Traci Chee is the New York Times bestselling author of The Reader trilogy and her YA novel in stories We Are Not Free, a National Book Award finalist which also earned the Printz Honor and the Walter Honor. A Thousand Steps Into Night (Clarion Books) is set in the realm of Awara, a place where gods, monsters, and humans coexist side by side. Miuko is an ordinary girl resigned to a safe, if uneventful, existence as an innkeeper’s daughter. Until she is cursed and begins to transform into a demon with a deadly touch, and embarks on a quest to reverse the curse and return to her everyday life. Aided by a thieving magpie spirit and continuously thwarted by a demon prince, Miuko must outfox tricksters, escape demon hunters, and negotiate with feral gods if she wants to make it home again. Yet with her transformation comes power and a freedom she never dreamed of, pushing her to weigh whether saving her soul is worth returning to an ordinary life that no longer fits her – and perhaps never did.
