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She wrote the first draft in one feverish month.
The book takes place in a country called Orisha 11 years after magic has vanished from the land.
Plus, check out the book trailer below, released exclusively to Vulture.
Especially during that time in my life.
What was going on in your life then?It was my freshman year at Harvard.
So college was this big awakening.
Then cameThe Hunger Games those stories were supposed to be my safe spot.
Those characters were just supposed to be characters.
I thought it wasnt really about the color of their skin.
But then I found out that people were bringing their real-world hatred into that fictional world.
And theyre saying it in public, too, on the internet.
They were so bold and so unashamed.
It was both terrifying and heart breaking.
I am a lot less safe than I thought.
But after the terror comes the, Oh Im going to get you.
At least for me.
Thats how I go through things.
Not necessarily this month, not necessarily this year, but give it time.
I will clap back.
And you will eat your words.
Weve seen literally 1,000Lord of the Ringsmovies.
Like with Kerry Washington onScandal.
I remember being like thats me, Im the main character!
Im making out with the president!
Cool cool cool!You dont realize whats missing until you see it.
So this is why white men feel so great all the time.
This is the explanation.Yeah, because theyre always seeing themselves doing amazing things.
Right now, I feel like were in this black-girl-magic renaissance.
Shes not going to have to go through this period of hating her hair and hating her skin.
When I was 5, I loved myself so much I gave myself a twin named Tomi.
Everything started out fine.
But then I didnt write another black character until I was 18.
It wasnt a conscious decision, which to me is why its scarier.
Somewhere in there, Id internalized this idea.
And my senior year, I finally realized how messed up that was.
So even before theHunger Games, I realized I needed to write black characters with really big hair.
So that was the start of my journey.
I spent 12 years of my life writing stories without black people.
Thats insane to me.
I havent watchedGame of Thrones.
Im whispering because I know theyre going to be like burn her!
Im not saying theyre not great, it just wasnt doing it for me.
So I couldnt be influenced byLOTRbecause I literally couldnt get through it.
There are just all these short men running around.
Im more influenced by anime.
That was my first love.
Those are epic, vicious tales.
Right now my inspiration isAttack on Titan.
I know I need to make something as effed up and as incredible and as bleak asAttack on Titan.
Im curious why that theme resonated for you.
I think everyone from a marginalized background can relate.
Youre young, and the world is full of color and hopes and dreams.
And then one day you have an experience that teaches you the world isnt what you thought it was.
It teaches you that because of the color of your skin, people will treat you differently.
Strangers will hate you.
People in power will use their power to further disenfranchise you.
People you pay to protect you will use their weapons to systematically hunt you down and kill you.
Living through that, its like watching a world full of color fade to hues of gray.
I put an insane amount of pressure on myself to get this book right.
I think for me the biggest challenge is to maintain sanity and maintain time for everything.
I really destroyed myself for this book.
Tell me more.It was mostly all nighters.
So many all nighters.
We tried to do this in 11 months.
But we freaking ripped up the pipes.
The book is so much better for it, but it was grueling.
So I was like, Ive gotta look interested!
I started looking around and I picked up this poster of nine different Orisha.
I had no idea what it was.
Id never seen anything like it.
I knew then that I had something worth writing that we hadnt seen before.
Are there any updates on the movie that you could share?
Whats that process been like?
How involved are you?The process has been wonderful!
This interview has been edited and condensed.
