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2025 Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book

“Pairing measured pacing, dynamic paneling, robust dialogue, and abundantly realized main and supporting characters, Ostertag (The Girl from the Sea) delivers an expansive triumph—her best yet—to examine issues of grief, identity, intergenerational trauma, and reconnection.”

– Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“An optimistic message of acceptance and love that insists that the parts of ourselves we don’t like … should be cared for at all costs. … Spellbinding”

– Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

“Visually evocative … demonstrates once again [Ostertag’s] ability to build immersive and moving stories of self-acceptance.”

– Booklist, Starred Review

“A moving and eerie graphic novel exploring identity, generational trauma and queer love . . . Ostertag expertly fuses magical realism and mystery into an adorable love story with nuanced characters.”

– BookPage, Starred Review

The Deep Dark

Written by Molly Knox Ostertag
Published by Graphix

Everyone has secrets. Mags’s has teeth.

Magdalena Herrera is about to graduate high school, but she already feels like an adult with serious responsibilities: caring for her ailing grandmother; working a part-time job; clandestine makeouts with a girl who has a boyfriend. And then there’s her secret, which pulls her into the basement each night, drains her of energy, and leaves her bleeding. A secret that could hurt and even kill if it ever got out — like it did once before.

So Mags keeps her head down, isolated in her small desert community. That is, until her childhood friend Nessa comes back to town, bringing vivid memories of the past, an intoxicating glimpse of the future, and a secret of her own. Mags won’t get attached, of course. She’s always been strong enough to survive without anyone’s help.

But when the darkness starts to close in on them both, Mags will have to drag her secret into the daylight, and choose between risking everything . . . or having nothing left to lose.

Primary ISBN: 9781338840001
Publication Date: June 2024
Available As: Hardcover, Paperback, Audiobook, eBook
Young Adult, Graphic Novel, Age 14 or older

Community Represented:

Themes: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Setting: United States (Southwest)

Character's Place in the Immigration Journey: Unknown Arrival

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