The Sanchez women aren’t just unlucky in love—they’re cursed…
We’re thrilled to share the cover and preview an excerpt from Vanessa Montalban’s A Tall Dark Trouble—available August 29, 2023 from Zando Young Readers.
Practical Magic meets Erika L. Sanchez in this propulsive YA fantasy about a Cuban American family of brujas who get entangled in love, magic, and murder, alternating between 1980s Cuba and present-day Miami.
The Sanchez women aren’t just unlucky in love—they’re cursed. Twins Delfi and Lela are haunted by a malevolent magic that’s followed their family from Cuba to Miami, poisoning any chance at romantic love. It’s no wonder their mother forbids them from magic.
When Lela and Delfi receive premonitions of a mysterious killer targeting witches, however, the sisters must embrace their emerging powers to save innocent lives. Teaming up with their best friend Ethan and brooding detective-in-training Andres, Delfi and Lela set out to catch a murderer on a dangerous hunt that will bring them face to face with the dark secrets of their family’s past.
Meanwhile, in 1980s Cuba, Anita de Armas whispers to the spirits for mercy—not for herself, but for the victims of her mother’s cult. She’s desperate to rid herself of her power, which manifests as inky shadows and an ability to speak to the dead, especially as political tensions rise and Anita’s cult initiation draws near.
Lela, Delfi, and Anita’s stories intertwine in a thrilling fantasy that spans oceans and generations as each woman steps into her power, refusing to be subdued by any person or curse.
Buy the Book
A Tall Dark Trouble
Fueled by the magic of espresso, Miami-born Vanessa Montalban channels her wanderlust for far-off worlds into writing speculative fiction for teens. She’s a first-gen graduate from the University of Central Florida where she received her bachelor’s in creative writing with summa cum laude honors.
Not for the first time, I wonder if we’re already too late. Delfi’s so sure that our vision of Idaly being drowned has yet to happen but I’m not convinced. What I haven’t wanted to admit, not to her and not to myself, is that our vision didn’t feel like a premonition, but more like a memory, something fated that’s already come to pass.
From the shore, I can make out the distant boats bobbing ominously in the waves. Idaly could have been on any one of them. Along with her killer.
I shift my gaze away from the horizon, wrapping my arms around myself.
Once the sky darkens and the beach fills up with people gathering for the full-moon party, it’s easy to get lost in the crowd. The drum circles are always a surprise, always a different vibe each time we’ve come. Sometimes it’s hyped electronic music with pookie heads waving glow sticks around their faces, or shroomies sitting cross-legged on the sand, swearing they can hear the trees cry. But I like it best when it’s like this—fire poi and hula-hoop dancers, people huddled around a crackling bonfire, under the light of a full moon. I prefer this crowd with their firmer grip on reality, with their gentler escapes in music and smoke. All of us dancing beneath a plush black sky like a swathe of velvet.
Delfi hasn’t said another word to me since our argument, but I don’t need magic to sense her radiating disappointment. I’m not like her, though. I’m not willing to trust some stranger with our secrets like she is. I don’t want to do any kind of trabajo that’ll make my already unstable abilities stronger, and I’m not sure I want to see more of these visions.
Now she’s off dancing with her friends and Ethan’s getting us a drink. From my solitary perch in the sand, I let my head fall back, bathing in the moonlight as if it could cool the fiery burn of my skin. There’s something about the full moon that reaches deep into the center of my chest and tugs, pulls at me as if I could float away. I dig my fingers deep into the sand, leaning back onto my arms.
I sense him hovering nearby, the gentle weight of his lingering gaze. For a few heart-rendering moments, he doesn’t move and neither do I.
“Praying to the moon goddess?” Ethan says finally, walking over. He sits down beside me, cross-legged.
“Yes.” I peek at him. “And she sends a divine message.”
“Wait. Are you being serious?” His glasses glitter.
I nod solemnly. “She says the tide will rise within the hour and drown all the dorks from the beach.” I sit up. “You’ll be missed.”
He hands me a cup. “Hilarious.”
Delfi’s distinct laugh rings out and we both look up. She’s with a group of dancers at the edge of the shore—lithe figures in bohemian wear, swaying like the waves behind them. My sister hands her sparkly hula hoop to some chick with the biggest ear gauges I’ve ever seen in exchange for a poi stick with fire blazing on both ends.
The sight of flames encasing my sister makes me shudder.
“She’s going to get herself killed.” My throat is tight.
“Nah, she’ll be all right.” Ethan rummages through his bag and withdraws Pearl, a giant camera with a lens the length of my arm. He removes the cover, the flash popping out, before snapping pictures of the fire dancers.
Click. Delfi twirls the fire stick out in front of her, creating a circle of orange-white light.
Click. She waves it over her head, mouth tight in concentration.
Click. A crowd gathers as she gains speed with the fire stick, forming figure-eights, circles, blurry spirals. The drums pick up tempo.
Click. My heart is in my throat. My twin is buried in a cocoon of shimmering flames. Even across the distance, Delfi’s eyes meet mine. She smiles, and for a moment, the sight of her blurs with the memory of her small, panicked face as she shook me awake when our house was on fire. I was so tired. I’d cried myself to sleep that night because I’d overheard my parents arguing. The last words I ever heard my dad speak were the ones he screamed at my mom. There’s something wrong with them! You’re all maldecidas! And then everything went up in flames because he was right. We are cursed.
Click. The camera’s on me now, and when I face Ethan, he lowers it, flushed.
My phone lights up with a text from Mami.
Ya, you finish? Did you eat?
She’d flip if she found out where we are. At least there’s one thing I can be honest about. I sigh.
Si Mami, we ate. Don’t forget to eat too! We’re finishing up here, and remember we’re staying over Soraya’s house because we have an early shift tomorrow.
“Everything okay?” Ethan asks as I gnaw my lip to bits, trying to shake the memory of fire lingering in my mind like a mold.
“Yeah, it’s my mom.” We fall into a comfortable silence, and the more I watch my sister dancing, ecstatic and unharmed, the more I feel at ease. My finger swirls against the sand, drawing a circle. Scooching closer, Ethan adds a happy face with a big nose.
“Oh, is that supposed to be me?” I tease.
“What? No.” He adds a weird helmet-hair shape onto the happy face, adds giant lips. I snort. He scrutinizes it for a moment, scrunching his nose and contemplating his masterpiece. He holds up a finger. “Ah.” He adds two tiny hearts on the happy face’s cheeks. “Now it’s you.”
I consider it. “Hm, not bad. But why the hearts?” My gaze brushes upward, his face inches away. He’s taken off his glasses, and in the dark, his eyes look black, fathomless and unreadable. I can smell the fruitiness of his drink, the tiniest bit of spice from the rum as if its flavors washed over my own tongue. As if his mouth were already over mine.
This is dangerous. I can’t let myself go there. Not with Ethan.
“Ofi—”
The phone pings with a message, and I scramble for it. My skin too warm, my mind too muddled. Ethan sits back as I glance down at the screen.
OK. Don’t be on the road late. It’s dangerous. Tell your boss. And tell your hermana que if she doesn’t answer her phone, I will return it to el Best Buy.
I roll my eyes and laugh, showing Ethan the text.
“Is it weird I can hear her voice perfectly in my head?” he says.
“Nope, I hear it too.”
Delfi runs up to us, skin glossy with sweat and seawater.
“Will you guys stop being so boring?” Delfi whines. “Get up and come dance with me. Help me convince the DJ to play something more upbeat.” Apparently, she’s over giving me the silent treatment.
I groan as she reaches for my hand, but when her fingers touch mine, she freezes. Stands absolutely still. Color drains from my sister’s face, and I immediately sense why. It comes over me like another wave of déjà vu. The phantom pain starts in my throat, curling down into my lungs, and I lean forward, trying to contain it. Delfi doubles over, too, her own hand fisted against her chest.
“Hey, you two all right?” Ethan asks, sitting up in concern.
I can’t answer him. My stomach twists into knots, and I feel an unbearable pain around my neck, in my lungs. Idaly.
I shoot to my feet, hands shaking. Delfi and I stare at each other in horror.
“Delf—?” I can’t finish. The beach, the moon, the music. The visions we’ve been having for weeks . . .
“Lela, something’s happening,” Delfi gasps.
“What do we do?” I choke out. Delfi’s hand still clutches her chest. As if her lungs burn as much as mine do. As if we were drowning.
“What’s wrong?” Ethan demands, standing too. The guy with the drums picks up speed again, the banging in tune with my heartbeat. I can barely breathe, the pain has grown so intense. It’s impossible that no one else feels this.
A shrill scream stabs through the air.
My skin turns to ice.
Another scream rings out and Delfi takes off running. I chase after her, following the cries to the edge of the ocean.
We run up to where a circle of people has gathered. Delfi and I shoulder our way forward. The girl with gauges scrambles back from the surf, a hand smothering her shrieks. Ethan calls after us, but he’s quickly lost among the crowd.
My body is heavy with dread, already knowing what awaits. No. No, no, no.
My sister clutches my arm. “Shit.”
We’re too late. We look down at Idaly’s body, tangled on the shore.
Excerpted from A Tall Dark Trouble, copyright © 2023 by Vanessa Montalban
