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WORK TITLE: The Maid and the Crocodile
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WEBSITE: https://www.jordanifueko.com/
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PERSONAL
Born August 20, 1993, in CA; married.
EDUCATION:Graduated from George Fox University, 2013.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Worked for an academic publisher for several years.
WRITINGS
Contributor to periodicals, including Strange Horizons.
The “Raybearer” series has been optioned by Netflix.
SIDELIGHTS
[open new]Jordan Ifueko is an American author of fantasy fiction inflected by Nigerian and global mythology and culture. She was born in California to parents who immigrated from Nigeria. The empires of her forebears stretched back centuries before the advent of that colonially defined nation, with her mother of Yoruba descent and her father of Bini (or Edo) descent. Her mother especially was fond of telling West African folktales, like those featuring Anansi the spider, and the young Ifueko enjoyed the inclusion of sound effects—like “kadu kadu kadu” for a turtle walking—and songs. Religiously her family was Christian, and their bookshelves were lined with literature from her parents’ education, which, owing to colonial influence, favored British classics. The fairy tales and fantasy novels the young Ifueko enjoyed, like the “Chronicles of Narnia,” mostly featured white characters in forested environments, as did her earliest imitative stories. Years would pass before she felt herself to have license to write about Black protagonists and draw on African myths and milieux.
With her family moving from Los Angeles to Newberg, Oregon, when she was twelve, Ifueko was homeschooled until high school. She attended a small private school in Oregon, where her graduating class numbered seventeen students. The curriculum fostered the ability to debate and nurtured leadership qualities, which gave Ifueko “this idea of children being raised to rule an empire,” as she told Liz Ohanesian of the Orange County Register. Ifueko started crafting the story that would become her first novel, Raybearer, when she was thirteen years old. At age fourteen she took advantage of the creative outlet offered by the online community for Neopets, a phenomenon she discovered at age ten. After accepting a couple of Ifueko’s shorter articles, the online Neopian Times published her fan-fiction serial “Pride, Prose, and Princes”—with props to Jane Austen—in 2008. This occasioned Ifueko’s earliest fan mail from fellow youths. Another favorite author during her teenage years was Charlotte Brontë, and she would grow especially fond of fantasy master N.K. Jemisin and Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. She gained more of a “global experience of storytelling,” as she told Roger Sutton of Horn Book, through Studio Ghibli and other Japanese anime films.
At age sixteen Ifueko enrolled at George Fox University, a Christian college, where she focused on English literature and honing her recognition of systems and influences around her. She told Andrew Shaughnessy of the George Fox Journal: “While I was there, George Fox tried to expose the student body to lots of diverse narratives. … But being a majority white environment, it was also where my eyes were opened to how insidious imperialism can be.” She added, “Ultimately, I am so grateful for my time at George Fox, because I could see these conflicts happen, and see how many Christians were wrestling through these things. … You can be someone whose faith is very important to you and still ask really hard questions about things you’ve believed for a long time.” Ifueko worked for an academic publisher after college, meanwhile honing her fantasy manuscript to align less with the Eurocentric values she had long been exposed to and more with her African heritage and the multicultural world she was growing into. Landing one of her stories in Strange Horizons, she was contacted by an agent interested in seeing more of her work. This led directly to the publication of her debut fantasy novel, Raybearer, in 2020.
Raybearer finds young Tarisai raised in exclusive, lonely circumstances by her mother, the Lady, unaware that her origins lie with a djinn who provided the Lady with a daughter to fulfill her third wish. At age eleven Tarisai is sent to Oluwan City to compete for a spot on Council of Eleven, the inner circle of Crown Prince Ekundayo, or Dayo. Delighted at the prospect of finding familial fellowship on the Council, as well as union with Dayo through the mystical Ray, Tarisai finds her mettle tested when she learns her mother’s magical wish is for Dayo’s death. Tarisai aims to write her own story not as killer, but as protector.
In an interview with Jackie Jou for the American Booksellers Association, Ifueko acknowledged some similarities between herself and protagonist Tarisai, remarking: “My childhood was a patchwork of intense, loving friendships and stretches of isolation, as well as struggles with identity in relation to parental figures.” In School Library Journal, Emma Carbone suggested that “large-scale … world-building and a plot with far-reaching elements” make for a “promising” launch. A Publishers Weekly reviewer deemed Raybearer “stunning,” as the “well-paced, exquisitely crafted plot,” founded in “mythology that literalizes the power of love, purpose, and sacrifice,” both “thrills and inspires.”
Fulfilling the duology is Raybearer’s sequel, Redemptor. At seventeen, Tarisai has become the Empress of Aritsar and first known female Raybearer. Her list of tasks is daunting, with a council to form, realms to unite, and past imperial atrocities to atone for. Perhaps most imposing is the journey to the Underworld that Tarisai, by birth a Redemptor, is committed to making in hopes of ending practices of child sacrifice—even if it means the final sacrifice will be Tarisai herself. Booklist reviewer Enishia Davenport called Redemptor “stellar,” as Ifueko’s writing proves “nothing short of transportive, whisking readers to far-off worlds while employing gorgeous imagery and prose.” Davenport found the story “breathtaking” and “heart-wrenching.” Declaring that the plot “blossoms at a perfect pace” in a “lush … bright and exciting” world, a Kirkus Reviews writer hailed the second “Raybearer” book as a “strong and worthy successor that showcases the skill of a master worldbuilder.”
In 2022 Ifueko wrote five issues of the Marvel comic book Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, starring roller-derby super-savant Lunella Lafayette and a T. rex created by Jack Kirby. The escapades were collected and published the following year as Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: Menace on Wheels.
Ifueko returns to the world of the “Raybearer” duology with The Maid and the Crocodile. Seventeen-year-old narrator Small Sade is at a disadvantage in Oluwan City, where her maimed foot and need for a cane, after a childhood bout of vitiligo, leave her scorned by society. But Sade has a gift for perceiving and cleansing spiritual energies, which attracts the attention of the handsome Crocodile God, who is trapped in a curse. A prophecy holds Sade will save him, but seeking her own path leads to a recognition that much of the city’s oppressed and laboring underclass is due to be uplifted.
Horn Book reviewer S.R. Toliver appreciated how this novel offers a “fresh narrative lens” within the “Raybearer” universe by “prioritizing the perspectives of commoners over royalty.” Toliver concluded that Sade’s “distinct voice and … journey of discovery” will “captivate” readers. Finding the characters “well rounded and self-determined,” the dialogue “thoughtful,” and the consensual intimacy “swoonworthy,” a Kirkus Reviews writer praised The Maid and the Crocodile as a “beautifully realized evergreen story about finding love and community.”[close new]
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, August, 2021, Enishia Davenport, review of Redemptor, p. 70.
Horn Book, September-October, 2024, S.R. Toliver, review of The Maid and the Crocodile, p. 77.
Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2021, review of Redemptor; June 15, 2024, review of The Maid and the Crocodile.
Publishers Weekly, February 24, 2020, review of Raybearer, p. 59.
School Library Journal, February, 2020, Emma Carbone, review of Raybearer, p. 73; August, 2021, Maggie Knapp, review of Redemptor, p. 89.
ONLINE
American Booksellers Association website, https://www.bookweb.org/ (June 3, 2020), Jackie Jou, “An Indies Introduce Q&A with Jordan Ifueko.”
George Fox Journal, https://www.georgefox.edu/journalonline/ (June 21, 2022), Andrew Shaughnessy, “Heroes like Me.”
Horn Book, https://www.hbook.com/ (April 30, 2020), Roger Sutton, “Jordan Ifueko Talks with Roger.”
Jordan Ifueko website, https://www.jordanifueko.com (February 1, 2025).
Orange County Register, https://www.ocregister.com/ (August 14, 2020), Liz Ohanesian, “This San Fernando Valley Author Was Just 13 When She Started Plotting Her YA Fantasy Debut.”
Publishers Weekly, https://www.publishersweekly.com/ (August 6, 2024), Iyana Jones, author Q&A.
Vice, https://www.vice.com/ (July 23, 2019), Elizabeth Ballou, “How a Young Adult Author Got Her Start Writing ‘Pride and Prejudice’ Fanfic about Neopets.”
We Need Diverse Books website, https://diversebooks.org/ (September 2, 2021), JoAnn Yao, “Jordan Ifueko’s Redemptor Allows Black Girls, Even Heroines, to Ask for Help When They Need It.”
Jordan Ifueko is the NYT Bestselling Author of the RAYBEARER series & the Disney-Marvel comics MOON GIRL & DEVIL DINOSAUR. She’s a Nebula Award, Ignyte Award, Audie Award, and Hugo Lodestar finalist, and she's been featured in People Magazine, NPR Best Books, NPR Pop Culture Hour, & ALA Top Ten. She writes about magic Black girls who aren’t magic all the time, because honestly, they deserve a vacation.
Follow Jordan on instagram @jordanifueko.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jordan Ifueko
Jordan Ifueko in 2020
Jordan Ifueko in 2020
Born August 16, 1993 (age 31)
Southern California, U.S.
Occupation Writer
Nationality Nigeria
United States
Alma mater George Fox University
Period 2019-Present
Genre Fantasy
Notable works Raybearer, Redemptor
Website
www.jordanifueko.com
Jordan Ifueko (born August 16, 1993) is a Nigerian American writer of fantasy and young adult fiction.[1] She is best known for her novel Raybearer, which became a New York Times bestseller, and its sequel, Redemptor.[2] Her third novel set in the world of Raybearer, The Maid and the Crocodile, was released August 2024.[3] She also writes short stories, which have been published in Strange Horizons.[4]
Early life
Jordan Ifueko was born in Southern California to two Nigerian parents who migrated to the United States;[5] her mother is from the Yoruba tribe while her father is from the Bini tribe. Ifueko stated she grew up listening to West African folktales narrated by her mother.[5] She was home schooled by her parents and attended George Fox University in Oregon. She is married and lives in Atlanta with her family.[6]
Career
As a teenager in 2008, Ifueko wrote Jane Austen inspired Neopets fanfiction that was serialized in the Neopets in-game newspaper, The Neopian Times.[7] Ifueko's debut novel Raybearer, inspired partly by her West African heritage and other world cultures, was published on August 18, 2020, by Abrams Books,[8] and became a New York Times bestseller.[9] It was nominated for the Andre Norton Award[10] and the Goodreads Choice Award for best Debut Novel and best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction.[11][12] The novel was honoured as one of the American Library Association's (ALA) Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults and ALA Top Ten Best Fiction. It was followed by a sequel, Redemptor, published in 2021 which was nominated for Ignyte Awards, Lodestar Award and Andre Norton Award.[13][14][15][16]
In September 2021, it was announced that Netflix was in the development phase of adapting Raybearer into a television series, under a new overall deal with Gina Atwater, with Sugar23 and Macro Television Studios producing.[17]
In 2024, Ifueko announced a new book, The Maid and the Crocodile, a standalone fantasy set in the same world as Raybearer.[18]
Other works
In July 2022, Marvel Comics announced that Ifueko would be writing a new Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur comic, drawn by Alba Glez. It was published in December of the same year.[19][20]
Bibliography
Novels
Raybearer, Amulet Books (2020)
Redemptor, Amulet Books (2021)
The Maid and the Crocodile, Amulet Books (2024)
Jun
03
2020
IndieBound
An Indies Introduce Q&A With Jordan Ifueko
Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version
Raybearer by Jordan IfuekoJordan Ifueko is the author of Raybearer (Amulet Books), a Winter/Spring 2020 Indies Introduce young adult selection a and Spring 2020 Kids’ Indie Next List pick. (Note: This title’s on sale date, previously set for spring 2020, has been pushed to August 18, 2020.)
In Raybearer, Ifueko, a Nigerian American writer who lives in Los Angeles, weaves West African folklore with other multicultural histories to create the fantasy world of Aristar.
“Raybearer is gorgeously written and filled with legends, mystical powers, blood oaths, and curses,” said Jackie Jou, formerly of Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore in San Diego, California, who served as a panelist for the Indies Introduce program. “It begins in a fable-like setting that unfolds into a complex world of secret histories and betrayals. Tarisai was raised in a mysterious fortress, where everyone around her feared her and left her in isolation. When Tarisai is sent to try out for the royal council with a terrible task, she discovers more about herself and her capabilities, gloriously coming into her birthright and legacy. The world-building is phenomenal and intricately crafted and I can’t wait for the next book in the series!”
Here, Jou asks Ifueko about her world-building inspirations and plans for the next book in the series.
Jackie Jou: The world you portrayed in Raybearer is incredibly rich and vibrant. What were your inspirations in writing such a world?
Jordan Ifueko
Jordan Ifueko; photo by TeniKomo Photography
Jordan Ifueko: Everything I write is a compilation of every story I’ve ever loved. Some of the mystical creatures and magic systems are influenced by favorite West African folk tales, and others by the books I grew up with, like the dreamy fairy tales of Gail Carson Levine. The realms within Raybearer are all loosely based on real-world cultures. Oluwan, for example, is based on the massive and ancient kingdom of the Yoruba, my mother’s Nigerian tribe, and Songland is inspired by Joseon-period Korea. It was easy to get a bit lost in research. While my parents are Nigerian immigrants, their experience of West Africa was of course very modern. The world of Aritsar has an ancient fantasy feel, and so I had to dig for non-colonial (read: antiracist) literary sources about West Africa in older periods. As is apparent in Raybearer, ancient West Africa prioritized a rich oral tradition for history and storytelling, which sometimes made it difficult to find written sources, but I had a lot of fun searching!
JJ: In your book, the characters and cultures represented come from all over the globe. What made you want to write such an international and inclusive fantasy?
JI: The more I wrote, the more I thought of Raybearer’s world as a thumping house party to which I could invite anyone I wanted — including people groups that fantasy has ignored as a genre. I grew up hearing so many excuses for why race inclusivity in fantasy worlds wasn’t “realistic.” And I thought...um, what? Isn’t the point of fantasy that we’re building these worlds from scratch? If dragons are plausible, why not Black fairies, Yoruba emperors, and Korean princes?
JJ: Which character in the book do you identify with most? And did any of your own life experiences make their way into the novel?
JI: No one believes me when I say that I rarely set out to base characters on real people, because my life experiences always weasel their way in! Tarisai and I certainly have a lot in common. My childhood was a patchwork of intense, loving friendships and stretches of isolation, as well as struggles with identity in relation to parental figures. But while I identify strongly with her, I see streaks of myself in all the characters — Kirah’s conflict with her conservative upbringing, Dayo’s loyal affection, The Lady’s sense of entitlement. They’re all part of me.
JJ: Who are your favorite authors and books?
JI: I’m a BIG fan of Chimimanda Ngozi Achidie, N.K. Jemisin, Charlotte Bronte, and Gail Carson Levine. I also devour books by Shannon Hale, Maya Angelou, Neal Schusterman, and Madeline Miller.
JJ: What are your plans for the next book in the series?
JI: The next book has a very different feel than the first — we’re dealing with a Tarisai who has grown up a lot. Having a loving family is no longer her deepest ambition — she’s burning to right systematic wrongs she was blind to before, and is haunted by problems too big for one girl to solve. I love her (literal) journey to hell and back and I hope readers will, too!
Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko (Amulet Books, 9781419739828, Hardcover Young Adult, $18.99) On Sale Date: 8/18/2020.
Jordan Ifueko Talks with Roger
by Roger Sutton
Apr 30, 2020 | Filed in Authors & Illustrators
Talks with Roger is a sponsored supplement to our free monthly e-newsletter, Notes from the Horn Book. To receive Notes, sign up here.
Sponsored by
Jordan Ifueko brings her Nigerian heritage (and twenty-first-century sensibility!) to bear in her first novel Raybearer, a high fantasy set in a dangerous and complicated world.
Roger Sutton: How much of this story is based on traditional Nigerian motifs and stories, and how much of it is Jordan?
Jordan Ifueko: That’s a complicated question for any American child of immigrants, in that you constantly feel that you have a limb in several different worlds all the time, and you belong in all of them and in none of them. The way I describe this book is that it’s some of all of my cultural influences. I grew up with a lot of West African folktales. It’s a little hard to classify something as Nigerian when it comes to things that are older than colonization, because that “line” that was drawn around Nigeria is really arbitrary. My mother’s side is from the Yoruba tribe, and my father’s side is from the Bini, or Edo, tribe. There’s a lot they have in common, because historically the Yoruba and Edo both had empires of their own that were all along the west coast. The Yoruba Empire at one point stretched all the way past Ghana, down past what we think of as Nigeria now. All of that is to say that there is a lot of West African storytelling, or that style of storytelling, in Raybearer. You find out about the existence of griots, who are of course real in West Africa. They’re very revered historians and storytellers, and still have a very important place in society, even though now there are written ways to take down records. At one point it was mostly oral tradition, and these people would memorize massive histories.
RS: I don’t know how people did that.
JI: They had to memorize them in a beautiful way, too, because they were orators. Sometimes they were also advisors to kings of regions, and in some regions you weren’t allowed to contradict a ruler directly. Instead you had to tell them a story, to try to subtly advise them if they were about to make a terrible decision or if they were being unwise or cruel. That happens in Raybearer. I adapted griots to be a little different in this world. They are members of priesthoods, but they do much the same thing. Each of them plays a talking drum; in West Africa, griots can play many different instruments, but in Raybearer, everyone has at least a drum. The more stories they tell, the more the drum absorbs those stories and becomes part of the griot. People telling stories and singing all the time is a very Yoruba thing. When my mom used to tell me Yoruba folktales, they always involved lots of sound effects. You can’t just say, “The turtle walked over to the river.” You have to say, “The turtle walked,” and then you say something like, “Kadu kadu kadu kadu,” the way that animal might walk.
RS: Reminds me of Verna Aardema, Why Mosquitos Buzz in People’s Ears. But the world you’ve created in Raybearer is a very twenty-first-century fantasy with lots of complicated details and magic. How did you think of all these things?
JI: I imagine a lot of it came from reading. I was homeschooled until high school, which left a lot of time for books. I’m of a divided mind about homeschooling. I think it can be done really well and really badly. I do believe that it benefited my brother and me in particular because we both happen to have niche passions. If you get all your schoolwork for the day done in, say, three hours, you can spend the rest of the time reading or making up stories or whatever else. For my brother it was video editing. He used to film everything, and now he’s a very successful cinematographer.
RS: And you were writing and reading?
JI: Yes, that was definitely my passion. It isn’t just books, either. I was one of the first online generations, so I had access to all of these different forums. When I was a teenager, streaming got big — so watching Studio Ghibli, things like that.
RS: Their stories all have a very mythic quality laid over them. There seem to be whole worlds there, in Ponyo and Princess Mononoke.
JI: Absolutely. Many children today, not just the children of immigrants, have this very global experience of storytelling now. A kid is likely to have to read books from the stolid, white, Western literary canon for school, like Huckleberry Finn; then they’ll come home and watch hours of Japanese anime; and they might go to a comic-con dressed as T’Challa from Black Panther. It’s beautiful, in my opinion, but it does make the question of representation more complicated. I felt pressure as an author to try and over-Africanize my work.
RS: Really?
JI: That’s the way people kept marketing me. I knew, even when I was pitching my book, that it’s easier to put this into a genre if you can say, “This is a West African story.” But it’s many things. I’m West African, I’m American, I’m Californian. I feel like a conglomerate of all of those things. I grew up reading British literature because Nigeria was a British colony, so my parents had loads of those books in the house. With Raybearer, it’s hard to divide out what comes from where. There are specific cultural aspects, like griots, that are from West Africa. But their mythology, dating system, and beliefs — it’s a mix. They personify world elements — Empress Sky, Queen Earth, King Water — but the Yoruba is way more specific. And that gets even more complicated, because Christianity and Islam are both huge parts of Nigerian culture. Both came from a form of colonization, but there’s definitely a Nigerian-specific understanding of those beliefs. I grew up in a Christian home, and I identify as one, so those myths for explaining the world also influenced my writing when I make up god systems and things like that.
RS: You say that so blithely. "When I make up god systems…"
JI: I have always loved mythology. As a kid, that was one of my favorite things to read.
RS: How did you start in creating one? What came first?
JI: I remember that being one of the most organic processes of this book. There were a lot of things I had to be really intentional about. Like, okay, I have this protagonist, and I know she has an unhealthy and yet pure attachment to her mother; I know this, I know that, but I need to come up with a solid plot. But with the origin story — I just thought about all of the different mythologies I know.
RS: Did it grow as you went?
JI: I knew that I wanted their understanding of the creation of the world to be a romance between forces, and that everything in the world was born out of that romance. There’s King Water and Queen Earth, and all of their children are things like plants and hills and animals. And then there’s the pelican, who flies over worlds and shakes stories from its wings.
RS: And that precious oil.
JI: Right. The people in Raybearer revere pelicans, so they take oil from pelicans’ wings and use that to anoint, and to sometimes seal promises in a divine or magical way. Humans come from that union of the pelican and earth. Humans are made of clay of earth and blood, this divine blood.
RS: What do you say to Christians, by the way, who feel that this kind of fantasy novel turns people away from Jesus?
JI: I would generally ask them to examine their own biases. My opinion, culturally, is that I know lots of Christians who have no trouble studying Greek mythologies, because that’s part of the Western canon of literature.
RS: Right.
JI: But to then say that fantasies or magics based on nonwhite cultures like West Africa are somehow more dangerous — I don’t think that’s fair or consistent. A lot of Christians who are afraid of Harry Potter, for example, are completely fine with Lord of the Rings because that’s something they grew up with.
RS: Right, and Tolkien was Catholic.
JI: I do respect the preferences of parents. They might say, "Oh, it looks like the book has magic in it, and I’m not okay with my kid reading that. Books, thankfully, are around for a while, so if this kid wants to read my book later, they can."
RS: Or under the covers. That’s what I always recommend. If your parents don’t want you to read a book, just find a way around them. I’m really into disobeying one’s parents when it comes to reading.
JI: My parents had strict standards around magic and things like that. I wasn’t allowed to read Harry Potter. Now I make my living as a fantasy writer, so there’s that.
RS: How do they feel about this?
JI: They’re very proud; they’re very sweet. I know they aren’t comfortable with some aspects of the story. I empathize with them in particular because they were raised in places where witchcraft means something very real. I guess I just respect that a little more than coming from a place of fear of the unknown.
RS: Something Debbie Reese points out in terms of Native American material is that one person’s mythology is another person’s religion.
JI: Exactly. And honestly, that’s another reason why I didn’t delve into actual Orisha mythology in Raybearer. Of course you can incorporate fantasy into fiction based on religious aspects — I would never say that nobody should. Goodness knows there’s plenty of fantasy about Christian stuff — angels and demons and things like that. But because I didn’t grow up with Yoruba beliefs, it’s something I would’ve wanted to make sure I knew a lot about if I were going to represent it in any way, let alone faithfully. That definitely makes it more complicated when a fantasy religion is based on real religion. The god system in Raybearer is unique to Raybearer and is influenced by many different cultural and religious influences.
RS: I was hearing a hint of C. S. Lewis when you have Dayo say to our heroine, “We live there all by ourselves, and train to rule Aritsar, and go on adventures. I’ll see you every day. Forever, until we’re dead.” There’s a sentence like that in the first book, where they’re all going to become kings and queens of Narnia and live happily ever after. Did you read Lewis as a kid?
JI: Lewis is a big staple of homeschool education. I wasn’t thinking of Narnia when I wrote that, although I can certainly see the analogy. When I started this story the lines were a lot clearer, between this good and rightful kingdom facing this threat from the unknown. You have to defend the kingdom, and the good kings and queens of our good kingdom, because of their divine right to rule. I started getting serious about writing books when I was thirteen, so basically this story grew up with me. Now the book very much questions the rights of rulers, the right of empires to exist, and the blood on which they’re built. There is no such thing as a righteous empire (at least not one ruled by men!). I think that Dayo’s optimism is both his strength and his weakness, and that excerpt probably reflects that. “It’s okay, we’ll all be friends, and everything will be okay forever, and this is the way it’s always been, the way it’s supposed to be.” It was a little hard to write his character because there’s an optimism in him that can be willful blindness.
RS: I like that our viewpoint of the good and bad characters gets shifted. Initially they all seemed lined up pretty well, who were the good guys and who were the bad guys, but then as you read, you discover that nobody is wholly one or the other. It’s not just a question of someone masquerading as a good guy. The heroine’s mother is a really complicated person; she’s not just this evil witch.
JI: I’m fascinated by her. What I wanted to make clear is that her love for her daughter is genuine, but it’s a narcissist’s love for an extension of herself. Which is still a real love; but it’s one that can be very damaging and dehumanizing to the object of that love.
RS: Oh, yeah. I know you describe her otherwise, but in my mind’s eye, I couldn’t help but picture her as the Baroness in The Sound of Music.
JI: That’s funny, because the older I get, the more I like the Baroness. As an adult, you might rewatch a movie and feel like someone is actually more reasonable than you thought they were as a kid. She was engaged to the Captain!
RS: How much fun is it to write a sentence like “My mother was the devil, and I her puppet demon”?
JI: It’s a lot of fun. That’s probably one of the oldest sentences in the book, which is unsurprising, because I was a very dramatic teenager. I owe a lot to the dramatic influences I grew up with. I was a big Charlotte Brontë nerd, and still am.
Jordan Ifueko’s Redemptor Allows Black Girls, Even Heroines, To Ask For Help When They Need It
September 2, 2021 by JoAnn Yao
Redemptor blog header
Redemptor by Jordan Ifueko is available now. Read our interview with Jordan about Raybearer.
by Chinelo Ikem
Readers absolutely loved Jordan Ifueko’s debut novel Raybearer, the first book of the West-African inspired fantasy duology. Published last year on August 18, 2020, Raybearer introduced fans to Tarisai, a young Black girl raised in isolation who embarks on a complicated hero’s journey to the global empire of Aritsar to compete for a chance to be a member of the Crown Prince’s Council of Eleven.
The book received rave reviews from readers. Of Raybearer, one Goodreads reviewer wrote “Raybearer is nothing less than stunning.” Another wrote, “This has to be one of the best YA fantasy novels I’ve ever read.” Kirkus Reviews named Raybearer one of the Best Books of 2020 and noted “Debut author Ifueko’s ethnically and religiously diverse empire is well-built, taking form as it unfurls and blossoms in a way that never feels rushed.”
In the same month of its release, Raybearer hit the New York Times best-seller list under the Young Adult Hardcover Books category. Yet, despite the praise her first book received, Ifueko is honest about the difficulties she faced in writing the second and final book in the duology, Redemptor.
Writing Redemptor in 2020 was difficult for Ifueko, who admits it was tough to write it in such a short amount of time given the combination of her anxiety disorder along with COVID-19 and being a Black person during a renewed global civil rights movement after the murder of George Floyd.
“Raybearer took me twelve years, but I had to write Redemptor in nine months.” Jordan Ifueko told me in a phone interview. “And so, I had all sorts of imposter syndrome about whether or not I could do it, whether or not the book would be any good. But I’m very, very proud of Redemptor.”
Jordan Ifueko redemptor quote
In Redemptor, readers are reintroduced to many of the same characters, including Sanjeet, Kirah, Dayo, and the main character, Tarisai, who has now fulfilled her hero’s journey to become an empress herself. In the second book, readers will see a Tarisai who struggles in her reign as empress. This imperfect leadership is something Ifueko was intentional about showing.
“Tarisai’s imperfections are what I feel makes her lovable as a main character. It was very important to me that I wrote a Black female heroine that was empowering to readers, but that also got to display a lot of vulnerability. Which I don’t often see with Black female characters in fiction, to be honest.” Ifueko said. “I think a lot of Black female characters, they are either nonexistent or, when they are there, they’re portrayed as strong to the point where they don’t need any kind of protection.”
Ifueko continues. “Black girls are human, and they need help. Part of Tarisai’s journey of maturity is learning to ask for help.”
Ifueko’s decision to make Raybearer a two-book series is not for lack of material. Having started on Raybearer when she was thirteen, Ifueko expressed wanting to explore different stories after spending so much time on Tarisai. But Tarisai’s story continues, even if Ifueko will be moving on.
“To be honest, there was so much in the world that I probably could’ve written, like, four books just on Tarisai’s story.” said Ifueko.
On whether she will continue to write in the Fantasy genre, Ifueko says, “I can’t see myself writing anything but fantasy.” As a Nigerian-American Black woman, Ifueko says fantasy allows her the freedom to show up as her full self, without compromising parts of her identity.
“Fantasy is a place where all the different parts of me could exist, unquestioned. It’s a world with so many more possibilities for people who live at the intersection of a lot of cultural influences and identities. And that’s why fantasy will always be the most welcoming place for my voice.”
Q & A with Jordan Ifueko
By Iyana Jones | Aug 06, 2024
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Many fantasy stories close with the villains defeated and the heroes riding off into the sunset. Jordan Ifueko confronts the complex aftermath of revolution in her YA fantasy The Maid and the Crocodile, set 10 years after her Raybearer series. In the world of Aritsar, the class system divides residents into the rich or the poor, and orphaned Sade is of the latter. But Sade can literally eat curses, and it’s that skill that draws the eye of the mysterious crocodile god who needs help, and a rich hotel owner who exploits her workers at any cost. It is up to Sade to break the status quo, as she learns to overcome her past to fight for a brighter future. PW spoke with Ifueko about the complexities within a revolution, the power of unity, and offering a new look at the world she created with her popular debut duology.
The Maid and the Crocodile is set in the same universe as the Raybearer series, but a decade later. Why did you decide to do a time jump for this novel? And how does this book recontextualize the events of the first two books?
The first two books of the Raybearer world are more typical for a YA adventure, where you have an empire with secret skeletons and closets, and you have a heroine who’s willing to change this world and the status quo for the better. A lot of fantasy, especially YA fantasy, stops at the end of the revolution. You have the righteous woman who is willing to risk her life to be brave and change the system, or at least bring down the last system. That’s where most of them end, and then you presume it’s a happily ever after. But what’s more interesting to me is what does the world look like the day after the revolution? What does it look like after a year? What does it look like after 10 years? Because that’s when the story gets even more complicated. I wanted to dismantle the idea that if you have one super powerful person with a good heart, that will fix everything. As much as I love the heroine of my last books, and as much as she represents everything that virtuous power could be, I wanted to write a fantasy book that talks about what happens when there’s simply too much space between the most powerful person and the least powerful person in any government.
How did you craft the character of Sade?
Every time I come up with a new character, they are generally a mix of a bunch of inspirations that I didn’t even know were inspiring me over the years. There are lots of odes to Howl’s Moving Castle, a fairy tale from the ’70s by Diana Wynne Jones that I’m fond of because the heroine spends most of her time as an old woman. She’s a young lady who has a curse put on her to be an old woman, and that acts as a metaphor for how she limits and sees herself. She’s pessimistic about her own potential. That’s an aspect that I really liked because it’s such an interesting obstacle. But I wanted to make it more complicated with Sade because the idea of “the power was in you all along” is true to a certain degree, but only on a collective level. The truth is, one person at the bottom of a really exploitative system? The power is not in them to change it. The power is in their class of people to change it. It’s not that I need to become a kick-ass heroine. It’s that all of us in the same situation need to band together and fight for each other, because we always outnumber whoever’s at the top trying to exploit us.
“
A lot of fantasy stops at the end of the revolution. But what’s more interesting to me is what does the world look like the day after the revolution?
”
Other characters often offer advice about how they believe Sade should use her powers. Can you talk about the intersection of class and agency that this novel explores through Sade’s perspective?
There are lots of different characters in Sade’s life, some of whom are completely self-serving in their aims and others are way more philanthropic. Generally, because of how society is structured, even on the “good side,” there are people who naturally were born into more influence and more power, and sometimes those voices can drown out the least powerful even of the group they’re supposedly fighting for. Sade has to somehow improve her situation while still pushing back at even the philanthropic people who are trying to help her by trying to tell her exactly how she should achieve her own liberation, and even taking choices away from her in that aspect.
This novel toys with the impact notoriety can have on activists. How did that concept come to you? Have you seen this in real life?
It might be controversial to say this, but as necessary as revolutionaries are, a lot of revolutionaries in their personal sphere aren’t always great community members. When you have someone who is so driven and focused on wider structural concerns, to the point where it basically becomes their career, a lot of personal things can slip under the cracks. They can be domineering and dehumanizing to the people directly around them, even if they’re improving the world on a large scale. That’s something I’ve seen happen not only in personal activism circles, but historically as well. There’s a repeated historical thing where when the revolutionaries win, a lot of the people who were good at mobilizing people to bring down power structures are fairly bad at planting gardens. After you have taken down a corrupt power system, the world needs people who are good at planting, rather than just tearing down, even though the tearing down is necessary as part of the process. So often, those two skill sets are assumed to be in the same person and it’s not. You have these societies that are now led by these militaristic people who were very good at taking down the previous regime, but not good at building a new one.
Can you share a bit about your own experiences with activism? Has it impacted the way you shaped this novel?
It has. You meet so many people when you’re part of any movement. You slowly realize how many different people come to it for different reasons. For some people, it’s an identity thing. It doesn’t matter how far you’ve moved the needle, as long as you feel like you are saying the righteous things, and you have the current righteous opinions of the moment. You see a lot of people whose activism amounts to being the first to speak out about something on social media, even if they aren’t willing to do the community building work that causes long-term change. In contrast, there are some amazing, beautiful people who you’ll barely ever see online. But they’re the ones who are holding a community down, who cause an activism movement to gain legs to last. They’re building these relationships, so that when you have an activism community, it is actually a community.
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Why was it a priority to highlight the love and the joy that Sade and the Amenities, her coworkers at the inn, experienced together, not only their pain?
That is the true happily ever after of this fairy tale. It’s [about] what are the conditions in which not only you and the handsome man you’re in love with, but also your community, can thrive and be happy and support each other, and have agency over your own situation? Found family is going to be a recurring theme in pretty much everything I will ever write. It’s something that’s important to me. I think it is just as magical as romance. That’s one of the most beautiful things about humanity. There’s lots of found family in the Raybearer books as well. But I think there’s so much about any exploitative system that intentionally pits people of that exploited class against each other. That’s a huge way that those systems operate. When you unite, even if it’s not formally for the purpose of revolution, when you see each other as companions, and you see the people controlling you, as the opposition, even that tiny little shift is, can make a big crack in an exploitative system.
This book showcases how the victory of Tarasai doesn’t exactly lead to a happily ever after, and that there is always more work for us to do. What words of encouragement can you offer to those like Sade, who are next in line to pick up where their predecessors left off?
That your ordinary is sacred. This is one of the last lines of the books, after the end. You see another character speak and he says, “I hope you grow to love your ordinary as I have grown to love mine.” Because I think it’s a trap to look at all the most prosperous places in the world, which are often based on exploitation, and think that your happily ever after lies in somehow mimicking the societies they have managed to make for the most comfortable. I don’t think that means you should romanticize your life if you don’t have the basics you need to survive. I think that’s also a trap. I’m saying that Sade’s happily ever after doesn’t come in not being a domestic worker. It comes in fighting for conditions that are comfortable and livable and have dignity. The Maid and the Crocodile isn’t a story about a maid who becomes a princess. It’s about a maid who changes how the world thinks about maids.
What’s next for you?
I am working on a middle grade book, my first contemporary fantasy, with a brand-new cast of characters. It’s definitely more humorous than my other books, but I can never stay away from real-world structural concerns. Usually my heroines are very anxious about their big destinies and their purposes. This one is not. She’s like, “No, I’m actually a genius though.” And I love heroines like that. She’s been a joy to write, definitely a change of pace from my previous main characters. It’s slated for 2026, fingers crossed.
The Maid and the Crocodile: A Novel in the World of Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko. Amulet, $19.99 Aug. 13 ISBN 978-1-4197-6435-6
IFUEKO, Jordan. Raybearer. 368p. Abrams/ Amulet. Apr. 2020. Tr $18.99. ISBN 9781419739828.
Gr 7 Up--Tarisai has grown up with every luxury imaginable--except for a loving family. Her mother, known as The Lady, has kept Tarisai isolated save for a group of revolving tutors and servants afraid to get too close as she prepares her daughter for a mysterious future. At the age of 11, Tarisai finally learns The Lady's plan when she is sent to compete for a spot on the Crown Prince's Council of 11. Joining the Council will give Tarisai the family she has always craved, but it will also bring her one step closer to completing her mother's magical request: killing the Crown Prince after Tarisai has earned his trust. As Tarisai learns more about the empire, the Crown Prince, and herself, she will have to decide where her loyalties lie and if she is strong enough to choose her own path in the face of her mother's magical compulsion. Ifueko's debut fantasy blends Nigerian folklore with a melange of other influences to create a multicultural world where colonization and imperialism inform the story as much as Tarisai's own choices. Tarisai's first-person narration offers a limited perspective, increasing suspense as she tries to guess The Lady's motives. Large-scale but vague world-building and a plot with far-reaching elements beyond Tarisai's immediate concerns make this story needlessly convoluted at times. VERDICT A dense but promising standalone fantasy.--Emma Carbone, Brooklyn Public Library
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
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Carbone, Emma. "IFUEKO, Jordan. Raybearer." School Library Journal, vol. 66, no. 2, Feb. 2020, pp. 73+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A613048822/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=6c2c199f. Accessed 9 Nov. 2024.
Raybearer
Jordan Ifueko. Amulet, $18.99 (416p) ISBN 978-1-4197-3982-8
n Ifueko's stunning fantasy debut, a woman known as "the Lady" commands a djinn to build her an invisible stronghold and impregnate her with a child who must someday grant her third wish. She raises the resulting daughter, dark-skinned Tarisai, in ignorance of her origins, isolating and training her for an undisclosed reason. When the Lady dispatches 11-year-old Tarisai to Oluwan City to compete for inclusion on Crown Prince Ekundayo's governing Council of Eleven, the affection-starved girl is delighted; if chosen, she will bond eternally with Dayo, as the prince is known, and her Council siblings via a mystical Ray. The union will also render Dayo immune to all forms of premature death except murder by a Council member--which is precisely what the Lady envisions. Tarisai, however, resolves to write her own destiny and protect Dayo, no matter the cost. By crafting a world plagued by imperialism, poverty, and institutionalized misogyny, and a mythology that literalizes the power of love, purpose, and sacrifice, Ifueko illustrates the need for social change and inspires readers to fight for it. Fierce, kindhearted characters from ethnically and culturally diverse backgrounds enhance the well-paced, exquisitely crafted plot, which thrills and inspires while fostering readers' hope for a sequel. Ages 12-up. Agent: Kim-Mei Kirtland, Howard Morhaim Literary. (Apr.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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"Raybearer." Publishers Weekly, vol. 267, no. 8, 24 Feb. 2020, p. 59. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A615911654/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=38160328. Accessed 9 Nov. 2024.
Raybearer
Jordan Ifueko
Harry N. Abrams
195 Broadway, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10007
www.abramsyoungreaders.com
www.blackstoneaudio.com
9781419739828, $18.99 HC, 400pp
https://www.amazon.com/Raybearer-Jordan-Ifueko/dp/1094149187
Synopsis: Tarisai has always longed for the warmth of a family. She was raised in isolation by a mysterious, often absent mother known only as the Lady. The Lady sends her to the capital of the global empire of Aritsar to compete with other children to be chosen as one of the Crown Prince's Council of Eleven. If she's picked, she ll be joined with the other Council members through the Ray, a bond deeper than blood.
That closeness is irresistible to Tarisai, who has always wanted to belong somewhere. But the Lady has other ideas, including a magical wish that Tarisai is compelled to obey: kill the Crown Prince once she gains his trust. Tarisai won't stand by and become someone's pawn but is she strong enough to choose a different path for herself?
Nothing is more important than loyalty. But what if you ve sworn to protect the one you were born to destroy?
Critique: Clearly showcasing author Jordan Ifueko's impressive narrative storytelling style and flair for originality, "Raybearer" is a compelling novel that will prove to be a welcome and enduringly popular addition to middle school, highschool, and community library Fantasy Fiction collections for young readers. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of all dedicated fantasy fans that "Raybearer" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Blackstone Audio, 9781094149189, $29.95, CD)
Please Note: Illustration(s) are not available due to copyright restrictions.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com/cbw/index.htm
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"Raybearer." Children's Bookwatch, Oct. 2020, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A642011135/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=9d86618c. Accessed 9 Nov. 2024.
Ifueko, Jordan REDEMPTOR Amulet/Abrams (Teen None) $18.99 8, 17 ISBN: 978-1-4197-3984-2
Tarisai of Swana learns to navigate life in power while under constant pressure from friends and foes.
Now 17, Tarisai adapts to being the new Empress and High Lady Judge of Aritsar. She hopes to live up to her honorific, Idajo, or the Just, and address economic inequalities that oppress anyone without noble blood. But she must also prepare to journey through the Underworld after offering herself as the last Redemptor child sacrifice to the abiku—demons—who dwell there. The abiku promise to forfeit future sacrifices if Tarisai makes it out alive, but she didn’t factor in the weight and trauma of being haunted by undead children holding her accountable for their justice. The book, infused with West African influences, blossoms at a perfect pace as readers travel around the continental empire both physically with Tarisai and through the memories of others, learning more about the lush world Ifueko has crafted. New magical beings are awakened and their connections to nature and the survival of the people around Aritsar are explored with an emphasis on contemporary social issues of eco-justice seamlessly threaded through. This book is more reflective than the first volume, supporting insightful glimpses into the maturation of not just Tarisai, but other characters too; still, the action never lags, with the story remaining bright and exciting.
A strong and worthy successor that showcases the skill of a master worldbuilder. (map) (Fantasy. 14-18)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Ifueko, Jordan: REDEMPTOR." Kirkus Reviews, 15 June 2021, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A667041883/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=78f002a9. Accessed 9 Nov. 2024.
IFUEKO, Jordan. Redemptor. 336p. (Raybearer: Bk. 2). Abrams/Amulet. Aug. 2021. Tr $18.99. ISBN 9781419739842.
Gr 8 Up--Tarisai Kunleo, Empress of Aritsar and the first recognized female Raybearer in memory must fulfill the daunting promise she made in the duology's first installment. Born with the marks of a Redemptor, Tarisai refused to maintain the generationsold tradition of sacrificing these children, and proposed herself, a Raybearer, as the final offering. She has two years to unite the Arit countries, before entering the Breach to the Underworld. Through the Ray, Tarisai communicates with Dayo, Sanjeet, and her family of choice, strengthened by their love and their Hallows, gaining protection against many forms of death. Taunted by the ghost-children's chants that she is not enough, and needs to "do more," Tarisai rights injustices where she can, at the same time crafting a plan to keep her promise without losing her life. When skin color is mentioned, it is shaded copper to dark, and the series blends Nigerian folklore with inventive fantasy, adventure, and occasional romance. Familiarity with Raybearer, and its maps and glossary, is required. VERDICT This series explores questions of family, gender roles, and the distribution of wealth and power. A satisfying conclusion that should be purchased by any library where the first book is popular.--Maggie Knapp, Trinity Valley Sch., Fort Worth, TX
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
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Knapp, Maggie. "IFUEKO, Jordan. Redemptor." School Library Journal, vol. 67, no. 8, Aug. 2021, p. 89. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A670397989/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=660692e8. Accessed 9 Nov. 2024.
Redemptor. By Jordan Ifueko. Aug. 2021.336p. Abrams/Amulet, $18.99 (9781419739842). Gr. 9-12.
In Ifueko's stellar follow-up to Raybearer (2020), Tarisai has ascended to Aritsar's throne and become the first Redemptor to wear the crown. It's a title that comes with heavy responsibilities, including fighting to unite a fractured realm in order to save the world. As empress, Tarisai must also contend with forming a council of her own, fend off those who question her right to rule, and journey to the Underworld to appease spirits of the dead. Furthermore, she must reckon with the atrocities of the empire she now rules and decide exactly what price she will pay if she truly wants justice for the sins of the past. This proves once again that Ifueko is a masterful storyteller. She paints a breathtaking, heart-wrenching story about love, family, responsibility, and duty. Ifueko's writing is nothing short of transportive, whisking readers to far-off worlds while employing gorgeous imagery and prose. Ultimately, this novel asks the poignant questions: What does it mean to live, and how does one bring about meaningful and lasting change in a deeply flawed world still struggling with a heinous history?--Enishia Davenport
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
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Davenport, Enishia. "Redemptor." Booklist, vol. 117, no. 22, Aug. 2021, p. 70. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A689976876/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=f9993cfe. Accessed 9 Nov. 2024.
Ifueko, Jordan THE MAID AND THE CROCODILE Amulet/Abrams (Teen None) $19.99 8, 13 ISBN: 9781419764356
Seventeen-year-old Small Sade seeks belonging after aging out of the orphan house in this stand-alone work that returns readers to the West African-inspired world of the Raybearer duology.
Sade begins her tale by stating: "You are powerful and important, and I am only me." It soon becomes clear, however, that Small Sade has greater power and importance than she understands. She has vitiligo and is disabled, using a cane following an accident that injured her foot at the sweatmill where she worked as a child. But her cane proves to be a useful weapon against those who assume she's vulnerable, like Oga Snatch-Purse. Sade is also a Curse-Eater: When she sings, she sees spirit silt and can cleanse the spaces where it gathers, renewing their energy. Because of her gift, she's not surprised when a gecko messenger leads her to the elusive and handsome Crocodile God, who's suffering under a curse that no one can break. A prophecy foretold that Sade would be the one to deliver him, but she has no idea how. Sade's journey shows how helping others often means learning to help yourself first, finding your anger and your capacity to love and create. The book contains thoughtful conversations around domestic abuse and labor inequities, the queer characters are well rounded and self-determined, and the romance, intimacy, and understanding of explicit consent are truly swoonworthy.
A beautifully realized evergreen story about finding love and community. (map, pronunciation guide, how to spirit-clean your bedroom, author's note) (Fantasy. 14-18)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Ifueko, Jordan: THE MAID AND THE CROCODILE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 June 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A797463214/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=99272860. Accessed 9 Nov. 2024.
The Maid and the Crocodile
by Jordan Ifueko
Middle School, High School Amulet/Abrams 304 pp. 8/24 9781419764356 $19.99 e-book ed. 9781647008185 $17.99
After seventeen-year-old Small Sade ages out of her orphanage, her primary goal is to discover a home where she truly belongs. However, her physical appearance, marked by vitiligo and a maimed foot from a childhood accident that requires her to use a cane, sets her apart in a fantasy world that, like many societies, looks upon difference cruelly. But Sade possesses a unique gift-- the ability to perceive and cleanse malevolent spiritual energies. That gift leads her to unexpected encounters, including one with the enigmatic Crocodile God, who is afflicted by a seemingly unbreakable curse. Prophesied as his deliverer, Sade initially chooses her own path in Oluwan City, impressing the wealthy elite with her spiritual powers. However, her course pivots when she confronts the darker realities lurking beneath the surface of the city. Awakening to these realities and deepening ties with the Crocodile God, Sade realizes the imperative for social change not just for herself but for all who are marginalized and oppressed. This standalone novel, set within the same universe as Ifueko's Raybearer duology, offers a fresh narrative lens within that universe by prioritizing the perspectives of commoners over royalty. While familiar characters and settings are present, Sade's narrative enriches them, offering deeper insights into their complexities. First-person narrator Sade's distinct voice and her journey of discovery and transformation are likely to captivate readers. S. R. TOLIVER
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
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Toliver, S. R. "The Maid and the Crocodile." The Horn Book Magazine, vol. 100, no. 5, Sept.-Oct. 2024, p. 77. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A809886573/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=04728ef2. Accessed 9 Nov. 2024.