#elatsoe

[phaedraismyusername]

This year some of my favourite books I read were written by indigenous American authors and I just wanted to shout out a couple that I fell in love with

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

Horror being my second most read genre, I did not think books could still get under my skin the way this one did lol. It follows four Blackfoot men who are seemingly being hunted by a vengeful... something... years after a fateful hunting trip that happened just before they went their separate ways. The horror, the dread, the something... pure nightmare fuel 10/10

Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

An apocalyptic novel following an isolated Anishinaabe community in the far north who lose contact with the outside world. When two of their young men return from their college with dire news, they set about planning on how to survive the winter, but when outsiders follow, lines are drawn in the community that might doom them all. This book is all dread all the time, the use of dreams and the inevitability of conflict weighs heavy til the very end. An excellent apocalypse story if you're into that kind of thing.

My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

This book follows Jade, a deeply troubled mixed race teenager with a shitty homelife who's *obsessed* with slasher movies. When she finds evidence that there's a killer running about her soon-to-be gentrified small town, she weaponises that knowledge to predict what's going to happen next. I don't think this book will work for most people, it's a little stream of consciousness, Jade's head is frequently a very difficult place to be in, but by the last page I had so much love for her as a character and the emotional rollercoaster she's on that I had to mention it here.

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger

Taking a bit of a left turn but this charming YA murder mystery really stuck with me this year. Elatsoe is a teenage girl living in an America where myths, monsters, and magic are all real every day occurrences. When her cousin dies mysteriously with no witnesses, she decides to do whatever she can, including using her ability to raise the spirits of dead animals, to solve the case. The worldbuilding was just really fun in this one, but the Native American myths and influence were the shining star for me, and the asexual rep was refreshing to see in a YA book too tbh

Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq

The audiobook, the audiobook, the audiobook!!!! Also the physical book because formatting and illustrations, but the audiobook!!! Tanya Tagaq is an Inuit throat singer, and this novel is a genre blending of 20 years worth of the authors journal entries, poetry, and short stories, that culminates in a truly unique story about a young girl surviving her teenage years in a small tundra town in the 70s. It is sad and beautiful and hard but an experience like nothing else I read this year.

[aroaessidhe]

Aro & Ace ghost books

Funeral Girl -  YA Paranormal fantasy / Aro-coded Ace MC / a girl who can talk to the ghosts of those who come through her family’s funeral home

Elatsoe - YA Contemporary Fantasy / Aro-coded Ace MC / a girl who can summon animal ghosts investigates a murder

Archivist Wasp - YA Postapoc-fantasy / aspec-normative world that barely acknowledges the existence of romance /  a girl priestess who studies ghosts finds a powerful one who wants her to help him find the ghost of his friend

Vespertine - YA medieval fantasy / aroacespec coded MC / a nun in a world plagued by ghosts is possessed by a powerful revenant

[the above are ghost-heavy, in the below a ghost is just one aspect]

The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester - YA Contemporary / ace-spec MC with an aroace dad moves into a new house that is possibly haunted by the ghost of a boy who died 30 years ago 

The Unbalancing - Adult high fantasy novella / a (demi) poet who is haunted by the ghost of their (aroacespec) ancestor

#aspec books / aspec database / tumblr masterpost

[ebrithilbowser-blog]

Weird Pokémon theory. I just noticed that maybe, just maybe, the Dreepy line might be a subtle reference to MissingNo.

I mean sure, it's obviously a Diplocaulus, and I really don't know why ghosts of extinct animals are such a rare trope. The only other examples I can think of off the top of my head are that one episode of Love, Death and Robots and Darcy Little Badgers beautiful novel Elatsoe.

But when you look at Dreepys design, it seems to be something else. Back in the day, MissingNo. had two glitched-out sprites and three sprites that were taken from elsewhere in the game. It's those three:

Two are fossils of extinct Pokémon, just like Dreepy's Diplocaulus, and one is a ghost. So in a way, MissingNo. was the original extinct ghost Pokémon. Also the Diplocaulus head shape is pretty similar to Kabutops, while the Dreepy families other type is dragon, which isn't Aerodactyl's type, but come on, it's clearly a dragon.

Also shout-out to another ghost dinosaur that's not part of the above-mentioned trope because it's the ghost of an extant species of dinosaur. Come to think of it, for a series so heavily focused on dinosaurs, the Super Mario World/Yoshi's Island series features a remarkable lack of stereotypical prehistoric tropes...

[submissive-and-readable]

Sheine Lende by Darcie Little Badger

Source: NetGalley ARC

Publisher: Levine Querido

Release date: 16 April 2024

Genre: young adult historical/urban fantasy (70s rural Texas)

If you like:

dogs (ghost dogs!)

various ghost animals, existing and extinct

no romance whatsoever

hope and community in the midst of grief and loss

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Synopsis

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.

Content warnings

Colonisation

Loss of close family members

Illness

Natural disasters

Grief

Review

I found out about this book while scrolling through NetGalley, and the second I saw that it was a prequel to Elatsoe, I had to read it.

This is a prequel about Elatsoe's grandmother Shane as a 17 year old girl, but you don't have to read Elatsoe to know what's going on, and both books can be read in either order as standalones.

This book is so well-crafted and thoughtful; it took me a little while to fully immerse myself in the story, because the setting and vibe is so different from Elatsoe, and it is a little slower paced, but once I got into the groove, the story flowed over me.

We follow Shane as she tries to figure out the mystery of her mother's and a child's disappearance, and along the way we learn about her history, as well as explore her relationships with her family and friends.

A strong focus of the book is on Shane's grief; grief from losing not only her home and her family members, but also losing her culture and language. This book tackles the harms caused by colonialism, which goes beyond stealing land, but also erases culture and peoples.

At its heart, this book is about family and community. At times Shane may feel alone, like she has to take on her burdens by herself, but her friends and family are always there for her (dead or alive).

I also loved Rovina Cai's lovely illustrations at each chapter heading; they tell a story parallel to the main story, and they add another layer of depth.

Overall, this is book was written full of heart, and it shows <3

[jezebelgoldstone]

You know what I really love about fanfic? All that Good And Explicit Queer SexTM The Magpie Lord, The Mermaid Murders, The Last Sun, She Who Became the Sun, Witchmark, One Last Stop, Fatal Shadows, Red White and Royal Blue, Captive Prince, Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, A Lady for a Duke, Prince of the Sorrows, Hunger Pangs (sex edition), The High King's Golden Tongue

No what I like about fanfic is that I can make sure there AREN'T any sex scenes A Memory Called Empire, Monstrous Regiment, The Winter Duke, Winter's Orbit, I Kissed Shara Wheeler, Iron Widow, Gideon the Ninth, The Luminous Dead, The Four Profound Weaves, A Conspiracy of Truths, Ocean's Echo, Check Please!, Elatsoe, The Bruising of Qilwa, Dreadnought, Black Water Sister, The Dark Tide, Hunger Pangs (fluff edition)

[datsderbunnyblog]

A couple of days ago I started reading Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger and I'm still absolutely in love with the opening paragraph.

[haveyoureadthisfantasybook]

vote YES if you have finished the entire book.

vote NO if you have not finished the entire book.

(faq · submit a book)

[bookcub]

i love elatsoe by darcie little badger for so many reasons but after reading a few different disappointing mysteries, i was thinking about how much i loved it, specifically how the mystery is not the "who" but the "how" and "why" and the reveals are so satisfying with the narrative and the themes of the text. *sigh* i love that book so much

[justabooklovingmetalhead]

New Releases of April 2024!

I’ve been really excited for Dear Wendy for so long! Can’t wait for it to come out :) I have no clue how I’m going to find time to read everything coming out this month tho 😅

[indigenous-character-tournament]

Elatsoe "Ellie" Bride is canonically Lipan Apache.

Tao is canonically Indigenous. He is part of the fictitious Hiva tribe who resided on the sunken continent of Mu near the Galapagos Islands. Thank you @yana125 for the image submission!

[haveyoureadthismgyabook]

[aroaessidhe]

YA low fantasy/sci-fi books with ace girl MCs

(ie real contemporary setting + sff elements)

Elatsoe - aro-coded ace MC

Funeral Girl - aro-coded ace MC

Now Entering Addamsville - ace MC

A Snake Falls to Earth - 1/2 MCs is ace

We Awaken - ace lesbian MC, ace LI

Sawkill Girls - 1/3 MCs is bi ace

Quicksilver - ace MC

The Art of Saving The World - ace lesbian MC

Not Even Bones - aroacespec coded MC

Little Black Bird - aspec questioning MC (+ LI)

The Spider and Her Demons - aroacespec coded MC

The Facts & Legends of Callie Catwell - sapphic ace MC

Earthbound Hearts - ace lesbian MC

#aspec books / aspec database / tumblr masterpost

[fredfinch]

reading Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger and I love this dad explaining a proverb with the true satisfaction of someone who knows Bird Facts

[bibliophilecats]

Currently reading: Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger

[templeofshame]

The mechanic of Indigenous people being able to disinvite non-native vampires is so great, like I would read a book where that was the whole premise