In So Let Them Burn, Faron Vincent can speak directly to the gods, ride a dragon, and even correct the people of her island on how they can more accurately depict the deities in their temples. However, her charmed life comes with difficult choices about war and peace, power and identity, and a bossy older sister.
Debut author Kamilah Cole is not the least bit shy. When asked about So Let Them Burn, she laughs and gushes; she leaks excitement through every word.
Speaking with BGN over the phone, she shared her ambitions and dreams for this first book, for herself as an author, and for Black fantasy nerds all over the world.
The relationship between two sisters is such a huge part of the book. Is that drawn from life?
I do have a sister, and I love her so much. We’re generation apart, so she’s a lot younger. SLTB is mostly about Faron, but even in her late twenties, there was no way that her Black parents would let her go to war. So I thought she should have an older sister who she could take with her, so they’d hate it a little less.
The older sister, Elara, wasn’t a point of view character at first; she was a babysitter. But then I realized that two sisters can be peers while the older feels responsibility and resentment for the younger. The sister story is integral. Having them play off each other, that’s the story.
Are the very protective parents in the book like yours?
My parents would never let me go to war! But it’s never come up. These aren’t play-by-play like my parents. But I think the relationship with our parents is super important, so I wanted my characters to have active relationships, unlike most young adult protagonists. I wanted to show the strain between them.
Faron has such a rich and interesting relationship with the gods. How did you develop that?
I started off thinking of a Joan of Arc story. She heard the voices of angels telling her to go to war and free France. I wanted to do something like that! I love stories about gods and monsters. I wanted to have a heroine who is absolutely in direct contact with and connected to the gods of this world, hearing them, channeling magic. I was always a Greek mythology nerd. I loved that they had specific gods for specific concepts and realms. The Greek myths are like fanfic! They’re all messy. I’m like Marie Kondo — I love mess.
I’m much more a fantasy nerd than sci-fi, though Pacific Rim is my favorite movie of all time. The concept in my book of two riders per dragon is based on drift compatibility [the shared mental load of controlling a mecha between two pilots in Pacific Rim].
Who is So Let Them Burn for?
I wrote this book for Black teens. I want kids to see Black girls riding dragons but also dealing with larger issues like colonialism and family. I don’t want them to take as long as I did to know who they are and what they’re really into.
My dream was to have a Black girl front and center on the cover. My publishers asked me what I wanted and came back with artist Taj Francis, who’s also Jamaican and did the cover for J. Elle’s Wings of Ebony. I literally cried when they showed me the cover art. I reached out to thank Taj on Instagram, to tell him it was the most beautiful thing I’d seen. He reminded me that though I haven’t been back to Jamaica in a while, we share this sense of community. We are Black, with roots in the African slave trade. But when it comes to identity, Jamaicans and Caribbeans in general have a different sense of belonging.
What inspires you?
When I finished my first book, Black Panther, The Hate U Give, and Children of Blood and Bone were all out. I was seeing Black authors and creators who took off and had huge success. And it wasn’t that I didn’t know you could write Black characters in stories like these, but I thought they’d never be bestsellers. These all had real commercial appeal, and I hadn’t seen that before. I wanted my book in conversations with those authors and those works. They inspired me, and I wanted other Black authors to be inspired by my work.
How do you feel now that your own work is entering this conversation?
I’m thirteen anxieties in a trench coat right now! Anxiety is a paralyzing fear of the unknown, and there’s nothing more unknown than how people are going to receive your book. A lot of authors struggle with depression and anxiety — maybe that’s why we’re creative geniuses! But it’s about not letting that stop you from following your dreams. Do the scary thing because you deserve to see your work out there. Don’t let your brain stop you.
What happens next? Is there a sequel in the works?
Yes! The second book in the The Divine Traitors series will have a much wider scope. In So Let Them Burn, the focus is on the sisters and on Faron’s struggle to save Elara with touches of the wider political scope. In Book 2, they’re in the thick of it, and they don’t like that.
Gen Z is very passionate and political, and their tastes reflect that. They care about climate change and security; they’re so much smarter than I was at their age. I wanted to write this for them, with themes of what it’s like to be a teen inheriting a broken world, a world continually being broken by the people in charge. And heroes like them, making the world they want to see. Plus, a lot more kissing.
So Let Them Burn debuts on January 16, 2024, from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.
