Aloe shrugged. “I definitely needed to get away to the farm, and it helped me see that we have time now, you know? Like, I think I know how I want to help people, but I have time to figure it out. We have time to imagine whatever we want and make it real. That’s the Lucille we live in, that’s what we can give to ourselves and each other.”
Bitter gazed into his face. He was so wholesome, so eager to give back to the people he cared about and even those he didn’t know. “Yuh real important to me, you know?”
Aloe laughed, the sound bubbling up through his teeth. “Bitter, you are my whole heart. I wish I could tell our kids everything about you one day.”
She poked his ribs, even as her heart soared at how easily he made it sound like they would have decades together. “Doh you dare. We all agreed: none of this happened.”
“Yeah, yeah. A new world, a clean start.” He tangled his fingers up with hers.
Bitter had never been the one who said the romantic things in their relationship. That was always Aloe, the dreamer, the soft and hopeful one. But in these days, her feelings were clear and precise, and she was no longer afraid. “I’ll love you in any world,” she whispered. “I promise.”
Aloe stroked her cheek and leaned in to kiss her. “I’m going to hold you to that,” he whispered back, his words brushing against her breath.
Bitter closed her eyes and chose to dream with him. Lucille was gone, Lucille was being born, made anew in the hands of the people. Outside the window, faint thrills of ash floated through the air.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Writing this book was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, what with the pandemic, escalating civil unrest, and a body that has become progressively more disabled over the past few years. I am endlessly grateful to every single person who fed my discipline throughout the years, because that rigor is what got me through. As always, I could not make this work without the community that holds me up.
To Katherine Agyemaa Agard, for literally typing for me, week after week, over Zoom sessions, when I lost the ability to write or use a keyboard. I can never tell you how much it meant. Thank you so much.
To Ann Daramola, for loving this book, asking the best questions, and reminding me to send them back for Mr. Nelson. Thinking through books with you is a genuine honor and a gift.
To Yagazie Emezi, who has built worlds with me all my life, for helping me make angels real, forming Vengeance with me, and choosing its voice.
To Bilphena Yahwon and Nnennaya Amuchie, for teaching me about better worlds from the work I witness you doing in this one.
To Gwendolyn Brooks, Assata Shakur, and Mariame Kaba, for your work and your words.
To the Black radical communities committed to our liberation, thank you, thank you, thank you. I hope these stories help.
PRAISE FOR :
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST
STONEWALL HONOR BOOK
WALTER AWARD HONOR BOOK
NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
TIME BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
BUZZFEED BEST YA BOOK OF THE YEAR
“Beautiful, genre-expanding.”
The New York Times
“Another remarkable new voice … A timely, nuanced book about the monsters living in plain sight.”
The Observer
“The word hype was invented to describe books like this.”
Refinery29
“Powerful and highly original.”
Bookseller
“This soaring novel shoots for the stars and explodes the sky with its bold brilliance.”
Kirkus
“Striking.”
The Wall Street Journal
“Both welcomingly readable and weighted with the condensed, cautionary power of fable.”
TLS
“Compelling … a wonderful mix of fantasy, dystopian drama, political commentary and coming of age tale that is sure to grip any reader.”
The Scotsman
“A compelling, nuanced tale.”
Publishers Weekly
“A riveting and important read.”
School Library Journal
“Meshing together modern reality with all the grit and magic of a fairy tale.”
TES
“Will appeal to readers across age ranges.”
Booklist
“Asks questions of good and evil and agency, all wrapped up in the terrifying and glorious spectacle of fantastical theology.”
NPR
“A unique science fiction tale.”
Essence
“Important narrative that teens will want to read to gain some perspective on the modern political environment.”
Bulletin
“A riveting and timely work answering the questions about how you go about the world when the world around you is in denial.”
Out Magazine
“Readers might see in Jam’s surroundings a version of a world that they, like Jam, might choose to fight for.”
BookPage
“A haunting and poetic work of speculative fiction.”
The Horn Book
“Tremendous … Emezi further solidifies themselves as an important contemporary writer.”
New Frame
“Defies all attempts at categorization … It is what it is, and what it is is pretty much perfect. This is a novel that must be read and shared.”
Tor.com
“Astonishing … is as timely and important as it is lyrical and fantastical.”
LoveReading
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Akwaeke Emezi (they/them) is the author of Pet, a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, a Walter Honor Book and a Stonewall Honor Book; the New York Times bestseller The Death of Vivek Oji, which was a finalist for the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the PEN/Jean Stein Award; Freshwater, which was named a New York Times Notable Book and shortlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award, the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, the Lambda Literary Award, and the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize; and most recently, Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir. Their debut poetry collection, Content Warning: Everything, is forthcoming in 2022. Selected as a 5 Under 35 honoree by the National Book Foundation, they are based in liminal spaces.
ALSO BY AKWAEKE EMEZI
Pet
Copyright
First published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf,
an imprint of Random House Children’s Books,
a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York in 2022
First published in the UK in 2022