“Julie Broise and the Devil” by Seanan McGuire
Rush’s Bend is a quiet town…where little girls talk to ghosts, werewolves attend the spring dance, and the Devil himself just might come looking for a bride. If Julie Broise doesn’t learn to mind her ways, she may find herself with more than she bargained on. [33min]
An Excerpt:
Julie always needed more than anyone could give her. Offer her a dime and she’d want a dollar; offer her a rhyme and she’d demand the whole song. That’s how she was made. She wasn’t good at knowing her limits, and unless you know your own limits, you’ll never know anybody else’s. But I guess Julie taught us that better than anybody dreamed she could.
We were in the middle of an interesting patch here in Rush’s Bend when the business with Julie came around. Between the Hilliard girl turning out a werewolf and Michael Jones refusing to let us cut down any of the trees until he figured out which one used to be his girlfriend, most of us hadn’t had a wink of sleep in months. Seemed every kid in town had to wake their parents to ask “Papa, did you find me in a tree stump?” or “Mama, was there a summer storm when I got born?” Even my Applejack woke me with questions, and you’d think she’d know her purpose by now, being a Tucker and all.
