Those Pink Mountain Nights

The latest disappearance in a long line of missing Indigenous women and girls from Alberta, teenager Kiki Cheyanne Sound, who is Black and Cree, has been missing for five months. Classmates Cameron Sound, who is Cree; Berlin Chambers, who is Métis; and Jessie Hampton, who is white, work together at Pink Mountain Pizza, a local Black-owned food joint. Each teen is dealing with their own challenges: Kiki’s cousin Cam is struggling with her vanishing and hides behind a disaffected facade, Berlin is managing undiagnosed depression while coping with her best friend ghosting her, and Jessie is navigating a tense relationship with her deeply misogynistic father. The trio is forced to come together when Berlin sees Kiki near Pink Mountain Pizza, launching the teens into an investigation behind her disappearance that is imperiled by the parlor owner’s plans to sell and franchise the pizzeria. As they try to find Kiki, the group also endeavors to prevent the owner from selling. Via an intersectionally diverse cast, this character-driven story by Ferguson (The Summer of Bitter and Sweet) tackles macro-level issues such as anti-Blackness as well as Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit Individuals alongside familiar teenage troubles surrounding friendship breakups. Ages 13–up. Agent: Patricia Nelson, Marsal Lyon Literary. (Sept.)