Vassa in the Night
Living with her two sisters in a magic realism version of Brooklyn, Vassa has lost both parents; one to illness, the other having turned himself into a dog. When Vassa is sent on an errand one night to the dreaded convenience store BYS, she becomes trapped by its witchy owner, Babs. (The store is surrounded by the heads of shoplifters on spikes.)
Vassa, who has a small, living doll as a companion, is soon trapped into working for Babs. During the course of her employment, she meets a motorcyclist who might be Night itself, a brace of swans, two bizarrely sentient disembodied hands, and a charming and reckless boy. Very Bad Things happen.
This is a lovely, lyrical tale of magic realism, based on the Russian folklore of Baba Yaga. Vassa is a resourceful and wryly charismatic heroine, and who would think my two favorite characters would be a wooden doll named Erg and a murderous hand called Dexter?