Lucretia and the Kroons — Victor Lavalle

From one of the most acclaimed young writers of fiction in America today comes a fast-paced and fantastical novella about a young girl's journey into a dark netherworld to find her missing best friend.

Lucretia's best friend and upstairs neighbor Sunny -- a sweet pitbull of a kid, even as she struggles with a mysterious illness -- has gone missing. The only way to get her back is for Lucretia to climb the rickety fire escape of their Queens tenement and crawl through the window of apartment 6D, portal to a vast shadowland of missing kids ruled by a nightmarish family of mutants whose designs on the children are unknown. Her search for Sunny takes Lucretia through a dark fantasyland where she finds lush forests growing from concrete, pigeon-winged rodents, and haunted playgrounds. Her quest ultimately forces her to confront the most frightening specter of all: losing, forever, the thing you love the most.

Lucretia and the Kroons is a dazzlingly imaginative adventure story and a moving exploration of the power of friendship and the terror of loss. This all-new novella serves as the perfect companion piece to "The Devil in Silver", a thrillingly suspenseful work of literary horror that continues the story of Lucretia.