This really isn’t his most remarkable trait, however, even as he ingests greater and greater sins of the Kaya, the brown-skinned royal family ruling the land of Kos.

Taj, the black teenage narrator of Onyebuchi’s debut, is an aki, or sin-eater-meaning that he literally consumes the exorcised transgressions of others, usually in the forms of inky-colored animal-shaped phantasms called inisisas that reappear as black tattoos on the akis’ “red skin, brown skin.” A beautifully written work on a gritty subject. Even if it was a pill-induced hallucinatory encounter, Dylan comes away with a resolve to make a small step for himself and is more open to the help some are ready to give. Perched on the edge of a sink, Einstein challenges Dylan’s theories and nudges Dylan toward a new theory of himself. In the coming weeks, Dylan reads up on Einstein and, in a scene that would seem incongruous but that works perfectly to change pace and tone, he encounters Einstein in the library’s washroom. Hanging out at the library and grabbing the first book within reach to make it look like he’s there to read, Dylan becomes acquainted with Albert Einstein, who also had a number of theories.

Not that he’s on the street by choice his mom booted him out and he’s never seen his father. Set in the aftermath of World War I, when soldiers are returningto a society that doesn’t know the full horrors of whatthey went through, Haunted is an atmospheric story that willhaunt readers long after they finish reading.Dylan has developed plenty of theories about his life on the streets: Every fourth person will give him money no one gives him something for nothing all relatives suck. While trying to help local police with the investigation,Dee is drawn into a deepening mystery that soon strikesterrifyingly close to home. Like her grandmother, Dee has “The Sight,” an ability notonly to see spirits from the afterlife but also to experience theirdeaths-a “gift” that becomes more troubling as this story takesdarker turns. Strangely, other girls have also disappearedfrom this small town nestled in the shadow of theBruce Peninsula-the “mountain” that Dee knows like the backof her hand. A sense of foreboding strengthenswhen the police show her a ring found with the remains.It belonged to a friend of hers, Mary Ann Simpson, who haddisappeared four years ago. Dee is feeding the chickens the morning they discover thebones on the mountain.

Haunted barbara haworth attard