Extasia

One of BuzzFeed's Great LGBTQ+ YA novels to Warm up Your Winter * A Kid's Feb/March IndieNext pick

From New York Times bestselling author Claire Legrand comes a new, bone-chilling YA horror novel about a girl who joins a coven to root out a vicious evil that’s stalking her village. Perfect for fans of The Handmaid’s Tale and The Grace Year.

Her name is unimportant.

All you must know is that today she will become one of the four saints of Haven. The elders will mark her and place the red hood on her head. With her sisters, she will stand against the evil power that lives beneath the black mountain—an evil which has already killed nine of her village’s men.

She will tell no one of the white-eyed beasts that follow her. Or the faceless gray women tall as houses. Or the girls she saw kissing in the elm grove.

Today she will be a saint of Haven. She will rid her family of her mother’s shame at last and save her people from destruction. She is not afraid. Are you?

This searing and lyrically written novel by the critically acclaimed author of Sawkill Girls beckons readers to follow its fierce heroine into a world filled with secrets and blood—where the truth is buried in lies and a devastating power waits, seething, for someone brave enough to use it.

• Witches and Covens: To save her people, she must join a secret sisterhood of saints—but their forbidden power comes from a source darker than she could ever imagine.
• Religious Horror: In the oppressive, pious village of Haven, women are saints or sinners. When a devastating evil targets the men, a fierce heroine must embrace a forbidden power to fight back.
• Supernatural & Body Horror: White-eyed beasts stalk her steps and the bodies of the dead are left horrifically mutilated. Amity must confront these terrors while hiding secrets of her own.
• LGBTQ+ Dark Fantasy: Among the village’s darkest secrets is one Amity can’t forget: two girls kissing in the elm grove. In a world where love like theirs is a sin, this forbidden knowledge could be her damnation—or her salvation.