Snake-Eater

Hugo and Nebula Award winner Kingfisher (Hemlock & Silver) provides all the chills, thrills, and laughs she’s known for in this dextrous dark fantasy. In heroine Selena’s “last thrash toward self-preservation,” she takes her dog and flees her emotionally abusive fiancé, Walter, for her aunt Amelia’s house in the tiny Western town of Quartz Creek, only to find that Amelia died a year ago. Selena is broke and out of options, so she stays in her aunt’s abandoned home, slowly learning about Amelia through her travel journals—including the dark truth about her literally draining relationship with the mysterious “S,” who now wants Selena to take her aunt’s place. This time out, Kingfisher’s prose is as stark as the desert setting, but still preserves all the usual charming creativity of her worldbuilding, including a host of supernatural spirits, like the friendly little squash gods in Selena’s garden. The quirky townsfolk similarly delight (Selena’s Grandma Billy is particularly hilarious) and “S”—eventually revealed to be the eponymous Snake-Eater, another desert deity—makes for a particularly sinister villain: amoral, vicious, and terrifying. Kingfisher remains extremely good at what she does. Agent: Helen Breitwieser, Cornerstone Literary. (Dec.)