It's a gripping book, easy to race through despite the difficult and timely issues at its core. This talk of resistance and privilege might make it seem like We Set the Dark on Fire is a grim, politics-driven screed, but that could not be further from the truth. She must decide what to do with the power she has worked for.

It's about a girl who knows she has privilege because she spent her childhood without it, and who knows exactly what fighting will cost her.

This isn't a story about a woman having her privilege stripped away until she understands subjugation and finds her defiance. There's something very powerful about centering Dani and Carmen's queer, Latina love story and making it defiantly sensual and romantic in the midst of all of this world's sexism and prejudice. While the comparison is fair, We Set the Dark on Fire is definitely written for young adults in a way that The Handmaid's Tale is not, resulting in a book that feels less cynical. Mejia manages to walk a very tight line in evoking some of the injustices that are currently happening in America without being heavy-handed.Īnother book that inevitably that comes to mind - they're actually calling it out it in the marketing materials - is The Handmaid's Tale. A resistance group saves her from discovery, but in exchange, they want her to spy on her new husband. Two days before graduation, her deepest secret almost comes out: She was born on the wrong side of the wall that protects Medio from society's poor and disenfranchised, and was smuggled across illegally as a child. But instead of being elated, Dani is filled with dread. When Dani is chosen as Primera for the son of Medio's chief military strategist - who is rumored to be next in line for the presidency - she is fulfilling the destiny that she and her family have sacrificed so much to obtain.

Primeras like Dani are preparing to be skilled life-partners and social managers, while Segundas, like her nemesis Carmen, are destined to be objects of beauty and desire and bear children. Divided into two groups - Primeras and Segundas, Dani and her classmates know that they will be offered in pairs to the rich young men whose families can afford to pay their dowries. Tehlor Kay Mejia's debut novel We Set the Dark on Fire aims to burn it all down.ĭaniela is graduating at the top of her class at the Medio School for Girls, an elite institution that trains girls to be wives. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title We Set the Dark on Fire Author Tehlor Kay Mejia

We set dark on fire