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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSMags Herrera is in her last year of high school in a small desert town near Joshua Tree, and her Christmas break is all work and responsibility. She takes kitchen shifts, including the grill at the local diner, and looks after her frail grandmother, Abuela, while her mother often stays at her boyfriend's. Every night Mags also climbs down through a trapdoor in the hallway to tend a hungry creature kept in a cage under the floor, and it is the reason she lets no one get close. Then her childhood best friend Nessa comes back to town for the holidays. Nessa is a trans girl in her first year of art school in LA, and she arrives with pinhole box cameras, a photo project she calls "Memory archeology," and a question she is scared to ask about something she thinks she saw in Mags's basement when they were kids. Between a house party, a borrowed hot tub, a winter solstice bonfire and a stranger in a wide-brimmed hat who insists on reading Mags's fortune, the two start falling for each other, and Mags has to decide how much of the truth she can stand to share.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The Deep Dark
SPOILERSEvery one of these has the same answer, and that is the point. In a real battle the question is read aloud with a dozen other books in play, and students have a few seconds to place it. Here is what a battle might ask about The Deep Dark. Use them as a quiz, a trivia round, or BOTB practice.
Where in the book they come from
- Early in the book
In what book does a girl's art-school boyfriend call it trashy to look for Laura Dern's star?
✓ Answer
The Deep Dark by Lee Knox Ostertag
Sitting on the rocks with takeout, Nessa tells Mags she and Aaron started fighting over dumb stuff, like when she wanted to find Laura Dern's star on the star walk. When Mags asks who that is, Nessa reminds her it's the actress from Jurassic Park, "With the shorts."
- First half
In what book does a little girl say she once sneaked a starving-looking creature a cookie it didn't want?
✓ Answer
The Deep Dark by Lee Knox Ostertag
When Nessa says the creature looks like it's starving and asks what Mags feeds it, young Mags answers "Nothing" and mentions the cookie. She also says her Tío Hugo has one too, though she never met him.
- First half
In what book does a teen lean on her mom's shoulder and call herself "The goodest girl"?
✓ Answer
The Deep Dark by Lee Knox Ostertag
In the waiting room, Mags tells Mari she probably won't see Nessa again because "She's starting to ask questions," and Mari says that's good. Mags rests her head on Mari's shoulder with this wry line, and Mari tells her Tom asked her to move in with him.
- Second half
In what book do two hands inch toward each other along a column of rising steam?
✓ Answer
The Deep Dark by Lee Knox Ostertag
Once Nessa is invited in, Mags, Nessa and Abuela sit with steaming mugs in front of a holiday movie. On a wordless page, Mags's and Nessa's hands creep closer along the steam between them until their fingers touch.
- Second half
In what book does a friend wait with a first-aid kit to patch up a teen's hand?
✓ Answer
The Deep Dark by Lee Knox Ostertag
Mags tells Nessa she has to go and heads down through the trapdoor to feed the creature. When she comes back up, Nessa is still there with a first-aid kit and says she didn't want Mags to be alone afterward.
- Near the end
In what book has a teen never been farther north than Oxnard?
✓ Answer
The Deep Dark by Lee Knox Ostertag
Standing by the car, Nessa asks if the next stop is LA, and Mags says "For a bit" and that she wants to travel. Mags's dad is in Oxnard.
