy payoff for the somewhat slow introductory pace. VERDICT Ellie's family's cultural beliefs and status as Indigenous people are presented well in the context of this supernatural fantasy. Recommended for fans of the genre.—Naomi Caldwell, Alabama State Univ., Montgomery
NOVEMBER 2020 - AudioFile
Kinsale Hueston’s youthful tone shapes the narration of this young adult ghost mystery. This is a story of a Lipan Apache teenager and her dead dog solving the mystery of her cousin’s death. Hueston’s fairly quick and steady delivery keeps pace with Elatsoe, known as Ellie, who is always on the go, always figuring things out in her secretive town filled with magic and monsters. Hueston gives Ellie a fearless tone to start, and a slight perkiness appears as the story unfolds. Instead of an eerie mood, given the storyline, there is warmth amid the moments of adolescent probing. Together, Ellie and Hueston remind us that we all have a bit of youthful curiosity. T.E.C. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 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)
