Queer Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Filipino folklore in this horror comedy about a high school stage manager who accidentally sells her soul to a demon.

DAMNED IF YOU DO
by Alex Brown
Page Street Kids, August 2023
(via Dystel, Goderich & Bourret)

Seven years ago, Cordelia Scott’s abusive father left without a word, and life has been normal ever since. The seventeen-year-old spends her days stage managing the school play (which is going great, if anyone asks), pining over her best friend, Veronica, and failing one too many pop quizzes.
She’s never been sad that her father left, but she knows something is…missing. When her school guidance counselor, Fred, reveals during a session that he’s actually a demon, she learns that something is indeed missing: a piece of her actual soul. Why? She unwittingly made a deal with him to make her father disappear – then bargained to have the memory erased. To make matters worse, Fred is here to make another bargain: Help him with a “little” demonic problem, or she’s doomed to spend eternity in Hell with her father.
The deal? Help Fred neutralize a rival demon, who means to do more harm in her hometown than your average demon deal.

Alex Brown is a queer, biracial Filipino American writer whose sapphic YA debut, DAMNED IF YOU DO, published in August 2023. She’s is no stranger to horror, as she’s served as the Showrunner’s Assistant for Supernatural and Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Resident Evil, and is also the co-creator of The Bridge, a narrative fiction sci-fi horror podcast. Alex lives in Los Angeles with her partner and their two very chaotic cats.