Sometimes when a book is really good, I don’t know how to start the review. It’s easier, somehow, with a bad book, because I can usually clearly identify the main thing I dislike about the book, and use that to lead in to the review. And sometimes I can do that with a good book, if there’s one really special thing about it that spoke to me, but when a book is overall really good, it just feels weak to lead off with “This is a good book y’all.”
The thing is, y’all, Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger is a good book. It’s not a perfect book. It suffers from some slow pacing at the beginning and you can kind of tell it’s a debut novel, but it’s a debut novel the author can be proud of — and obviously readers and the publisher agree, because it recently got a prequel!
There’s not one big thing that makes this story of a young woman who can summon ghosts a good book. It’s a lot of little things. Things like:
- Teenage characters who behave like teenagers.
- Adults who behave like mature, responsible people, and don’t arbitrarily keep secrets from the teens.
- Good asexual (and possibly aromantic?) representation.
- Dogs!
- Interesting world building, and magic that makes sense for the world.
- The teens are solving a big problem, but they don’t have to literally save the world, and they have adults helping them.
- A strong male-female friendship.
- A cool Lipan Apache main character that young Indigenous readers can hopefully see something of themselves in, while readers of other races get to learn more about the traditional stories and modern lives of a culture they might be less familiar with.
As you can see, there’s a lot to like. I especially enjoyed the setting, which was reminiscent of True Blood, in that it’s an alternate version of modern-day Earth where there are multiple types of supernatural people/abilities in the world (in addition to Ellie’s ghost powers, there are vampires, fae, psychics, and magicians), and they’re living openly. Science is studying things like how to slow down the progression of vampirism, and the environmental effects of magic. Ellie doesn’t have to hide her magic from her best friend, or figure out how to convince her parents that her cousin’s ghost spoke to her, because it’s just an open fact that she can summon and communicate with ghosts; it runs in the family even.
The main plot here is that Ellie is trying to solve her cousin’s murder, but this narrative is interspersed with stories of Six-Great, Ellie’s great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother, a hero who used her ghost summoning powers to help her slay monsters. I don’t know if Six-Great was the first person in the family to have these ghost abilities, or if she’s just the one who did the most with them, but she’s a real legend. I felt like these stories sort of kneecapped the tension of the murder mystery, while doing a lot of great world and character building. Don’t go into this expecting a fast-paced, tense thriller of a mystery.
The great thing about Elatsoe is that it’s age-appropriate for its intended young adult audience (and for kids on the mature end of middle grade, I would think), but it’s also really enjoyable as an adult reader. This would be a great book to share with the teens in your life, whether they’re your own kids, your niblings, or your friends’ children.
CWs and TWs: Violence, death, mention of past death of a family pet (of old age!), racism, blood. Everything is presented in what I’d consider an age appropriate way for a YA book, but consider reading it first before sharing it with a particularly sensitive teen or tween.
Format and Source: I read this as an ebook from Sno-Isle Libraries.
Book Bingo Prompts
Nook & Cranny (Card 2): Hello From the Other Side. This prompt could refer to the other side of a lot of things, but obviously I’ve decided it refers to DEATH. Last year I chose Funeral Songs for Dying Girls by Cherie Dimaline, and this year it’s Elatsoe. Weird that they’re not just both books about ghosts, but also both are written by Indigenous authors.
SAL/SPL Adult Summer Reading: Young Adult. I’m really glad that SAL/SPL included this prompt, because Young Adult gets looked down on by adult readers, but there’s some great stuff being done in the age category, across various genres. It doesn’t make you any less of an adult to read Young Adult or even Middle Grade, and it might help you empathize with the young people in your life as you age. I don’t currently have a lot of YA on my TBR, so I’m glad this prompt encouraged me to take out Elatsoe when I saw it on the Currently Available list in Libby.
Book Bingo Progress
Nook & Cranny (Card 1): 13 out of 25 prompts complete. 1 bingo.
Nook & Cranny (Card 2): 11 out of 25 prompts complete. 0 bingos.
SAL/SPL Adult Summer Reading: 2 out of 23 prompts, 0 bingos.