21 magical science fiction and fantasy books to read in summer 2021
By Lacy Baugher
Summer 2021 release: The Library of the Dead – T.L. Huchu
The Sixth Sense meets Stranger Things in this sharp contemporary fantasy that follows a precocious and cynical teen as she explores the shadowy magical underside of modern Edinburgh.
The story follows a young girl named Ropa who is wise and seasoned beyond her years, as formed by modern Scotland as she is by her ancestral home Zimbabwe. She dropped out of school to become a ghostalker and now spends her days speaking with Edinburgh’s dead and carrying messages to the living.
But when a child goes missing in Edinburgh’s darkest streets, young Ropa investigates. She’ll need to call on Zimbabwean magic as well as her Scottish pragmatism to hunt down clues. But as shadows lengthen, will the hunter become the hunted?
The official synopsis provides a bit more detail about the book and its story.
"Ropa dropped out of school to become a ghostalker. Now she speaks to Edinburgh’s dead, carrying messages to the living. A girl’s gotta earn a living, and it seems harmless enough. Until, that is, the dead whisper that someone’s bewitching children–leaving them husks, empty of joy and life. It’s on Ropa’s patch, so she feels honor-bound to investigate. But what she learns will change her world. She’ll dice with death (not part of her life plan…), discovering an occult library and a taste for hidden magic. She’ll also experience dark times. For Edinburgh hides a wealth of secrets, and Ropa’s gonna hunt them all down"
The Library of the Dead is available on June 1.