Elatsoe
core novel 2020 Elatsoe
Record
| First published | 2020 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.97 (24,123 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| Page count | 362 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9781646140053 |
| Internal chronology | 2 |
Synopsis
Set in a contemporary version of Texas where ghosts, vampires, and fairies live alongside the ordinary world, Elatsoe centers on Ellie, a seventeen-year-old asexual Lipan Apache girl who has inherited her family's ability to summon the ghosts of dead animals, including her own childhood dog Kirby, whom she keeps as a spectral companion. This is the second book in its series though its story comes first chronologically, following the events later revealed to have shaped Ellie's family. When her cousin Trevor is killed in what looks like a car accident, his ghost appears to Ellie and tells her he was actually murdered by a wealthy local doctor, Abe Allerton. Ellie travels to the fictional town of Willowbee to investigate, hoping to protect Trevor's wife and child while digging into secrets that reach back through her own family's history.
Where it sits
- Universe: Elatsoe
- Series: Elatsoe core; position 2 of 2 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Darcie Little Badger
Awards (verified)
- Locus Award (Best First Novel), 2021: won; Confirmed directly via the author's own blog post: "This summer, 2021, I accepted the Locus Award for Best First Novel. Elatsoe won."
Notes
- From the series record (Elatsoe): A contemporary-set fantasy in which ghosts, vampires, and fair folk are publicly known to exist, grounded in Lipan Apache oral tradition; the title character can raise and command ghosts, including her ghost dog Kirby. Sheine Lende (2024) is a direct prequel to Elatsoe (2020), set two generations earlier around the title character's grandmother; registered by internal chronology rather than publication order. No further book has been announced; the universe is registered 'ongoing' since the author's own site frames it as an open-ended world rather than a closed 2-book set.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series Elatsoe: position 1 of 2: next Sheine Lende (2024)
- Internal chronology, within Elatsoe: position 2 of 2: previous Sheine Lende (2024)
Sources
- Wikipedia: Elatsoe
- Darcie Little Badger (author blog): Elatsoe wins the Locus Award for Best First Novel
← Elatsoe dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.