Excerpt from Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"A pugwagee."

"Get out of here," I said. "Really?"

"Swear to God," JP said. "We were down at the boulder and we saw it far away in some trees. Right, Tyson?"

Tyson nodded.

"See? Even Tyson knows what he saw. I basically have to drag him through here at night to get to your shed."

"Yeah," I said. "About the shed—my mom knows you two have been going in there."

"How does she know?" JP said. "We go late."

"Crows were talking, she said."

There was a pause and we stood. "I don't know what's scarier," JP said, "the swamp lady or your mother."

We laughed and kept on going.

"But for real," JP said. "We saw one and chased it."

"You chased it?" I laughed in disbelief.

"Yeah, but we were so far away that it was gone by the time we got to where we saw it. I'm surprised Tyson followed me."

"I wasn't waiting there by myself," Tyson said. "I had no choice."

"Well, Tyson," I said. "Now you'll wake up to the swamp lady and a pugwagee. You can cook them dinner."

"Don't forget the tobacco," JP added.

On the side of the road we stood, staring into a path that could bring you about anywhere. The last glimmers of day covered the rez roads, but the trees shrouded the path in darkness, a tunnel of never-ending night.

"Let's go before it gets too dark," JP said.

He stepped into the path and I told him to wait. "Where are we even going?" I said.

"I don't know," JP said. "Let's go all over the place."

I followed his shadow into the woods.

Excerpted from Night of the Living Rez by Stephan Talty. Copyright © 2022 by Stephan Talty. Excerpted by permission of Tin House Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.