The Scratch Daughters - (The Scapegracers) by H A Clarke (Paperback)

About the Book

It's been a wild year for Sideways Pike. After forming a coven with the three most popular girls in school and developing a huge crush on a mysterious stranger named Madeline, Sideways' Halloween was ruined by finding out that Madeline wasn't trying to make out with her, but to steal Sideways' specter, the force that gives witches the ability to cast magic spells. From Madeline's perspective, it's not her fault: after a doomed relationship with one of the creepy near-identical Chantry Boys turned into a witch hunt, they took her specter, so, really, she's only borrowing Sideways' until she can recover her own and punish the Chantrys. The specter-less Sideways is in a horrid, distracted mood, unable to do magic and with part of her consciousness tied to Madeline's, on the lam as she uses Sideways' specter to hunt Chantrys. When Sideways -- through Madeline -- gets a flash of how to track down both her foes at once, she asks the Scapegracers to help entrap them, only to be told her plan is unsafe and unwise. So if she's going to find Madeline, her only ally is Mr. Scratch, the inky book demon currently inhabiting her as life support until she gets her spectre back.

Book Synopsis

"Sharp and exciting, always vivacious and sensory . . . All I want is more--more of these sweet vicious girls and their helplessly loving leader, changing themselves, one another and the world." --Amal El-Mohtar, The New York Times Book Review

The Craft for Gen Z: The Scratch Daughters, indie bestselling author H. A. Clarke crafts a brilliant, award-nominated sequel to The Scapegracers a raw and roiling tribute to queer lineage, to finding oneself, and to the deep love of chosen family.

Sideways Pike is desperate. It turns out that Madeline Kline didn't want to make out with her; infinitely worse, she was only flirting to get access to Sideways' specter. Madeline has ripped the magical soul out of Sideways' throat, and with it, everything that makes a witch feel whole. Madeline would know: the Chantry boys took hers, and she's going to use Sideways' specter to hunt them down and get it back.

Sideways Pike, lesbian witch extraordinaire, isn't going to let little things like a treacherous crush or a brutal family of creepy witch hunters stop her, even if it means tracking down Madeline without the Scapegracers--her best friends, her coven, the girls she's come to love ferociously above all else. But Sideways and her trusty bike are in for a bumpy ride . . .

Review Quotes

"Sharp and exciting, always vivacious and sensory . . . All I want is more--more of these sweet vicious girls and their helplessly loving leader, changing themselves, one another and the world." --Amal El-Mohtar in the New York Times Book Review

"The Scratch Daughters is a sharp, scathing sophomore novel from H. A. Clarke. Middle books in trilogies often function more as table setting to the main event, but not this one. As much as I long for the next entry, if the series should end here at least it would go out on a high note." --Tor.com

"August Clarke's witchy 2020 banger The Scapegracers is . . . sharp, it's queer, it's techy, it's spiky, it's magical . . . Sideways Pike is her own force to be reckoned with." --LitHub, "October's 8 Best SF and Fantasy Books"

Praise for The Scapegracers series:

★ "Magic is palpable, urgent, and simply marvelous in this must-have debut." --Kirkus

★ "Unapologetically queer . . . and seething with raw emotion, this fantasy opens strong while leaving much to be explored in future installments." --Publishers Weekly

"Loner, lesbian teenage witch Sideways bubbles with nerves, insecurities, and longing in this action-packed debut from a young queer writer." --Chana Porter, author of The Seep

"This is the dark, twisty, witchy book I've always wanted. [Clarke's] writing is brilliant and gorgeous and firework bright." --Kat Howard, author of An Unkindness of Magicians

"Spooky and weird and dangerous, but addictive." --Shveta Thakrar, author of Star Daughter

About the Author

August Clarke is here and queer, etc. They have been published in PRISM international, Portland Review, and Eidolon. He was a 2019 Lambda Literary Fellow in Young Adult Fiction and a Locus Award, Dragon Award, and Pushcart finalist. They researched queerness, labor, and monstrosity at the University of Chicago. Under the name H. A. Clarke, he is the author of The Scapegracers trilogy.