“We are a country built by immigrants, dreams, daring, and opportunity.
We are a country built by the horrors of slavery and genocide, the injustice of racism and exclusion. These realities exist side by side. It is our past and our present. The future is unwritten.
This is a book about ghosts. For we live in a haunted house.”
ー Libba Bray (site)
Excerpt from “Author’s Note,” The Diviners: Before the Devil Breaks You
Before the Devil Breaks You is Book #3 of Libba Bray’s latest YA series The Diviners. The series follows the Diviners, a diverse cast of uniquely gifted individuals drawn together in order to fend off a growing supernatural threat.
While The Diviners is a fantasy series ripe with the paranormal, Bray has gone the extra mile to ground the story’s setting: New York City during the Roaring Twenties. Specifically, the protagonists not only face perils from unearthly forces, but also those present during this time period in U.S. history: racism, eugenics, homophobia, sexism, etc.
This excerpt from Bray’s “Author’s Note” succinctly reflects my own feelings about U.S. history and our legacy. Certainly, every country has skeletons in their respective closets. However, since returning stateside, I’ve felt as though there is a stronger push to provide a sanitized version of history or to completely forget that the U.S. even has its own closet in the first place.
Bray’s words also bring to mind philosopher George Santayana’s quote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat.” History must be acknowledged in order to grow. I sincerely hope our future is to step forward and not take several steps back.
Disclaimer: I have been a fan of Bray’s work since first reading A Great and Terrible Beauty, Book #1 of the Gemma Doyle Trilogy, back in high school. If you find yourself drawn to well-written heroines and fantasy fiction set in a mysterious English boarding school during the late Victorian era, this series is for you.
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Laurel, Annotated 
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