#26 - My Brain Goes AHHHHHHHHHH
AKA "i made a small move before the big move and then slept for days"
PROLOGUE
May was a blur, because I spent it preparing to move out of my apartment. And then after I finally moved out of my apartment, I basically slept for two days non-consecutively. But it’s done. I’m back in with my parents for a couple of months before my big, cross-country move, and boy am I exhausted.
On top of that, I turned in my pass pages for This Ends in Embers, the sequel to So Let Them Burn, yesterday, and I went to the Bronx Book Festival to have a keynote conversation with my friend, Chloe Gong. I spoke to a book club that read So Let Them Burn (this never stops being so cool to me, thank you Bad Bitch Book Club!) and I slept, and I slept, and I slept.
So thank you for bearing with me because this newsletter is late! Chloe just gave me an ARC of Vilest Things, so that is my current read. My current watch is just Press Your Luck, the game show I like to watch with my parents that we discovered old episodes of on Hulu. And I don’t think I’ll ever truly stop listening to Cowboy Carter. I anticipate “Ya Ya” will be in my top songs of the year.
All right, let’s talk This Ends in Embers, shall we?
CHAPTER 1: THE SO LET THEM BURN SEQUEL IS COMING
If you follow me on social media, you know that the sequel to So Let Them Burn has a title (This Ends in Embers), a release date (February 4, 2025), and a description. If you don’t want spoilers for the end of the book, skip to the next section. If you stayed, here’s that description again:
Perfect for fans of Raybearer and Fourth Wing, this astonishing sequel to the bestselling novel So Let Them Burn doesn't hold back. After all, there are no easy endings in war—especially when sisters are forced to fight on opposite sides.
Faron Vincent was once the saint of San Irie. Now, she’s done the unthinkable: betrayed her country. Alone, disgraced, and kidnapped, Faron is forced to help Iya grow his bloody empire. With her soul bonded to a ruthless killer, Faron has become an enemy to her people… and she fears they might be right.
Elara Vincent—the new Empyrean—must undo the damage her sister has caused. San Irie has been brought back to the brink of war as Iya proclaims no nation will be safe from his brutal invasion. But how can Elara save her sister, her best friend, her country, and her world when she’s already cracking under the pressure?
This heart-pounding conclusion to the Divine Traitors duology pushes these unforgettable heroines to their breaking point and beyond. Because when the lines between hero and villain are blurred, deadly sacrifices must be made.
We went through a lot of title options before settling on This Ends in Embers, and it matches the vibe of the sequel. So Let Them Burn is, in many words, Faron’s book. She is a broken former chosen one who is grappling with the fact that what she wants (her sister’s safety) and what her duty is (to save the world) are opposed. Eventually, she chooses to set fire to her reputation, and in the sequel is dealing with the repercussions of all her bad choices. This Ends in Embers, by contrast, is Elara’s book. She has risen to become the hero that her sister has failed to be, but she is more hopeful than Faron knows how to be. She is ready to end this war, but not in rage and destruction.
According to wikipedia, “An ember, also called a hot coal, is a hot lump of smouldering solid fuel, typically glowing, composed of greatly heated wood, coal, or other carbon-based material. Embers can exist within, remain after, or sometimes precede, a fire. Embers are, in some cases, as hot as the fire which created them.” And that’s Elara in a nutshell. She has all of her sister’s fire, but she doesn’t want to see the world burn. She wants to see it survive to become something better. She wants to see this war end in the embers of a future they can all build together. Whether or not she succeeds is for you all to find out in February 2025.
I just turned in the pass pages for this book yesterday, which is more or less the final round of edits before it goes to print. And I am so, so proud of the way this story ends, thanks to the help of my incredible editors Alexandra Hightower and Crystal Castro. My girls have grown so much—and I have put them through so much—but their endings satisfied me as both a writer and a reader. I hope you feel the same.
CHAPTER 2: THE REC ROOM
Welcome to the Rec Room, the section of my newsletter that I use to highlight books coming out each month I’m really excited about. For June, we have…
THE GOD AND THE GUMIHO by Sophie Kim
Once known as the infamous Scarlet Fox, Kim Hani now spends her days working in a coffee shop and annoying a particularly irritating, if unfairly handsome, trickster god as often as she can. Exiled from the heavenly kingdom of Okhwang, Seokga the Fallen now begrudgingly resides in the mortal realm, working toward his redemption and suffering through his interactions with the particularly infuriating, if sneakily charming, gumiho barista at his favorite café. But when a powerful demon escapes from the underworld and threatens to end all of humanity, Okhwang's emperor offers Seokga an enticing bargain: Kill this rogue creature, as well as the legendary and elusive Scarlet Fox, and he will be reinstated as a god. Hani, however, has no intention of being caught.
FURIOUS by Jamie Pacton and Becca Podos
Everything changed when Jojo Emerson-Boyd lost her mom, a celebrity NASCAR racer, in a tragic racing accident. Now, according to her dad, even getting her license is out of the question, so she might as well forget about racing. For the first time, her future seems foggy. But something comes into focus when Eliana "El" Blum turns up at the shop with an adorable scowl, a tough-girl vibe, and a mystery to solve. A Motorcyle Girl(TM) at heart, El grew up on the sidelines of the motocross circuit, watching Maxine, her idol of an older sister, compete. When she suddenly loses all contact with Max, El won't give up until she's found. She's determined to follow Max's trail of clues, the first of which leads straight to Jojo.
WISH YOU WEREN’T HERE by Erin Baldwin
Juliette doesn't hate Priya Pendley. At least, not in the way teen movies say she should hate the hot popular girl. To survive their intertwined small town lives, they've agreed to a truce. Priya seems to have everything during the school year—social media stardom, the handsome track captain boyfriend, and millions of adoring fans—-and Juliette is at peace with that. Because Juliette has the summer, and the one place she never feels like "too much" Fogridge Sleepaway Camp. But her hopes for a few Priya-free weeks are shattered when her rival shows up at Fogridge on move-in day... as her cabinmate, no less.
WE SHALL BE MONSTERS by Tara Sim
Kajal knows she is not a good person. If she were, she wouldn't selfishly be risking her sister Lasya's soul in a dangerous bid to bring her back to life. As Kajal prepares for the resurrection, the worst happens: Her sister's soul warps into a bhuta—a murderous, wraith-like spirit—and Kajal gets sentenced to death for her sister's rampage. There seems little hope of escape until two strangers offer to free her. The catch: She must resurrect the kingdom's fallen crown prince to aid a growing rebellion against a tyrannical usurper. Desperate, Kajal rushes to complete her end of the deal... only to discover that the boy she's resurrected, Tav, is not the crown prince.
CHAPTER 3: LOOK AT MY CAT!!!
As you may know, I adopted a shelter cat in December 2021, who I named Sora Mittens. During the move, Sora became an expert at finding new places to hide in and new boxes to sleep on. This is her in the pink bins I used as bookshelves, wondering if I’ll evict her from her tiny new apartment (I did not).
EPILOGUE
Thank you for subscribing and/or for sticking around! I hope you like rambles, shenanigans, and nonsense, because that’s truly all this is. Please buy my books so I can keep my cat in toys and forehead kisses. And please take care of yourselves out there.
