For fans of Lovecraft Country and Candyman comes a witchy story full of Black girl magic as one girl's dark ability to summon the dead offers her a chance at a new life, while revealing to her an even darker future.
Katrell can talk to the dead. And she wishes it made more money. She’s been able to support her unemployed mother—and Mom’s deadbeat-boyfriend-of-the-week—so far, but it isn’t enough. Money’s still tight, and to complicate things, Katrell has started to draw attention. Not from this world—from beyond. And it comes with a warning: STOP or there will be consequences.
Katrell is willing to call the ghosts on their bluff; she has no choice. What do ghosts know of having sleep for dinner? But when her next summoning accidentally raises someone from the dead, Katrell realizes that a live body is worth a lot more than a dead apparition. And, warning or not, she has no intention of letting this lucrative new business go.
Only magic isn’t free, and dark forces are coming to collect. Now Katrell faces a choice: resign herself to poverty, or confront the darkness before it’s too late.
This book had it all, it was dark, witchy, and that is just the surface. The depth of the story is about a young girl taking her power back but not in the best way. Katrell has had a very hard life, being exploited by her mom, taking care of all the bills and getting beat up by her mother's boyfriends throughout her young life. She's has become used to depending on herself to get by. She is in desperate need of money and realizes that her powers have gotten stronger and she can now bring back the dead. People are willing to pay a lot to bring back their loved ones, and this could really help her turn her life around. As you can guess things are never as good as they seem and that is when this book gets dark. The shining light in this book is her best friend Will. I loved the relationship between the two characters. I won't say more as I don't want to give too much away. I think it's a great Fall read, especially if you are looking for some spooky books for October. This is much more than just a scary book, the themes are what give this book heft.
