Monsters are real, and the United States is Infested.

In 1900, a cursed stretch of the Midwestern frontier known as the Infested is overrun with ghosts, monsters, and things that should have stayed buried. Most people avoid it. Desdemona's family calls it home.
Protected by magic, their homestead is one of the last safe havens for travelers crossing the haunted plains. But Desdemona longs to prove herself beyond its walls, drawn by the darkness outside and by the restless power calling to her.
Then her mother dies. Her father fails to return from the East. And a shadow creature appears on their land.
With bewitching strangers at the door, monsters gathering in the dark, and her siblings divided by old wounds and new resentments, Desdemona is forced to become the leader she never wanted to be-all to protect the people she loves and uncover her true place in the world.
If she fails, her father may come home to find their sanctuary turned graveyard.