Not Today, Satan

The devil’s daughter teams up with a ghost to uncover secrets surrounding their respective pasts in this irreverent romantic drama from Joyce (Dealing in Deception, for adults). Seventeen-year-old Devica dreads the day she turns 18, after which her father—the devil—will retire, and Devica will assume his role as ruler of Hell. She’s processing the incoming souls of sinners when she meets Nate, a 17-year-old human killed by police at the scene of a murder for which he claims he was framed. After Devica learns that her assumed dead demon mother is actually human—and, what’s more, alive in Los Angeles—Devica decides to help Nate break out of Hell, ostensibly so he can prove his innocence, though Devica secretly plots to search for her mom along Nate’s quest for redemption. The teens fall for each other as they confront their deepest fears while fighting their way through the underworld. But Devica is unprepared for what she and Nate find on Earth—and what she must do to prevent Hell from reclaiming them both. A buoyant romantic subplot and Devica’s introspective yearning to experience more than what she believes the underworld has to offer juxtapose unflinching depictions of the horrors that the white-cued protagonists encounter throughout their journey, which recalls elements of Dante’s Inferno. Ages 14–up. (Nov.)