Elatsoe

Willowbee emerges as an unexpected and unusual phenomenon in the heart of the Texas desert. Although everything about Willowbee is clean, picture-perfect, and enticing to the eye, the town represents the parasitic grasp that Nathaniel Grace and his descendants have on the world and the devastating effects of colonialism on the Indigenous population.

Ellie notices that “Willowbee [is] the kind of town that announce[s] itself” (122), and right away, the town sticks out. The architecture of the town is unusual, and it “seem[s] inspired by colonial New England” (123), not South Texas. Ellie also has trouble finding the town on both paper and digital maps, and it almost seems like the town doesn’t want to be found at all. These details highlight the strangeness of Willowbee and point toward a greater mystery. Willowbee doesn’t belong in South Texas, but it thrust itself into the landscape, much like the early colonists thrust themselves into the Americas with no respect for the land or its people.

Although the surrounding landscape showcases “cacti, shrubs, and mesquite trees” (122), and Ellie points out that “South Texas [is] naturally a dry, yellowish country during the best summers” (124), the houses in Willowbee have very green lawns indicative of excessive water usage. Within the town itself, there are “no desert plants or signs of drought. In fact, moisture-loving white mushrooms grew under the shade of the rose bushes” (267). Ellie later learns that these mushrooms are magical, and the townspeople use this magic to move Willowbee from one place to another when their secret is discovered. The people of Willowbee run away from the damage they cause, and they over-water their lawns and hoard critical resources. Worst of all, they “[put] a bounty on the Indigenous, the poor, and the vulnerable” (428) by passing their illnesses onto others, just like the early European colonists brought a tidal wave of diseases to the Americas and wiped out most of the Indigenous population.

At the novel's end, when the secret of Nathaniel Grace and Willowbee comes to light, Ellie watches as Allerton and his cronies prepare to relocate the town again and run away from the mess they have created. Ellie panics as she realizes that “Dr. Allerton [is] going to get away with everything. Again. He’d erase all evidence of his crimes, reinvent history, move somewhere else, and continue profiting off others’ misery” (475). Ellie decides that this has gone on for long enough, and she throws Dr. Allerton into the underworld, where he is finally forced to face the consequences of his crimes. Willowbee collapses without its leader, and the town will no longer live off of the suffering of others. Still, Willowbee is not the only town of its kind, and dismantling all of the ill effects of colonialism will not be as easy as destroying one corrupt town. Willowbee represents a bigger picture and also serves as a microcosm of the realities of living in a Euro-centric America.

As a young ghost trainer, Ellie must be careful to respect the difference between animal and human ghosts. When Trevor dies, Ellie offers to wake Trevor up, just like she wakes up animals like Kirby. However, her parents sharply correct her and remind her that while animal ghosts are relatively harmless, “human ghosts are terrible things” (30). The Lipan Apache elders believe that “when somebody dies young, it [is] dangerous to speak his name, see his face, or risk calling him back” (40) because his ghost may wreak havoc. Ellie and her family have a strong fear of human ghosts because they represent anger, sorrow, and the spirit of unchecked vengeance.

When Trevor dies, Ellie questions what she has always believed about human ghosts. Although she has been told they are balls of negative energy, “just rage, sorrow, keen intelligence, and vindictiveness” (130), Ellie doesn’t understand how someone like Trevor could ever become a force of evil. Trevor was a good person, and he loved his family too much to hurt any of them. Still, Ellie knows that “If Trevor returned, he could tear the neighborhood apart like a hurricane with hatred at its core” (130), so precautions must be taken to ensure that he stays down Below where he belongs. Ellie says that animal ghosts do not know they are dead, so they cannot fully exploit their ghost powers without proper training. Human ghosts, however, possess an awareness that makes them particularly dangerous. Ellie marvels at how different animal and human ghosts are, and when it comes to human ghosts, she even “wonder[s] if they’re ghosts at all or something else. Something…stranger” (270).

In Allerton’s mansion, the ghost admits that it isn’t Ellie’s cousin but “an emissary of a murdered man, unleashed to right a terrible wrong” (426). The emissary represents the spirit of vengeance, and unlike Trevor, the emissary has no interest in helping others or protecting Trevor’s loved ones. The emissary is a ball of bloodlust and evil, and it won’t hesitate to hurt anyone (including Trevor’s family) who stands in its way of avenging Trevor. It tells Ellie that there are “so, so many emissaries of vengeance trapped between this world and Below” (429), which gives Ellie the idea to bring Abe to the underworld at the end of Chapter 33. Ellie watches as the emissaries swarm Allerton and punish him for the countless murders he has committed over the years, and while Ellie still isn’t sure if the emissaries have a purpose, she utilizes their bloodlust to free the world from the clutches of a far eviler force.