We Are the OriginShe was a shadow. Forced into a life of serving the queendom before she was old enough to deny them, Brandi was a cultivator of death and the queen's own blade, reserved only for the disloyal and the blasphemous. Crafted by the queendom and forged in blood, she was nothing more than a tool. She was never meant to have an opinion on whose blood she shed never meant to question whose back she was pressed into or whose throat she was slipped across. She

Another work of genius by this masterly writer

"or will you take action to dismantle them for the benefit of a just future

Born on a former cotton plantation and having fled the terrors of the South

his mother is Guyanese

and musician Prince

but Hannah is soon shaped by secrets that unfold

A gripping story about race

grew up in similar places to us

Revealing and timely

After she loses a classroom competition because she won't speak up

Backmatter includes a note from the author about his experience growing up as a Black boy in the Twin Cities

and a bit older