We Set the Dark on Fire

“Some girls were worth more than others, some families willing to pay more for the best. But the real winner here was the Medio School for Girls, who sent a dowry to each girl’s family and took a cut for themselves…They tell us the story of the Salt God” that “had started thousands of years ago during a falling-out between two brother-gods…because it’s a simple story…a fanciful story, perpetuated to give people an easy answer…but I don’t think it’s the real story” or the real answer. “I think the real story is greed, and money, and politics. Privilege and prejudice. A system that was created thousands of years ago by people” who believed “That being born with a certain name, and certain privileges, make you inherently higher quality…who wanted to reward those like them and punish everyone else…The real answer was harder. Prejudice. Privilege. Hatred…This was politics. This was humanity, and refusal to recognize it.” Dani wants “to live in a world where love doesn’t mean fear. Where we can survive without forgetting who we are…I want to help build that world…Even if it means I’m not safe or special. Even if I don’t…survive…That’s what it means to fight. It means believing in the movement, and doing whatever it takes to further it, no matter what the consequences may be…My name is Daniela Garcia…You can’t kill me.” “Dani’s father had always told her that secrets made her strong. Her maestras had told her restraint made her strong. But Dani knew now that to crack open what you thought you knew, to allow it to scar with truth, that was what made you truly strong. And it was time now to be stronger than she’d ever been…Dani wasn’t a lone wolf anymore. She had faith. In the girl next to her. In the power they had claimed together.” As a voracious reader, I am a strong advocate of judging a book by its cover. A book’s cover is the first thing people see when they pick up a story and it should take away the reader’s breath at first glance. Thank you Cristina Pagnoncelli for a magical cover to beckon readers into this fantasy duology.