The Monsters We Defy

The Monsters We Defy by Leslye Penelope, 392 pages.

Clara Johnson has seen ghost, spirits, and Enigmas her whole life. Enigmas are powerful spirits that can grant a wish (called a Charm), but in return inflict a curse (known as a Trick). Due to her own deal, Clara is magically bound to broker these deals for anyone who comes to her for help. This trick ways heavy on her, as all tricks do, because almost nobody ever comes out of these deals better off. So when the Empress, the Enigma who holds Clara's debt, offers to cancel their deal if she steals a ring for her, she feels she can't help but accept. And soon she's got a whole team of people with Enigma debts of their own working under the same deal, but the whole job is tied to something much bigger and darker than any of them knows. 

This is a supernatural heist book set in the black communities of Washington DC in the 1920s, and it's extremely cool. It manages to keep the flavor of classic heist media, while expanding the scope of what is possible with a cast of really cool characters. It in fact kept the flavor so much, that at times it felt like it would really like to be a movie. The author did a whole lot of research, so it felt sort of transportive to a place I didn't know that much about. This is a really neat book, and I would definitely recommend it to fans of heists and black historical fiction.