Sleight: Book 1 of the AVRAKEDAVRA (reissued Canada + world ebook and paperback edition; SGA Books)

"Genevieve’s grief is profound . . . necessary fuel for the scary, magical quest that she must undertake.” ~ The Globe and Mail

Growing up in the Cinzio Traveling Players Company, Genevieve Flannery is accustomed to a life most teenagers could never imagine: daily workouts of extravagant acrobatics, wild animals for pets, and her mother, Delia, whose mind has always been tortured by visions—but whose love Geni never questions. In a family of performers who mystify and amaze on a daily basis, Delia’s ghostly hallucinations never seemed all that strange . . . until the evening Geni and her mother are performing an aerial routine they’ve done countless times, and Delia falls to her death.

That night, a dark curtain in Genevieve’s life opens.

As they reel from the tragedy, the Cinzio Players are also grappling with the circus’s new owner: a generous but mysterious man whose connection to the circus, Genevieve suspects, has its own dangerous history. And with the discovery of an otherworldly inheritance and her perilous mission to protect it, Gen stumbles into a new reality of her own, her life interrupted daily by the terrors only Delia used to see. As the visions around her intensify and her magical legacy grows in menace, Gen is not sure who she should trust or love. Worst of all, she begins to question whether she can trust her own mind.

Something to note … Sleight has had a few lives.

A version of this book was published in 2011 (first with a smoke-curl image (my photography), then we rebranded with a red-haired girl lying on grass. 

In 2012, SLEIGHT was sold to HarperCollins Canada and went through four years of editorial work before publishing in March 2018 (the fantastical blue cover). This version is a top-to-bottom reimagining of the original story published in 2011. Sky Pony Press released Sleight in April 2018. 

In 2024, the Canadian rights for both Sleight and Scheme were reverted to me, and I will be reissuing with my vision for the covers! 

The American publisher has, at this writing in May 2025, not reverted rights. The US version is in hardcover and I was so lucky to have Sarah Coleman (InkyMole) do the stunning artwork for both Sleight and her sequel, Scheme.