For once, I read a duology without waiting months and months in between the books!

In Darcie Little Badger’s books Elatsoe and Sheine Lende, we follow two members of the same family: Ellie and Shane, a granddaughter and grandmother. In the first book, Ellie is a high schooler living in an America quite like our own, except for the magical creatures that roam the land. Moreover, Ellie can see and summon ghosts, including that of her dog. But when her cousin dies in a car crash, she can’t find his ghost—and it becomes urgent to do so, since the family suspects that he was murdered. So Ellie has to discover the truth. Then, in Sheine Lende, we follow Ellie’s grandmother Shane in her teenage years, as she works with her mother to find missing people. However, one day, Shane’s mother goes missing herself while trying to find a local boy, leaving Shane and her friends to uncover their location… even if it means finding a way into the underworld.

I’ve been meaning to read both these books for years now, and I was glad to finally do so! The audiobooks are both narrated by Kinsale Drake, who does a fantastic job. And honestly, I wasn’t planning to binge this duology, but I finished Elatsoe and immediately downloaded the prequel. So if that isn’t an endorsement, I don’t know what is.

Regarding Elatsoe, I really liked it! Ellie is a strong protagonist, and the mystery of what happened to her cousin is compelling. I also thought the setting was intriguing, an America in all other ways the same as our own, but populated by the monsters and myths of our various cultures. So we see creatures from Native American folklore, as well as things like vampires and fae. It makes for a really interesting world, and I liked the details about how governments and everyday people deal with these creatures. Plus, Ellie’s ability to summon ghosts was cool, and helped propel the plot forward. The investigation and resolution of the mystery was very well paced and emotional, and I had a great time reading it.

Sheine Lende, set in the same world, has equally good settings and mythical elements. I also really like Shane, as well as her friends, and her relationship with her flighty grandfather was quite impactful. She has a lot of angst around his behavior, and it’s quite affecting to see. The search for Shane’s mother and the missing boy is interesting, but I felt that it didn’t have quite the same pace or sense of urgency as the mystery in Elatsoe, which is strange, since it’s actually more time-sensitive to find those living people than to solve a murder. Still, I thought it was an interesting enough story, and I liked lingering in this world. Plus, the sequence involving the underworld was very cool, and a good climax to the story.

I also enjoyed learning more about Lipan Apache culture and beliefs, especially since there aren’t enough books centering Native Americans, especially contemporary Native life. I didn’t know much about this tribe, and I was glad to see them represented so well in both these books. And the modern day Texas setting was wonderfully established, too; you can feel the heat and humidity on your skin, imagine the sagebrush tickling against you.

In the end, Elatsoe and Sheine Lende are lovely books. Lyrical and dark, full of monsters and ghosts, with strong emotional cores. The characters are excellent and the mysteries are gripping. I think the pacing wasn’t as good in Sheine, but overall these were great reads! I look forward to reading more books by Darcie Little Badger in the future!