Bad Witch Burning
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Katrell Davis, 16, is at the end of her rope living with her unemployed mother and her mother's perpetually abusive boyfriend. Failing most of her classes, she supplements her meager income flipping burgers by communicating with the dead for pay. During a séance with her best friend Will, Will's late grandmother cautions that if Katrell continues to contact the deceased, she'll burn herself and everything around her. Following a violent encounter with her mother's boyfriend that leaves her beloved dog dead, Katrell discovers a frightening new dimension to her power—she can resurrect the departed. Despite dire warnings against using her burgeoning powers, Katrell becomes desperate for cash when her work hours are cut and she discovers that her mother has squandered the money meant for rent and the electric bill. So she takes her chances, embarking on a series of 10 resurrections, each more financially lucrative than the last. But with great power comes unwanted attention—and unintended consequences that show Katrell just what it means for everything to burn. As intense emotions leap from the page in every vibrantly depicted scene, Lewis's YA debut portrays both Katrell's hopeless love for her manipulative mother and her fear of abject poverty with stinging realism. Katrell and former foster child Will are two kind, passionate, stubborn Black teens who want only the best for each other after having endured the worst. Their wonderful connection anchors this chillingly supernatural tale, easily breathing life into its world full of ghosts. Ages 12–up.
