Today Jackie and Kelly talk about Before She Ignites, a YA fantasy by Jodi Meadows. While all of the characters are POC, Meadows is actually white. This could go terribly, terribly wrong. Or… maybe not?
It’s also worth noting that Before She Ignites may be the first, or one of the first, books from a major publishing house to include a POC model on the cover! Often POC-based covers are avoided in favor of vague designs or landscapes (take, for example, Forest of a Thousand Lanterns — even though the cover is still beautiful).
Is this book, centered around a group of islands populated by POC characters, going to show its problematic side? Or will it be decidedly tame? Find out in this week’s episode of Fiction Forward!
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–Jackie and Kelly
