Sheine Lende

This YA novel is set in a universe established by the book Elatsoe, published a few years ago. I did not read that book, but this one is a sort of prequel, centering on Elatsoe's grandmother when she was seventeen-years-old in the late 60's or early 70's. It's an alternate US, where magic and the faeries are known to humans and sometimes the two intersect in dangerous ways. In this book, Sheine, known as Shane because most people can't pronounce her name correctly, and her mother have a gift of finding lost people. They are of Lipan Apache descent living in Texas. The world building is really well done. I didn't feel lost by not having read the first book. It deals with a lot of important issues about indigenous and poor people. And yet it was very entertaining, feeling light with lots of humor despite some serious content. This is another Lodestone nominee at the Hugo Awards. With one book to go, I rank this a close second to The Maid and the Crocodile.

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