Mexican Gothic (2020)

Mexican Gothic (2020)

From the author of Gods of Jade and Shadow comes a reimagining of the classic gothic suspense novel, a story about an isolated mansion in 1950s Mexico—and the brave socialite drawn to its treacherous secrets. He is trying to poison me. You must come for me, Noemí. You have to save me. After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.   Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom. Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness. And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.

by Silvia Moreno-Garcia  (Author)

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Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the author of Gods of Jade and Shadow, named one of the best books of summer 2019 by Publishers Weekly; Signal to Noise, named one of the best books of the year by Book Riot, Tordotcom, BuzzFeed, io9, and other publications; Certain Dark Things, one of NPR’s best books of the year, a Publishers Weekly top ten, and a VOYA “Perfect Ten”; the fantasy of manners The Beautiful Ones; and the science fiction novella Prime Meridian. She has also edited several anthologies, including the World Fantasy Award-winning She Walks in Shadows (aka Cthulhu’s Daughters). She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

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im sorry but no matter what i will never use "ofc" to mean "of fucking course". its "ofcourse". obviously.

Fox Sister

there is a farmer who has a beautiful and strong wife, and she bears him three beautiful and strong sons. the eldest is of soft voice and hard temper, and his name is jae-shin. the second is quick to anger and yells too much, but is quick to forgive, and his name is ki-tae. the third is of even temper and soft voice, and his name is min-woo.

the farmer loves his family very much, but he feels as if it’s incomplete. he loves his sons, but he desperately wants a little girl to call his own. he prays and prays, asking for a little girl. he doesn’t care if she’s not like his other children, if she is weak or ugly, he vows to love her just the same no matter what.

his prayers are answered, and nine months later his wife gives birth to a baby girl. but she’s not weak, and she’s not ugly. she’s every bit as strong and beautiful as her brothers.

they call her yeon-saeng.

~

yeon-saeng is smarter and stronger than her brothers, than her parents, but she doesn’t say anything, never points it out, because she loves them dearly and would never want to hurt them.

yeon-saeng is ten years old when the hunger grows to be too much to ignore. she’s hungry constantly, and they are not a rich family, but her mother gives her all the food she asks for with a smile, pats her hands and kisses her cheeks and says nothing of the strain her eternal appetite puts on their household.

but no matter how much she eats, she’s never full. it’s not what she craves.

she is ten years old, and it’s the night of the full moon when she sneaks into the barn. she knows what she wants, what she needs, but she hesitates even now. she wishes there was another way, but she knows if she doesn’t eat, then she’ll die. she doesn’t’ want to die.

she kills the cow, and eats its liver, bites into its heart, and her hunger is sated.

the next morning, the cow is found, and her father says it looks like a fox did it.

yeon-saeng burns with shame, and says nothing.

~

she doesn’t have to eat every night, if she did then they would run out of cows and her family would go hungry. she doesn’t want them to go hungry, and she does not want to die, so she waits. she waits until her stomach is bloated with hunger and she feels ravenous with it, half mad with it, then sneaks out under the night of the full moon to kill another cow. for now, she does not need too many, can go months between feeding so long as she pushed herself.

she’s changing. her nails are sharper, more pointed, and her hair gleams red in sunlight. she doesn’t think she’s a little girl. she doesn’t even think she’s truly her parents’ daughter.

but the thought is too heartbreaking to contemplate, so she doesn’t.

~

the father worries after his livestock, and the fox he can’t seem to catch. he sends jae-shin to hide in the barn and keep a look out, to kill whatever is killing their cows.

jae-shin waits, and he hides, and he watches his sister kill the cow and eat its liver and heart. her hands become claws, her hair turns red, and fangs sprout from her mouth. she’s a fox demon forced to into human shape, an abomination to humans and demons alike. he’s horrified, and afraid, but he can’t bring himself to kill her.

she is his sister.

the next day, he tells his father everything. he says they have to do something, that she’s a monster, that soon she’ll hurt them.

jae-shin could not bring himself to kill her. but he still believes she should be killed.

the farmer is furious that his son could say such horrible things about his beloved daughter. he says that jae-shin must have fallen asleep, and had a bad dream, that he speaks of madness. but jae-shin will not back down, and eventually the farmer throws his son from the house, saying never to darken their doorstep again, that any son that could speak of killing family is no son of his.

yeon-saeng pleads on her brother’s behalf. she can’t risk telling them the truth, she should be happy it is jae-shin who is tossed aside and not her. but she loves her brother. he is mean and surly, quiet in his misery, but he let her ride on his shoulder when she was little and taught her to tame a horse and let her huddle into his side when she became frightened by thunder storms. she does not want him to go.

but father will not listen, and jae-shin is forced to go.

a few months, and another dead cow later, he sends ki-tae to the barn, to find what is killing the cows and to kill whatever animal it is. ki-tae is terrified of falling asleep and being thrown out like his elder brother, so he stays wide awake and vigilant the whole night.

he sees what jae-shin saw – his little sister half transforming into a fox demon, and killing and eating a cow’s heart and liver. he’s not afraid. he’s furious. he is quick to anger over small things, but this is not a small thing. yeon-saeng allowed their father to kick out their brother, even what he told the truth. she said nothing as he left them, when she could have saved him. she did nothing.

he sneaks back to the house and wakes his father, bidding him to come to the barn quickly. but when he returns, yeon-saeng is gone. the cow is there dead, it’s liver and heart gone, but his sister is nowhere to be found. he runs back into the house, his father at his heels, and finds yeon-saeng fast asleep in bed. he pulls her from her bed onto the floor. she cries out in pain, and his father pushes him against the wall, furious. ki-tae yells at her, says to tell father what she did, calls her a monster with all the disgust he can muster.

yeon-saeng pulls her knees to her chest, crying, and for a single moment ki-tae feels a stab or remorse. but she is a monster, and his father must know. they all have to know. how long before she kills one of them?

father is just as furious with him as he was with jae-shin. again, yeon-saeng pleads for brother, begging her father to let him stay. no matter his temper, ki-tae is always kind in those small moments, in the quiet lulls between his anger he has bandaged her scraped knees and braided her hair, and he would roll her rice into the shape of a snake when she was little and would grow stubborn and refuse to eat. she loves him, and she doesn’t want him to go.

but father will not listen, and ki-tae is forced to go.

a few more months, and another dead cow later, father sends min-woo to spend the night in the barn, to find out what is killing the cows, and to kill whatever it is. he sits, and waits, and sees what his brothers saw. he sees yeon-saeng kill the cow, and eat its heart and liver.

he does nothing at all.

the next morning, he tells his father that he didn’t see anything. whatever is killing the cows was too quick for him. father wants to be angry that min-woo failed, but he’s secretly relieved that at least his youngest son, so calm and even tempered, hasn’t been affected by the madness that had taken his eldest sons, and resigns himself to the lost livestock.

it is not ideal, but it’s not crippling them, not killing them.

~

yeon-saeng loves min-woo, but misses her eldest brothers terribly. on the surface, min-woo is nicer, he’s never made fun of her or gotten mud on her clothes, never yelled that she was too young to play with him. he never seeks her out, but always welcomes her when she comes to him.

he’s not as mean as their elder brothers, but he’s not as nice either.  

yeon-saeng is thirteen the first time she eats a cow’s liver and heart, and still feels the gnawing pains of hunger. she keeps eating, desperate, because this is her only option. she eats the rest of the internal organs, the muscle, all of it. she keeps eating until the red of dawn beats against the barn doors. she’s covered in blood, more fox than girl, and there’s nothing left of the cow but bones.

she’s still hungry.

~

she hopes it’s a fluke, a mistake. she waits, to see if time will make her full, but it’s just the opposite. her whole body aches with hunger, her limbs grow sluggish and heavy. she sleeps the day away, hoping it will help, that she’ll wake up feeling normal, but it doesn’t work.

her parents fret over her, and her brother watches her with calm, even eyes that give away nothing at all. the days pass, and she seems to flip, instead of becoming weaker, she becomes stronger. her body fills with a frantic, desperate energy to feed, and she huddles under the blankets, afraid to let her family see her. she can’t get her claws or teeth to go away, her hair is bright red. she looks like a fox, and nothing she does makes it go away.

late at night, her hunger becomes too much, and she snaps. she’s outside her parent’s door when she realizes what she was about to do, her hand just about to slide open their door.

she’s so certain that a single human heart could sate her hunger.

yeon-saeng runs. it’s painful to walk away, she can smell them, smell her brother down the hall, and her mouth waters. she’s so hungry. but she forces herself to walk away and runs to the barn.

she kills half their heard that night, gobbling up hearts and livers in a frenzy. she slaughters the next cow while the previous one’s warm, wet heart is still in her hand.

it’s not quite daybreak, and she’s not hungry anymore. she’s not quite satisfied, but the ravenous yearning deep in her gut is gone.

it’s a devastating loss. her father will struggle to survive now that half his cows are dead. and what’s worse is this – she cannot stay. she will either eat the other half, and leave them penniless to starve, or she will give in to her urges, and kill them herself. she’s selfish, but not that selfish. she loves her family too much to do this to them.

when the sun rises into the sky, she’s gone.

~

her hair never goes back to black. it’s a permanent dark orange, and her nails are too sharp, and her teeth a little too long. but she almost looks like a person, as long as no one looks too closely.

the first few years are the hardest. she wanders through towns, too young to do any real work, but sometimes a kind innkeep would let her clean tables in exchange for a room. other times, she sneaks into barns and sleeps among the warm, dry hay.

she has to eat, and she has to eat often. small animals don’t satisfy her, she tries chickens and rabbits, even sheep don’t sate her hunger. cows and boars will do, and horses probably would too, but she’s reluctant to test her theory. partially because killing a horse will certainly garner more attention than she wants. but also because, well, she likes horses. she thinks they have kind eyes, and she’ll sooner eat a horse than she will a human, but would prefer to have neither, honestly.

she misses rice cakes. they were her favorite as a child, but now they taste like ashes in her mouth.

when possible, she hunts for he own food in the forest, searching out wild board to feed herself with. but sometimes that’s not possible, and when that happens she sneaks away to a pasture and kills a cow. they always say it looks like a fox attack.

she doesn’t want people to go hungry because of her, to suffer because of her, so she doesn’t stay in one town for long. she moves around constantly, killing and stealing the livestock of farmers she needs to live, trying to keep her head down and not cause trouble.

she still craves human hearts more than anything else. but as long as she keeps herself well fed it’s … well, not easy to ignore it, but manageable.

she’s managing.

~

yeon-saeng is sixteen, and it’s much easier. people hire her to serve drinks in restaurants now, will hire her to smile at customers now.

she still doesn’t look quiet human, but people never seem to notice that.

she’s beautiful. they don’t know what she is, they don’t care, all they care for is her pretty face. she always smiles with her mouth closed so they don’t see her teeth, but that’s okay. things are easier now.

she is sixteen when she makes a friend.

it’s not one she expected to make, if she ever thought she’d have one. she keeps everyone way, women are nice to her and men want her, but she rejects them all, keeping to herself and offering them nothing more than her close-lipped smile.

she’s a monster. those around her risk one day being eaten by her, and the pain of that potential loss stops her whenever she fees the urge to reach out to someone. she thinks of her parents often, of her brothers. she hopes they’re happy. sometimes she hopes they’ve forgotten her, but she’s still a selfish girl, and the thought that not one person cares for her cuts like a knife.

but one person does come to care for her.

his name is bou, and he’s a monk. he is plain, and nondescript, but there are not many buddhist monks, and he stands out, somehow, with his calm face and plain grey robes. he follows her from town to town, and at first she thinks it is a coincidence, that maybe they are simply traveling in the same direction. but soon it’s too much to be a coincidence, and she can only think of one reason a monk would have for following her. he must know what she is, and be here to kill her.

she does not want to die.

yeon-saeng corners him, nails and claws out, eyes blazing red, and says she will not die easily, says that she does not want to kill him, but she will to preserve her own life.

she’s already thinking that if she does kill him, she’ll have to tear out his heart and liver and grind it into the dirt so she does not eat them. once she starts eating humans, she doesn’t know if she could stop, and to leave them whole would be a temptation she would be unable to refuse.

he looks at her, unflinching, and tells her a story. he happened upon two brothers not long ago, with very strange histories. born into near-poverty, they were separated as teenagers and led remarkable lives. the eldest was adopted into a noble family and became one of the hwarang, the refined and cultured warriors who live on the edges of the country. the younger became the assistant to a yangban, the high level civil servants of the country. both now had prestigious positions rarely achieved by nobility. they happened to pass each other on the street one day just a few short months ago, both visiting a city they were not from, and recognized each other instantly.

they cried to find each other again, and it is here when bou overheard them talking while at a tavern. they spoke of their sister, who killed their cows and devoured their hearts and livers, and was the reason they’d been thrown from their homes. they spoke of their sister, who was not their sister by blood, but a demon sent from the heavens, for some misdeed none of them knew of. they spoke of their sister, who they knew to be a monster, and who they could not face. they spoke of their sister, who they loved in spite of everything, to this very day.  

bou intended to find her, and kill her, to rid the world of her evil. but he finds her, and finds that she is not evil. that she is kind, and hurting, and alone, and trying so desperately to do no harm, to be a good person in a world that does not have enough good people.

a demon she may be, but a monster she is not.

yeon-saeng is sobbing by the end of this, stepping away from him. bou has decided that she is the best kind of person, and that he would like to follow her, to travel with her, if she will allow it. she tries to refuse, says she will put him in danger, but bou does not listen.

she doesn’t have to let him be her friend. but he will follow her wherever she goes, so she might as well make this easier on both of them. she does not give in until he makes her a promise – if she ever does become a monster, he’ll kill her himself. when she cannot trust herself, she can trust him.

bou and yeon-saeng travel together, and although she worries constantly, yeon-saeng never harms him. years pass, and she grows stronger, she leans even further into her demon powers.

she is at least part kumiho, part nine tailed demon, and there are certain skills that come with that. with bou and his holy powers by her side, she feels comfortable exploring them for the first time. if she ever goes too far, bou will stop her.

she is a young woman when bou convinces her to seek out her family, to try and make amends with them. she cannot yet face her eldest brothers, whose lives she forced off course so dramatically, but agrees to try and visit her parents and youngest elder brother at home.

when she arrives, there are no cows in the pasture, and she worries. the house looks worn, and it feels empty. she knocks on the door, fear and worry making her shake, and it is only bou’s presence at her back that steadies her.

but the door opens, and it’s her brother, min-woo. he’s older, of course, but he looks healthy, looks fine. he’s startled to see her, but welcomes her inside like nothing has changed, like she hasn’t been missing for a decade. he doesn’t move to embrace her, and she holds herself back, uncertain. he tells her she has good timing, because he has invited their elder brothers home.

min-woo tells her that their parents have died, and she’s nearly bowled over in her grief. but he implores her to stay, says that now they can be a family once more. yeon-saeng agrees because she doesn’t know what else to do, her kind mother and father who loved her so very much are dead, and even though she hasn’t seen them in years their loss is just as devastating. min-woo comforts her, tells her they were simply old, and these things happen. she doesn’t think they were that old, but what does she know, she hasn’t been there for years.

she agrees, and min-woo tells her he has nothing to feed her and her companion, but she doesn’t mind. pretending to enjoy rice that tastes like dirt is a waste on both of them, and bou has endured much worse than a night’s sleep on an empty stomach. min-woo does offer them water, which they accept. it doesn’t taste clean, but both are too polite to say anything about it.

so they settle down, and bou falls asleep at her back, like he always does, and she eventually falls into a fitful sleep, thoughts of her dead parents and her living brothers chasing around her head.

when she awakes, everything has somehow gotten even worse.

she’s tied up, and she twists to see bou is as well, wide-eyed and with a gag in his mouth. min-woo sits in front of them, a cruel twist to his mouth she’s never seen before. her head is foggy, and it takes her a moment to process everything. the water must have been drugged.

he tells them their timing is perfect. he’d nearly run out of their parents’ flesh to eat, and so had invited their elder brothers home, intent on killing them and eating them. but eating her flesh, consuming the heart of a kumiho, will sustain him so much longer than mere humans would.

she looks at him in horror, not understanding. she asks if he was born a demon too, if he’s like her, but he laughs at her. he is just a human, but if he eats her maybe he will be something more.

min-woo takes a hunk of something folded in butcher paper and unwraps it, and in the center is a heart. the scent hits her nose all at once, and she knows it’s a human heart.

that it’s her father’s heart.

he’s been saving this for himself, but the stronger she is when he kills and eats her, the stronger she will make him. he holds it to her mouth, and parts of her wants it, it’s not fresh but it hasn’t gone bad, has been kept frozen and recently defrosted by the smell, and her mouth is already watering. she lives with a constant low-level hunger, but now it’s out in full force, begging her to bite into the heart her brother is holding to her lips.

she closes her mouth and shakes her head, turning away from it. this isn’t right. it’s not fair. she asks why, asks if it was because they ran out of food, was there truly nothing else for him to eat?

he says business was fine. they had plenty to eat. he just wanted to eat them, he just wanted to kill and eat human flesh, says he wanted to become stronger, and this seemed like the easiest way to do it.

this is incomprehensible to yeon-saeng, who has struggled against the gnawing in her stomach her whole life. she could break the ropes, could break min-woo. she’s a kumiho. her power is so far beyond min-woo’s that it’s laughable.

but guilt and grief swallow her. maybe the true reason she was born into her family was not divine punishment, maybe she was meant to protect them, to keep them safe. maybe her true purpose was to protect her beloved parents from min-woo, and she has failed. her parents are dead, her brother is a monster, and she has failed at the one thing she supposed to do.

she has no reason to live. once min-woo eats her, he will have no need of bou, her friend will be fine. she won’t eat her father’s heart, even now, at the end, but she can’t seem to muster the will to defend herself.

bou is screaming through his gag, surely begging her to do something, but she can’t move, too numb to do anything at all. min-woo gets tired of trying to force her to eat the heart, and lifts up a knife, moving to slit her throat.

before he gets the chance, a blade is shoved through his chest and out his mouth, killing him instantly. yeon-saeng looks up, wide eyed.

min-woo slides off the blade, revealing the man holding it. it is her eldest brother, jae-shin. her second eldest brother ki-tae is at his side. they’re older too, more steady, firmer than she remembers them being. she bows her head, waiting for her own death blow, but it doesn’t come.

instead ki-tae throws his arms around her, her eldest brother doing the same. they heard everything, they know everything. they cry as they hold her, apologies falling from their lips. she is their sister, and they love her, and they’re sorry they ever doubted her.

they could never bring themselves to hurt her, but did not hesitate to cut down min-woo. maybe deep down they’d always known who the true monster was.

jae-shin cuts her free, and does the same for bou. yeon-saeng is shaking in ki-tae’s arms still, but jae-shin pulls her forward and cups her face in his hands, kisses her forehead and tells her he’s sorry, that if he hadn’t acted so rashly so long ago maybe none of this would have happened.

yeon-saeng won’t accept their apologies, instead offering her own for letting their father throw them out when they only spoke the truth, for remaining silent in the face of their banishment.

their parents are dead, killed by their brother, who has been killed by jae-shin. they are as broken as ever, but the three of them are together once more, are willing and eager to rebuild their relationship. they all made mistakes, but all are willing to forgive.

bou is furious with yeon-saeng for freezing, for doing nothing to save herself. but he’s pulled between his anger and his worry that now she has her brothers back, she won’t need him anymore. but she knows him just as well as he knows her, so she assuages his worries and apologizes for freezing, says she won’t do it again. she tells bou that he’s her best friend, and she never wants him to leave.

so now this incredibly strange group is traveling together, roaming the country – a short tempered yangban’s assistant, a charming hwarang warrior, a buddhist monk, and a kumiho.

together, they do their best to figure out the extent of yeon-saeng’s powers, and try to leave everywhere they go a little better, a little less broken.

they succeed.

read more retold fairytales here

YA SFF Books by Black Authors 

A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow: About the strength of black sisterhood set in Portland, OR, best friends Tavi and Effie discover their true supernatural identity when Effie starts being haunted by demons from her past, and Tavia accidentally lets out her magical siren voice during a police stop.

A Chorus Rises (A Song Below Water #2) by Bethany C. Morrow: Teen influencer Naema Bradshaw is an Eloko, a person who’s gifted with a song that woos anyone who hears it. Everyone loves her — well, until she’s cast as the awful person who exposed Tavia’s secret siren powers. When a new, flourishing segment of Naema’s online supporters start targeting black girls, however, Naema must discover the true purpose of her magical voice.

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown: Inspired by West African folklore in which a grieving crown princess, Karina, and a desperate refugee, Malik, find themselves on a collision course to murder each other, despite their growing attraction.

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor: Sunny Nwazue, an American-born albino child of Nigerian parents, moves with her family back to Nigeria, where she learns that she has latent magical powers which she and three similarly gifted friends use to catch a serial killer.

Akata Warrior (Akata Witch #2) by Nnedi Okorafor: Now stronger, feistier, and a bit older, Sunny Nwazue, along with her friends from the the Leopard Society, travel through worlds, both visible and invisible, to the mysterious town of Osisi, where they fight in a climactic battle to save humanity.

Bad Witch Burning by Jessica Lewis: For fans of Us and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina 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.

Beasts Made of Night by Tochi Onyebuchi: After he eats the sin of a royal, Taj, a talented aki, or sin-eater who consumes the guilt of others whose transgressions are exorcised from them by powerful but corrupt Mages, is drawn into a plot to destroy the city, and he must fight to save the princess he loves and his own life.

Beasts of Prey by Ayana Gray: Two Black teenagers, talented Beastkeeper Koffi and warrior-in-training Ekon, must trek into a magical jungle to take down an ancient creature menacing the city of Lkossa, before they become the hunted.

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton: In the opulent world of Orléans, where Beauty is a commodity only a few control, Belle Camellia Beauregard will learn the dark secrets behind her powers, and rise up to change the world. 

A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney: A whimsical and butt-kicking Alice in Wonderland retelling featuring a black teen heroine who battles Nightmares in the dark and terrifying dream realm known as Wonderland. 

Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves: 16-year-old Hanna reunites with her estranged mother in an East Texas town that is haunted with doors to dimensions of the dead and protected by demon hunters called Mortmaine.

Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury: Set in near-future Toronto in which, after failing to come into her powers, 16-year-old Black witch Voya Thomas must choose between losing her family’s magic forever or murdering her first love.

The Bones of Ruin by Sarah Raughley: Set in Victorian England, African tightrope walker Iris cannot die; but soon gets drafted in the fight-to-the-death tournament of freaks where she learns the terrible truth of who and what she really is.

The Cost of Knowing by Brittney Morris: A gripping, evocative novel about Black teen Alex Rufus, who has the power to see into the future, and whose life turns upside down when he foresees his younger brother’s imminent death.

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi: 17-year-old Zélie and companions journey to a mythic island seeking a chance to bring back magic to the land of Orïsha, in a fantasy world infused with the textures of West Africa.

Children of Virtue and Vengeance (Legacy of Orïsha #2) by Tomi Adeyemi: After battling the impossible, Zélie and Amari have finally succeeded in bringing magic back to the land of Orïsha. But with civil war looming on the horizon, Zélie finds herself at a breaking point: she must discover a way to bring the kingdom together or watch as Orïsha tears itself apart.

Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron: 16-year-old Sophia would much rather marry Erin, her childhood best friend, than parade in front of suitors. At the ball, Sophia flees, hiding in Cinderella’s mausoleum. There, she meets Constance, the last known descendant of Cinderella and her step sisters. Together they vow to bring down the king once and for all.

The Cost of Knowing by Brittney Morris: A gripping, evocative novel about Black teen Alex Rufus, who has the power to see into the future, and whose life turns upside down when he foresees his younger brother’s imminent death.

Crown of Thunder (Beasts Made of Night #2) by Tochi Onyebuchi: Taj has escaped Kos, but Queen Karima will go to any means necessary–including using the most deadly magic–to track him down. 

A Crown So Cursed (Nightmare Verse #3) by L.L. McKinney: Alice is ready to jump into battle when she learns that someone is building an army of Nightmares to attack the mortal world, before she learns of a personal connection to Wonderland.

Daughters of Jubilation by Kara Lee Corthron: In Jim Crow South, black teen Evalene Deschamps finds her place among a family of women gifted with magical abilities, known as jubilation - a gift passed down from generations of black women since the time of slavery.

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland: The Civil War is over, but mostly because the dead rose at Gettysburg—and then started rising everywhere else. Fighting the undead is a breeze for Jane McKenne, an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. But the fight for freedom? That’s a different story.

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so i have this disney playlist i listen to usually when i’m driving and i was blasting poor unfortunate souls this morning and i was thinking

what if ariel didn’t sign the scroll?

because she’s about to, okay, and she looks at the paper. the parchment made of seaweed, the ones that’s specially treated to survive underwater. and she thinks of her cave of treasures, her books that remain perfectly preserved underwater. “no thank you,” she says slowly, becoming keenly aware of air of this place, of the not-people she’d seen who hadn’t been able to pay the price for sea witch’s bargain. “i – no. thank you. but no.”

ursula tries to convince her otherwise, but ariel runs. she goes back to her cave, destroyed as it was by her father’s anger, and thinks.

she’s the daughter of triton. her books never got wet, though she lives in the ocean. she feels a pull inside her, to the land, to somewhere else, but what if – what if –

what if she doesn’t need the sea witch or her father to perform magic for her? what if she has her own?

ursula had wanted her voice because that’s how she performed her magic. singing in this cave had given it powers and protection, and when she saved her prince from the sea – she sang then too, to keep him safe, to guide him back to life and away from death.

so she has magic. she only needs to figure out how to use it.

so that’s what ariel does now. she’s quiet and keeps to herself, and her father and sisters think that it’s because she’s upset with her father, that she’s busy licking her wounds. she’s moved on from that. she has no trident, and is uninterested with fueling her magic with the souls of the damned like ursula has. so she needs to figure something else out.

she does what she’s not supposed to do, and goes where she’s not supposed to go, slipping past the guards and patrols to the one place in the sea that is forbidden to all of them.

the crevice in the earth where what remains of her grandmother lives.

ariel goes to amphitrite, and the sea goddess is so much bigger than ariel, the size of great whale as she curls at the bottom of the sea floor, too old and too tired to do anything more than sleep. “granddaughter,” the great being croaks, opening an eye as blue and as unfathomable as the sea, “you look like me.”

“they say i look like my mother,” she says, and to herself adds: that’s why father can barely stand to look at me.

“you have more of me in you than your mother,” she says, and she shifts and pulls her mass of red hair over her shoulder. “more of me in you than your father does, even.”

“i have magic,” she says, pulling her bravery to the fore as she swims closer to her grandmother, “i want you to teach me how to use it.” amphitrite pushes herself up, and it’s the first time she’s moved in a millennia, and ariel notices for the first time that her grandmother isn’t a mermaid – she has legs.

she has legs.

“you have power,” amphitrite corrects fiercely, “and i will teach you to wield it.”

and so she does. ariel spends her nights by her grandmother, learning to harness the power of the sea that runs in her veins, and sleeps her days away while her sisters and flounder and sebastian grow more and more concerned, but she refuses to tell them why. she refuses to be stopped.

but her heart still aches. she fell in love with her prince, and she wants him still. so she swims to the edge, goes to the beach where his castle resides in the dead of night when her lessons with her grandmother are complete, and sings

. she’s careful not to let any magic leak through, only her voice. she does not want to enchant him. she wants him to love her as she is. so she sings, her voice clear and powerful and cutting through the air. she hopes he can hear it.

then one day a figure walks to the beach, and it’s him, her prince. “hello?” he calls out, “are you out there? are you – please, it was you that saved me, wasn’t it? won’t you come out and let me see you?”

so she does, waves her tail at him until he catches sight of her and takes hesitant, disbelieving steps closer.

“you’re a mermaid,” he says, eyes wide, “i thought i saw – but it couldn’t be.”

“i am, and it can,” she says, heart beating wildly in her chest. he’s just as handsome as she remembered, and she wants him just as much. “my name is ariel.”

“ariel,” he repeats, and pulls off his boots and goes wading into the water, watching her to see if she flinches away from him. she doesn’t, and his strides grow bolder. “my name is eric.”

“eric,” she whispers, and when he’s close enough he touches her, trailing fingers across the bare skin of her shoulder and tangling them in her hair.

when he kisses her, she feels powerful enough to undo the world.

so there’s that now, spending her nights with her grandmother and her prince, and she knows how to make her own legs now, could walk onto land and be made a queen among the two legged men.

but she’s a princess here first, and before she can do that she needs to take care of something.

ursula.

the rotten sea witch with her rotten sea magic won’t be allowed to torment her people any longer.

she tells her grandmother, and amphitrite smiles and says, “an excellent decision, child. i’ve enjoyed our time together, but i think it’s time for me to sleep once more. i’ve taught you everything i can.”

and tears prick ariel’s eyes, but she holds them back. she knew that it couldn’t be forever, that her grandmother can’t die but no longer desires to live and this is the in-between.

“you’ll be an amazing queen,” amphitrite murmurs, and closes her eyes for a millennia more.

this isn’t something to be done in the dead of night, although it would be easier to do it then.

she will make a spectacle of it, she will remind the sea that her people are not to be trifled with.

once upon a time they feared a blue eyed, red haired sea queen with the power to destroy them all. it’s time for them to do so again.

so she drives ursula to the center of the city. her sisters cower and people hide, and her father comes rushing forward to save her.

“you’ve committed great crimes against my people,” she says, not flinching as lightning gathers in the sea witch’s hands, “so now shall a great crime be committed against you.”

“foolish girl,” the sea witch snarls.

triton is yelling. he won’t get there in time.

he doesn’t have to.

she doesn’t need to sing anymore. instead she lifts her hands and pulls ursula apart without ever touching her, not only renders flesh from bone but also sets free the souls she’s been hoarding, reverses the magic done to those who’d fallen into the sea witch’s trap.

they all stare at her, her people, her father, and her sisters. she looks to triton and says, “i’m not a little girl anymore.”

he opens his mouth, closes it again, then says, “i can see that.”

all at once everyone’s perceptions are turned sideways about their youngest princess. she commands a power that even her father doesn’t have access to, she’s not depressed and dreamy – she’s powerful young woman who knows exactly what she’s doing.

so she does what she wanted to do, she gives herself legs and steps onto the sand and launches herself into eric’s arms. she becomes his bride, and the rumors run rampant of what she is, of where she came from, but they can’t prove anything and so they rule.

they live long, happy lives. ariel is his consort, his advisor, his wife, his tactician, and his best friend. all those years reading drowned books have certainly paid off. she ages herself along with her husband, bears his children and then teaches them they ways of her – their – people.

her husband dies, and she disappears, like the stories of selkie women that everyone whispers around her. their children give their father a sea burial, and vow to see him again one day. what they know and none of their subjects do is this – their father’s body isn’t in that casket.

she returns to her ocean, her legs form into her glittering green tail, and she goes home. she uses her terribly powerful magic, and brings her husband with her. she went from princess ariel of the sea to queen ariel of the land, and now she’s back again.

she’s not quite a teenager, but neither is she the old woman she pretended to be on land. she’s returned her and her husband to the prime of their life, and as she gained legs to be with him, he now gives his up to be with her.

eric becomes a merman, and a prince by virtue of being ariel’s husband.

she returns to her family and her world without missing a beat, and they all welcome her as if she never left, treat her husband with kindness and respect.

because they all know.

it doesn’t matter that she’s the youngest. when, far in the future, triton’s reign ends –

ariel’s reign will begin.

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