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booksbutmakeitgay's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Car accident, Death, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Racism, and Violence
plumpaperbacks's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I wasn’t sure what to expect from Elatsoe, but it ended up being really good. I liked Ellie and Jay, and appreciated Ellie’s open, positive relationship with her parents. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book with a ghost dog before, but Kirby is undeniably a very good boy and I love him.
Little Badger’s take on paranormal creatures in the modern world was interesting and unique. I would’ve liked a bit more focus on that, but regardless, the blend of urban fantasy and mystery is something I think she handled well. Ghosts and vampires and fairy transport rings certainly spice up this whodunnit, as does the fact that the victim is able to tell Ellie who murdered him. Thus, this is a story of proving one man guilty rather than determining who is guilty. I was frequently surprised by the secrets Ellie and Jay unveiled.
Lastly, I liked that Ellie was queer. She’s definitely asexual and possibly aromantic as well, which means there’s no romance in this book, only jokes about how she’s totally not interested. It was nice to see her and Jay working together as friends and nothing more, with no unrequited crushes or hormones bogging down their relationship or kissing at inappropriate times. This is also, if I remember correctly, the first book I’ve read with an asexual protagonist that wasn’t strictly contemporary.
There are only two reasons I didn’t rate this five stars. One, like I said a bit earlier, I would’ve liked to see a bit more world-building, as it felt at times like Little Badger had a brilliant idea that was only partially explained on page and we were supposed to understand the rest. I did not. Two, while the intrigue was undoubtedly present and the mystery excellent, I thought the final scene with Allerton was anticlimactic, and I’m still not entirely sure what happened.
Despite that, Elatsoe is a great book, one of the most unique mysteries I’ve read, and a very impressive debut. I recommend it, and will definitely pick up more from this author in the future.
Representation
Little Badger’s take on paranormal creatures in the modern world was interesting and unique. I would’ve liked a bit more focus on that, but regardless, the blend of urban fantasy and mystery is something I think she handled well. Ghosts and vampires and fairy transport rings certainly spice up this whodunnit, as does the fact that the victim is able to tell Ellie who murdered him. Thus, this is a story of proving one man guilty rather than determining who is guilty. I was frequently surprised by the secrets Ellie and Jay unveiled.
Lastly, I liked that Ellie was queer. She’s definitely asexual and possibly aromantic as well, which means there’s no romance in this book, only jokes about how she’s totally not interested. It was nice to see her and Jay working together as friends and nothing more, with no unrequited crushes or hormones bogging down their relationship or kissing at inappropriate times. This is also, if I remember correctly, the first book I’ve read with an asexual protagonist that wasn’t strictly contemporary.
There are only two reasons I didn’t rate this five stars. One, like I said a bit earlier, I would’ve liked to see a bit more world-building, as it felt at times like Little Badger had a brilliant idea that was only partially explained on page and we were supposed to understand the rest. I did not. Two, while the intrigue was undoubtedly present and the mystery excellent, I thought the final scene with Allerton was anticlimactic, and I’m still not entirely sure what happened.
Despite that, Elatsoe is a great book, one of the most unique mysteries I’ve read, and a very impressive debut. I recommend it, and will definitely pick up more from this author in the future.
Representation
- Lipan Apache asexual protagonist
- Lipan Apache side characters
- side characters of color
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder, Grief, Car accident, Blood, Body horror, Gore, Animal death, Racism, and Violence
Moderate: Genocide, Medical trauma, and Medical content
Minor: Confinement, Kidnapping, and Gun violence
kukushka's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Car accident
Minor: Animal death, Death, Genocide, Medical trauma, Murder, and Pedophilia
willohreadz's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I adore this book. It has been a long time since I was so tickled by a new book and author. The characters, the world building, the story - all amazing. A great mix of history and magic. There are characters that are LGBTQ+ - but it is not the focus of the story. The main character is Indigenous and it is a large part of the story. Myths and history and cultural practice make this story rich and powerful. Oh! And an adventure story featuring teen leads where the parents are present, involved, they trust their kid, the kid trusts their parents felt SUPER refreshing. The whole story felt hopeful and playful and sad and wonderful. I can not recommend this book enough.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Grief, and Death
Moderate: Blood, Car accident, Terminal illness, Racism, Murder, Medical trauma, Medical content, Genocide, and Gore
massivepizzacrust's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Thank you, thank you BooksandLala for making me read this, it was amazing and I need *everyone* to pick it up now. Elatsoe as a main character is so sweet and smart and I want everything good to happen to her forever. I loved being part of her world. Gtg I have to buy a copy of this book for my little brother. Read it!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Racism, Death, and Car accident
Minor: Murder, Medical trauma, and Genocide
The tone is more spooky than graphic, I think this would be appropriate for a middle school reader that likes scary stories.liketrees's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
4.5
Started slow for me; paper is weirdly thick, so it was hard to gauge my reading speed. I read the first ~50 pages about two months before the rest of the book. It was easy to get back into the plot but I never fully got into the vampire stuff specifically.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Death
Moderate: Medical trauma, Murder, and Racism
Minor: Death of parent and Car accident
Re. medical trauma--part of the solution to the mystery istachyondecay's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
There were many reasons I added Elatsoe to my to-read list when it started making the rounds on Twitter: supernatural mystery, asexual protagonist (which I forgot until I started reading it), Indigenous author and protagonist, etc. It’s great when a novel has so many draws, isn’t just a single thing. Darcie Little Badger’s debut is one part ghost story, one part educational piece about stolen land and colonial ambitions—and all about a main character who embodies “spunky.”
This eponymous protagonist goes by the name of Ellie for most of the book. In this alternative United States, magic exists in a variety of forms. For Ellie’s family, who are Lipan Apache like Little Badger herself, this means passing down traditional knowledge about summoning spirits. Ellie has been practising this skill from childhood, and she has a loyal companion in her ghost dog, Kirby! After her cousin, Trevor, dies near a small and mysterious town in Texas, Ellie receives a visit from him in a dream. Trevor tells her he was murdered and even reveals the murderer—but that’s all. And Ellie is forbidden from waking the spirits of dead humans, lest they return as vengeful ghosts. So as she and her parents visit her cousin’s widow to help out, Ellie launches an investigation, with Kirby and her best friend Jay by her side, against the most prominent and wealthy man in town.
I enjoyed Elatsoe from the beginning, and it just gets better and better. Little Badger’s plotting and pacing is very smooth, and while there are moments of infodumping here and there, overall I like that she doesn’t spend too much time trying to explicate how this universe is different from our own. You just kind of get thrown into it—vampires and fairy rings and ghosts and all—and I appreciate that. There is room to grow if this turns into a series, and if this is a standalone then it strikes the right balance between plot and worldbuilding.
There’s also a healthy balance with Ellie’s characterization. Ellie is a great protagonist in terms of her growth. At 17, she is on the cusp of adulthood and quite independent, yet her dynamic with her parents is a healthy one. She respects their boundaries but pushes them just a little when she believes she is capable of more. Her parents, in return, set those boundaries out of concern for her safety, but they also respect her agency and believe her when she says things like “my cousin’s spirit told me he was murdered.” People are classifying this as young adult, and that’s cool, I guess it technically is from the age of the protagonist, but if anything this is definitely crossover … regardless, more books with healthy relationships between the protagonist and her parents, please!
Similarly, more asexual representation like this! I love, love books that emphasize and explore a character’s asexuality, of course. But I have said and will say again here: we need books where characters are just casually asexual. Ellie hints at this early in the book when she talks about not wanting children and not needing a partner—but of course, that doesn’t equate with asexuality. The word finally gets used on page later, when someone says, “I know you’re asexual,” suggesting Ellie is out to people in general, and that’s lovely! It’s not explained, not interrogated, just accepted. Moreover, it was so important to me that her friendship with Jay was platonic and lacked any hint of romantic/sexual tension or unrequited love. Just two peeps being pals, and I can stan that.
This kind of casual representation extends to Ellie’s identity as Lipan Apache. This identity is asserted more often and firmly than her asexuality, and Little Badger drops in nuggets of education for us settlers about what Indigenous people, and the Lipan Apache in particular, suffered at the hands of settlers. She works ideas of land and belonging into the vampire mythos in a really cool way. And of course, the entire mystery itself is rooted in a group of settlers’ beliefs that they can take what they want, from the land and its people, over and over indefinitely, without ever paying recompense. Overall, Elatsoe grounds itself in Indigenous roots and integrates, on every level, lessons in the harms of colonialism and the extant colonial mentality within American culture and history. It’s sophisticated and powerful.
Ok, ok, Kara—but what about the ghost story??? The mystery?? Does it work?
Short answer: yes. My main fear as the story developed would be that Ellie would turn into a kind of Mary Sue, that her magic or detective skills would make solving, and resolving, the case too easy. Without going into spoilers, I’d say Little Badger averts this through careful foreshadowing, as well as the way she uses stories of Ellie’s ancestor. The connection between Ellie’s power and the land/her ancestors is so important, another example of what I was talking about above when I said that this book is grounded in Indigenous roots—Ellie prevails not just as a result of her own strength but because she knows who she is and where she comes from. Elatsoe is a book about the power of remembering yourself in the face of a world that wants you to forget.
Sometimes you read books because you know what to expect: they are predictable, comfortable reads. Other times you read a book because you are expecting an experiment, something that might or might not work for you. Elatsoe fits comfortably into a third category of book: the type of book that isn’t really an experiment, but it is much more than a comfort read. It stretches you but in a way that does not demand cerebral contortions, educates you in a way that does not make you feel patronized, entertains you in a way that is fairly conventional for a novel yet layered and nuanced as well. If you like any of the things I listed at the top of this review, check it out.
Originally posted at Kara.Reviews.
Originally posted at Kara.Reviews.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Medical trauma, and Torture
Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, and Confinement
Minor: Addiction and Blood
rorikae's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
'Elatsoe' by Darcie Little Badger is an absolutely charming book. It tells the story of Ellie, a Lipan Apache girl who must solve the mystery surrounding her cousin's death with the help of her friend Jay and her ghost dog Kirby. As she solves the mystery, Ellie comes face to face with vampires, ghosts, and the sinister truth behind the small town in Texas where her cousin was killed.
There are so many wonderful things about this book. Darcie Little Badger creates a fascinating and yet completely believable take on reality populated by vampires, the descendants of Oberon, and ghosts. One of the things about the world that I think makes it so believable is that Darcie Little Badger injects just enough rules and regulations that make the world feel lived in while still exploring the more fantastical elements. In addition, her characters feel true to life and I found myself instantly caring for them even when they had just been introduced on the page. Kirby is also one of my new favorite fictional canine companions. Accompanied by Rovina Cai's beautiful illustrations at the start of each chapter, this book both took me along for an adventure and left me feeling like I had just received a big hug. It's truly spectacular and I cannot wait to read what Darcie Little Badger publishes next.
There are so many wonderful things about this book. Darcie Little Badger creates a fascinating and yet completely believable take on reality populated by vampires, the descendants of Oberon, and ghosts. One of the things about the world that I think makes it so believable is that Darcie Little Badger injects just enough rules and regulations that make the world feel lived in while still exploring the more fantastical elements. In addition, her characters feel true to life and I found myself instantly caring for them even when they had just been introduced on the page. Kirby is also one of my new favorite fictional canine companions. Accompanied by Rovina Cai's beautiful illustrations at the start of each chapter, this book both took me along for an adventure and left me feeling like I had just received a big hug. It's truly spectacular and I cannot wait to read what Darcie Little Badger publishes next.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Violence, and Medical trauma
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