“H. A. Clarke does it like no other. . . . [The Scratch Daughters] explores the complex queerness of teen friendships; it explores recovery and rehabilitation; it explores gender and sexuality and uncertainty. Confrontational, wild, fucking magic.”
“If The Scapegracers was capital “Q” Queer, The Scratch Daughters is a massive purple neon sign. . . . A sharp, scathing sophomore novel.”
October 25, 2022 / $18.95 / 400 pages
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 . . .
In The Scratch Daughters, indie-bestselling author H. A. Clarke crafts a brilliant sequel to their tender, biting debut The Scapegracers: a raw and roiling tribute to queer lineage, to finding oneself, and to the deep love of chosen family.
August Clarke is here and queer, etc. They have been published in PRISM international, Portland Review, and Eidolon. They were a 2019 Lambda Literary Fellow in Young Adult Fiction and a Pushcart nominee. They researched queerness, labor, and monstrosity at the University of Chicago. The Scratch Daughters is the second book in their indie-bestselling series, The Scapegracers, where they write as H. A. Clarke.
Praise for The Scapegracers
“Clarke conjures up a powerful, passionate tale of female friendship and found family.” Publishers Weekly ★
Teenage girl magic is palpable, urgent, and simply marvelous in this must-have debut.” —Kirkus ★