Elatsoe (Eh-lat-so-ay) is a new YA fantasy novel from Darcie Little Badger, an
Indigenous author of the Lipan Apache Tribe. Set in an alternate United States (much like our own, but including ghosts, vampires, monsters, and magic), Elatsoe tells the story of Ellie, a teenage girl with the gift of awakening the ghosts of dead animals. Awakening ghosts is a skill passed down through the women of Ellie’s family, but it, like all magical abilities, can be difficult and dangerous to control. Ellie is able to awaken the ghost of her beloved dog Kirby, but feels inadequate compared to the skills of her Six Great Grandmother, an accomplished ghost-waker who travel around town riding the ghost of a wooly mammoth that she awoke and trained.
Never far from the realm of ghosts and spirits, Ellie receives a vision of her cousin who tells her that he has been murdered in a town called Willowbee, an idyllic community that’s home to the respected Dr. Allerton – a renowned philanthropist with an uncanny reputation for providing miraculous cures – a man whose somehow involved in the death of Ellie’s cousin.
Ellie fights for justice and searches for answers in this genre-spanning novel that’s part murder mystery, part road trip across the country, through the realms of the past, and into the land of ghosts.
