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We Are the Ashes, We Are the Fire
Em’s older sister, Nor (Elinor), was raped during a frat party her freshman year of college. One year later, despite attempts to discredit Nor, her attacker is found guilty on all charges. Then the judge sentences him to time served. Em (Marianne) doesn’t know what to do with her rage, or her guilt, having convinced Nor to push for a full trial. Everywhere Em turns in Seattle she sees signs of the patriarchy and rape culture prevailing, while her effort to counter the continued online slander of her sister only makes things worse. The stress and tension has frayed the fabric of their family. Em learns about Marguerite de Bressieux from classmate Jess. Marguerite, a young 15th-century French noblewoman raped during the pillage of her father’s estate, trained as a knight and took revenge on her rapists. Em becomes obsessed with writing a story about Marguerite, poems that white, genderqueer Jess, an artist seeking refuge with Nor’s family from their parents’ bitter divorce, begins illuminating like medieval manuscripts. These poems and drawings are interspersed through the primary prose narrative following the contemporary characters. Nor’s family includes her Guatemalan immigrant dad, who turned from a doctorate in poetry to plumbing to help support them, and her white, literature professor mom. Untangling their messy, complicated feelings surrounding the trauma of Nor’s rape and its impact on all of them is powerful, and essential to their healing as individuals and a family. ©2022 Cooperative Children’s Book Center
Illustrated by Maia Kobabe
CCBC Age Recommendation: Age 13 and older
Age Range:
Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-13)
Grades 9-12 (Age 14 and older)
Format:
Novel
Subjects:
Art and Artists
Divorce
Families
Friendship
Girls and Women
Guatemalans and Guatemalan Americans
Judicial System
LGBTQ+ Persons
Multiracial Characters/Families
Sexual Assault and Rape
Sisters
Social Media
Transgender People
Trauma
Writers and Writing
Diversity subject:
Latine
LGBTQ Character/Topic
Publishers:
Dutton, Penguin Random House
Publish Year: 2021
Pages: 383
ISBN: 9780525556053
CCBC Location: Fiction, McCullough