Written by Darcie Little Badger
Published by Levine Querido, August 2020
362 pages
Originally Completed August 4, 2023
Re-Read and Completed August 15, 2024

Imagine an America very similar to our own. It’s got homework, best friends, and pistachio ice cream.

There are some differences. This America been shaped dramatically by the magic, monsters, knowledge, and legends of its peoples, those Indigenous and those not. Some of these forces are charmingly everyday, like the ability to make an orb of light appear or travel across the world through rings of fungi. But other forces are less charming and should never see the light of day.

Elatsoe lives in this slightly stranger America. She can raise the ghosts of dead animals, a skill passed down through generations of her Lipan Apache family. Her beloved cousin has just been murdered, in a town that wants no prying eyes. But she is going to do more than pry. The picture-perfect facade of Willowbee masks gruesome secrets, and she will rely on her wits, skills, and friends to tear off the mask and protect her family.

When I read this last year I wasn’t in the best mood about books that had kids saving the world while adults are useless. I also must not have been as open to urban fantasy as I should have been, which resulted in an unfair review at the time. I decided to re-read it after reading “Sheine Lende” which is a prequel to “Elatsoe”.

I really enjoyed reading the book for the second time. The characters are great. And I do think the adults around Elatsoe are great too even though she does all the investigative work with her friend and solves the case. Her parents are very supportive of her gifts and how she uses them. I think I also failed to realize she’s actually seventeen the first time I read the book, so actually closer to being an adult than a child. For some reason I thought she as younger the first time around.

The setting is really interesting and the word building made more sense this time. I think in some places the details could have been explained a little more but there’s also a sense that things are secret as part of the cultures involved. There are a couple places where Elatsoe was thinking of her Sixth-Great Grandmother and the scene shifts right into a story about her. I think those instances could have been separated a little more. Especially in once case there is something serious happening to Elatsoe and story switches POV before returning to solving the initial situation Elatsoe is in.

It’s still a bit annoying that Elatsoe does almost all the work to solve everything. Her mother has the same gifts she does but can’t use them as well for some reason. I don’t know if that was explained or not? I might have missed that explanation like I missed why her father suddenly disappears after driving her to her cousins house. There’s actually a line in the book about how he needs to go back to work, but that wasn’t entirely clear after all his talk of believing her and wanting to help her find out what had happened. None of this impacts my overall feelings of enjoying the book and I’m glad I read it again.

See the StoryGraph page for “Elatsoe” for more reviews and warnings.

Written by Darcie Little Badger
Published by Levine Querido, April 2024
368 pages
Completed August 13, 2024

Shane works with her mother and their ghost dogs, tracking down missing persons even when their families can’t afford to pay. Their own family was displaced from their traditional home years ago following a devastating flood – and the loss of Shane’s father and her grandparents. They don’t think they’ll ever get their home back.

Then Shane’s mother and a local boy go missing, after a strange interaction with a fairy ring. Shane, her brother, her friends, and her lone, surviving grandparent – who isn’t to be trusted – set off on the road to find them. But they may not be anywhere in this world – or this place in time.

Nevertheless, Shane is going to find them.

I really enjoyed this book and the characters. I thought this one worked a bit better than “Elatsoe” for which this is a prequel. The main thing that makes this one work better for me is that Shane isn’t surrounded by adults who know as much as she does or more. She actually is the only one with the specific type of training for how to find people the way her mother does. The primary adults in this book are grandparents of those who are missing and her own grandparent who isn’t as helpful as he should be, and then a few additional teenagers she knows. In general I think this book just feels like it works better in the sense of being a book where a younger person solves the day while adults can’t help.

I also felt like the world building was a little better in this book. A lot of things were explained more, or if not it as acknowledged that information was not available. The mimic rings are unknown to everyone in this situation as no one really knows why the exist. So Shane has to do the work of finding out what is going on and who might have the information. I really like how she handles everything while also looking after her little brother. I also like the friendships she has and develops along the way.

I really liked the resolution of everything with what had happened to her mother and also another person that disappeared years ago. The clues are there to be had, and while the solution was little more whimsical than I’d usually enjoy, it totally worked for this book.

See the StoryGraph page for “Sheine Lende” for more reviews and warnings.