By giving readers Clara Johnson, a seer born with sight into the Other World who is nevertheless deeply grounded in the material world, she provides the perfect guide into this alternate moment in history.įor years, Clara has pushed others away, unable to trust anyone but herself. She expertly weaves threads of folklore, mythology, and Bible stories into the tapestry of the setting, creating a texture that ties the story to this world and its history while allowing the fantastic to breathe and flow.

A heist is central to the plot, but the objective isn’t wealth or glory by the end, the goal is saving the people who are in the thick of this world with them, facing the same prejudice and discrimination, no matter how rich or poor.īrightly painted with hues and shades of magic, set against a backdrop of jazz music and drag balls, Penelope has taken a specific historical place and moment and made them feel vibrantly alive. It’s the idea of building community-and the power of that same community to help a person know exactly who they are-that drives the book’s larger narrative forward. While racial injustice is never far distant from the story, that’s not the point of the story. Leslye Penelope sets her story in 1920s Washington D.C., an era of thriving creativity within the African American community. The Monsters We Defy takes that setting one step deeper, blending gangsters with the vibrant African American arts scene of the era.

In the Prohibition Era, the United States was full of gangsters and speakeasies-and, if looked at through a fantasy lens, undoubtedly magic. There may not be a better setting for a heist novel than the Roaring 20s.

Penelope and the monsters book