Casquette Girls

After the storm of the century rips apart New Orleans, sixteen-year-old Adele Le Moyne and her father are among the first to return. Adele wants nothing more than to resume her normal life, but with the silent city resembling a war zone, a parish-wide curfew, and mysterious new faces lurking in the abandoned French Quarter, normal needs a new definition.Strange events—even for New Orleans—lead Adele to an attic that has been sealed for three hundred years. The chaos she accidentally unleashes threatens not only her but also everyone she knows.Caught in a hurricane of myths and monsters, Adele must untangle a web of magic that weaves the climbing murder rate back to her own ancestors. But who can you trust in a city where everyone has secrets and keeping them can mean life or death? Unless…you’re immortal.

“In this Southern Gothic love letter to the spookier side of New Orleans’s storied past, Arden spins out a moody tale of magic and mystery…A thoroughly satisfying page-turner and a strong debut.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Debut author Arden offers readers a full plate of Southern Gothic atmospherics and sparkling teen romance in a patiently crafted tale that will best reward careful readers…Satisfying teen entertainment but also a cathartic, uncompromising tribute to New Orleans.” —Kirkus Reviews “A slow-burning novel in the tradition of Anne Rice.” —Rue Morgue Magazine —“The Casquette Girls is a delicious Southern Gothic vampire story that will make you want to catch the next flight to New Orleans.” —Forever Young Adult “A smart story with a surprising amount of emotional depth…in the grand tradition of Buffy and The Lost Boys.” —IndieReader “It’s as if Arden took her life experiences within the Vieux Carré, assembled a few Hogwarts students as Avengers, channeled Magneto into Wednesday Addams, drenched the process in Parisian detail, and penned the great American novel.” —Examiner.com “The Casquette Girls by Alys Arden is eerie, magical, and gritty, getting into the grimy seams of New Orleans in the tradition of Anne Rice or Poppy Z Brite.” —SP Reviews “The French Quarter of New Orleans is the beautiful yet sinister backdrop for Alys Arden’s debut novel The Casquette Girls. Set in the aftermath of a devastating storm, which proves to be the beginning of an adventure for one of the city’s inhabitants, the tale involves murder, monsters, and dark magic.” —Gothic Beauty Magazine

Alys Arden was raised by the street performers, tea-leaf readers, and glittering drag queens of the New Orleans French Quarter. She cut her teeth on the streets of New York, has worked all around the world since, and still dreams of running away with the circus one star-swept night. Follow her adventures on Twitter at @alysarden or Instagram at www.instagram.com/alysarden/.