The Vanishing Station

Ellickson delivers an ambitious, fast-paced fantasy crackling with complicated family dynamics and forbidden love in this simmering debut. Since her mother’s death, 18-year-old Ruby Santos and her father have been forced to rent out their beloved San Francisco home to pay off lingering medical debt. Ruby’s plans for art school are a distant memory, replaced by low-paying work and taking care of her alcohol dependent father, who experiences chronic pain. After receiving an ominous invitation to the wealthiest part of the city, she discovers that her father had been working as a magical courier for the Bartholomew family, an organized crime group that controls the enchanted portals on San Francisco’s BART line. To clear her father’s debts, Ruby takes over his contracted service to the Bartholomews, and scrambles to find footing in a dangerous underworld where subway knife fights span continents. Though the conclusion feels rushed, Ruby’s burgeoning connection with the Bartholomews’ heir—which develops through liberal references to contemporary art and poetry—is swoonworthy, and the story impresses in its sensitive portrayal of living with a loved one navigating health challenges. Ruby is Filipino and Irish American; the Bartholomews cue as white. Ages 12–up. (Apr.)