Unbreakable

 Unbreakable by Mira Grant, 114 pages.

Magical Protectors have been protecting Earth from the forces of the Outside for as long as humanity has existed. Teams across the world are prepared to fight to the death to serve that purpose, but none of them expected they would all die at once. After one horrible night all but two are dead, and for those two life is forever changed. After the massacre the governments of the world decide that no more children should be allowed to die for the sake of others, and the world does it's best to pretend that they were never heroes. Piper and Yuina were members of Unbreakable Starlight, and now they haven't spoken in years. Piper has become an alcoholic shut-in, unwilling to deal with the pain of losing all of her friends and even more unwilling to play the role of repentant magical girl for the United States government. Yuina is playing exactly that role, helping to sell the narrative that they were all misled children so that she is still allowed to talk about it at all. But they never really understood what happened that night so many years ago, and time is running out to figure it out. 

This is a super cool novella! It was fast paced and exciting while still having a pretty solid emotional core. Mira Grant is one of Seanan McGuire's pen names, and I definitely recognize her style in this. The handling of heavy emotions that come after a classic childhood adventure remind me quite a lot of her Wayward Children books, and this novella lives up to the expectation that creates. 

Also: I would definitely recommend this book to fans of the show Puella Magi Madoka Magica in particular, it feels like one of it's major inspirations.