Salt Bones – Givhan Jennifer (2025)

In this gripping retelling of Persephone and Demeter in the Mexicali borderlands, three Mexican-American women from a haunted family must uncover the truth about the missing girls from their small Southern California farming community before danger finds them first. At the edge of the Salton Sea, in the blistering borderlands, something is hunting. Malamar Veracruz has never left the dust-choked town of El Valle. She has built a good life, raised two children and tried to forget the painful, unexplained disappearance of her sister, Elena. When another local girl goes missing, Mal plunges into a fresh yet familiar nightmare. Her search for answers becomes increasingly tangled with inscrutable visions of a horse-headed woman, a local legend whom Mal feels compelled to follow. Mal’s perspective is joined by the voices of her two daughters, and all three must uncover the truth about the missing girls before it is too late. Combining elements of Latina and Indigenous culture, family drama, mystery, horror and magical realism, this spellbinding story explores environmental catastrophe, family secrets and the unrelenting bond between mothers and daughters.