Darcie Little Badger

Two generations before the events of Elatsoe (2020), Shane, a 17-year-old Lipan Apache girl, helps her mother, Lorenza, perform volunteer search-and-rescue operations.

Familiar both with tracking to survive in the wilderness and counting change to survive under capitalism, Shane possesses the resourcefulness of an irresistible protagonist. Her practicality also provides the perfect foil for her extraordinary ability—inherited from her four-great-grandmother—to summon dead creatures, show more adding texture to her supernatural world. What starts out as Lorenza’s quest to locate two missing children becomes Shane’s journey through Texas, Arkansas, Colorado, and the ghostly land Below to find her mother after she disappears. While faeries and vampires inhabit Shane’s surroundings, the heart of her story is her family’s endurance despite various tragedies, including climate devastation and rich settlers’ betrayal and theft. Frequent flashbacks and late-breaking perspective changes add narrative complexity, alongside rich depictions of cultural identity, generational trauma, and community care. A secondary character’s revelatory discovery offers an empowering narrative of reclaiming one’s stolen ancestry. Shane’s protectiveness toward her younger brother, complex love for her inconstant grandfather, and sturdy bond with her mathematically minded best friend add further relationship depth. Bug enthusiasts will also find kindred spirits in Shane and new acquaintance Dr. Richards, an older Black scholar of biology, magic, and comics.

A classic fantasy adventure and a balm for any soul weary of oppression. (note on the title) (Speculative fiction. 12-18)

-Kirkus Review show less

When Ellie's cousin dies under mysterious circumstances and tells her in a dream that he was murdered by Abe Allerton of Willowbee, Ellie and her parents travel to the funeral and investigate. Ellie has help from her friend, Jay, and her ghost dog, Kirby, who she raises from Below using the secret knowledge given to her family by her six-great-grandmother.

The way in which Apache folklore and the stories of Six-Great are interspersed with this fantasy mystery are beautifully done. I loved show more that Ellie's parents are super supportive and loving and she has other ways of having agency that don't depend on absent or dead parents. The friendship between Ellie and Jay is fantastic. I started reading slowly only picking it up before bed, but the suspense and pace ratchet up until I was reading it during the day to find out what happened and looking for something slightly more relaxing right before I fell asleep. Highly recommended. show less

Elatsoe was a Lodestar finalist in 2021, when I ranked it second; this was a fantasy set in an alternate magical United States about a mystery-solving girl with a ghost dog.

2024 saw the publication of the prequel Sheine Lende, about her grandmother when she was a mystery-solving girl with a ghost dog. Like the original, it's a solid, well-crafted book, with intriguing worldbuilding. What really stuck out to me about this one was the structure. Storytelling is central to the book, and the show more book contains a number of embedded stories, and sometimes even stories within stories, and will sometimes shift between events happening, and events being recounted later, and the recounting being recounted! Some things don't quite add up—as is, of course, true of all stories, fictional or not. Though I think probably Elatsoe has got my heart more, Sheine Lende feels like the more accomplished, skilled book on the whole, and I look forward to seeing what Little Badger comes up with next. show less

I absolutely loved this short story. It's about a Lipan Apache veterinarian who goes on a several-month long trip to Mars, on a spaceship with 41 dogs. She's supposed to be in stasis for the entire trip, only something goes wrong, and she ends up having to take care of the dogs with the Navajo pilot. They are both lesbians and fall in love. Also, dogs in little costumes.