Sleep by Night: A MG novel of compassionate monster hunting
A low fantasy coming-of-age for readers 10+. When a forest spirit reveals to preteen Mazel that she's not the only resident of her mountain town being haunted, she must enter the bad memories creating these monsters to save her community (and herself).
Twelve-year-old Mazel Knight has been stalked by a monster for longer than she can remember. Not that she remembers much.
Since no one else in her sleepy mountain town ever reacts to him, Mazel assumes she's the only one being haunted. But when she saves a spirit disguised as an injured elk, her resulting magical sight forces her to see the reality of her community.
Many people in The Villa are just like she is. The difference is that Mazel is the only one who can vanish the monsters: by diving into the bad memories that formed them, mending the hurt, and lifting the burden off of her community. Mazel finally gets a hint as to what kind of person she really is—she's good at helping people.
If only she could help herself.
Sleep by Night is a low fantasy novel for readers aged 10 and up, especially fans of stories with less action but big emotion and unique settings. Stories such as:
Over the Garden Wall
Kiki's Delivery Service
Undertale
The Wolf of Cape Fen
The Graveyard Book
Where the Wild Things Are (the 2009 movie)
Howl's Moving Castle
...and more! The novel is around 65,000 words long (or about 250 pages of story) and has been workshopped and edited by a diverse community of writers and creatives ranging from ages 12 to 56, including English teachers, archivists, therapists, published authors, avid readers, and kids-at-heart.
In the novel, readers will explore The Villa: a small mountain town that is not as quiet or peaceful as it appears. Its vibrant cast of residents all have secrets—and memories—waiting to be discovered. The grouchy elder who never leaves his house on the top of the hill. The young handywoman who always seems fine, until the exact moment she's not. The excitable classmate who can almost convince everyone he really is happy. And, of course, Mazel's mentor, a shrewd and beautiful old woman who knows more than she's letting on.
Following Mazel throughout her journey is Bes, a towering monster with broad, leaf-shaped ears, thick tusks, and a wooden mask that always covers his face. Stick with Mazel long enough, and readers may discover just what lies behind that mask ... and why every monster in The Villa wears one, with a single exception.
The author, Luka Brave, started his writing journey over 20 years ago on the roleplay forums of Neopets.com. This ignited a lifelong love of writing, snowballing into a full novel written age 13, a bachelor's degree in English & Creative Writing, a master's degree in Rhetoric & Writing Studies, three more novels, dozens upon dozens of short stories, a few poetry zines, four professional publications ... you get the gist. He is also a tabletop roleplaying game designer, with the number of games they've published climbing closer to 30 every day.
Outside of creative pursuits, Luka has been a social worker, disability advocate, writing teacher and tutor, and an overall Jack of All Trades. They like to know a little about a lot, and try to pull that into their creative work as often as possible. Luka likes to write stories about people who haven't had easy lives. Like him and his friends, the characters in these stories are often queer, disabled, racialized, traumatized, messy, imperfect, lovable, and trying to make the world a better place in whatever little ways they can.
With enough interest, Luka could (very easily) be persuaded to make a tie-in roleplaying game for Sleep by Night, where solo players could explore and write their own version of this tale: their own protagonist, a small town, monsters, and striving to help the complex people that those monsters haunt.
