S. J. Sindu

Shakti and her moms move a lot, and now they've moved to Amherst, MA. When Shakti arrives at Amherst Regional Middle School (ARMS), she can tell right away that something is wrong. She and her new friend Xi, another new girl, realize that three popular girls (collectively known as HEK) have some kind of strange hold on the school: teachers only call on them, and never notice their bad behavior. Following HEK into the woods, they see them casting an ingratiation spell, and planning something even bigger for Halloween. Shakti calls on the power of Durga Ma for protection, but Kali Ma comes along as well, and Shakti has to find a way to convince Kali to leave the town before everyone sickens and dies - including one of Shakti's moms and her new baby sibling Rishi.… (mere)

This was an impulse "might as well buy a second book from the publisher, as long as I'm here" purchase while checking out Black Lawrence Press (after getting sold on Department of Elegy on twitter). When it arrived I idly flipped through it to remember why I'd ordered it, and it didn't take long before I'd decided to just sit down and read the whole thing.

I loved the combination of essay and poetry and the ways that they informed each other. I was left wanting more, and the way Sindu is suddenly popping up on my feed with other books, it should be easy to get more!… (mere)