The Monsters We Defy

by Leslye Penelope

This book is a magical heist set in DC in the 20s.

For those folks who just headed over to find a copy, I hope you like it! For those who need a bit more detail:

I started this book on a chaotic morning when there was a lot of noise in my house and a lot of barking because of the noise, and despite all that, I could not put it down. Each chapter flies, and as soon as I finished one chapter I had to keep reading to find out what happens next.

In no particular order, this book has:

• incredibly rich, vivid, and fascinating details of 1920s Washington DC and the Black communities and neighborhoods within it
• folk magic, and intricate world building of both of the “real” world and “Over There” where the spirits reside
• a cranky, mistrustful heroine named Clara who is struggling with a lot of trauma and a terrible gift
• a terrific cast of friends who join together in a magical heist to get a magic ring back from a powerful person on behalf of some very devious spirits called Enigmas
• plots and research and action and making-it-up-as-they-go adventures
• big stakes and little stakes
• a sweet romance
• so much layered nuance about history, knowing and understanding the past, and the folklore that can embellish or be erased from that history

I absolutely loved the meticulous historical detail about Black communities in DC in the 20s: the clubs, the prohibition speakeasies, the hotels, the businesses, and the families. Clara struggles with her awareness of class and social status, so when her heisting group moves in and out of different class environments with some ease, her feelings of conflict and shame illuminate more about the world she inhabits. The historical fiction elements were some of my favorites, especially the cameos of famous people from that time period.

The characters also appreciate the immediate stakes that apply to them: steal the ring, and they’ll mostly be released from the contracts they made with Enigmas, which come with a gift, or a Charm, alongside a curse, or Trick. Then they recognize the larger stakes surrounding them: people are disappearing from their community, and their absence is noticed and is painful and scary. The awareness of community responsibility and of protecting and caring for everyone, even people who are cruel or unkind, threads through each part of the story. It’s never easy to protect and care for people.

As the number of characters grows, and the scope of the heist enlarges, the character detail that I so enjoyed took a backseat to A Whole Lot of Plot. In the beginning, I read with speed and attention, and I savored the scenes between Clara and her roommate Zelda, an albino woman who had been sold as a young girl by her mother to a traveling circus. Zelda is almost superhuman in her physical dexterity, though she’s the only one of the group unaffected by Charms and Tricks. Clara and Zelda were my favorite characters, as Zelda looks out for Clara, who is prickly and thinks she doesn’t need anyone. Zelda is as determined and stubborn as Clara: as she says to Clara when once again Clara questions WHY Zelda is always interfering and hanging around her, “We don’t go through this life alone.”

That’s one of the major themes of the story, and one I appreciated: the characters have reasons to mistrust one another, and as they learn to rely on one another and on their Charms (and Tricks) they evolve as individuals and as a group. Clara especially has to re-examine what she thinks is true, and what she “knows,” as connecting with other people brings her out of her emotional and physical isolation. I’m always the reader who loves characters, internal conflict, and personal growth the most in a story.

After the group is assembled and the research and heist preparation begins, the book faltered a bit for me. Zelda and Clara didn’t have as many scenes together because there were more characters and more plot, and I missed them. I liked the other members of the group, but the stubborn, tentative friendship between the two of them added so much to the book for me that, as I said, I missed Zelda when she had to take more of a background role.

The book begins with a tight focus on Clara, her Charm, and on Zelda, and Clara’s life. As the story progresses, Clara’s world widens to include more people, and more reliance on other people as she comes to understand her life as connected to and affected by others. While I missed the intimacy of Clara’s emotional development as the heist plot became the focus, everything in the book happens for a reason, and the ending was a total thrill.

I told a lot of people about this book as I was reading it. I couldn’t stop thinking about it and once I started reading it was very hard to put the book down to go do things. I’m still thinking about it now. I liked the painstaking and careful character development of the first half more than the zoomy-zoom plot of the second half, but the foundation of historical fiction and incredible detail coupled with folk magic, ghosts, and negotiating with spirits made this an exceptionally fun, absorbing, and thoughtful story.

– SB Sarah

A woman able to communicate with spirits must assemble a ragtag crew to pull off a daring heist to save her community in this timely and dazzling historical fantasy that weaves together African American folk magic, history, and romance.

Washington D. C., 1925

Clara Johnson talks to spirits, a gift that saved her during her darkest moments in a Washington D. C. jail. Now a curse that’s left her indebted to the cunning spirit world. So, when the Empress, the powerful spirit who holds her debt, offers her an opportunity to gain her freedom, a desperate Clara seizes the chance. The task: steal a magical ring from the wealthiest woman in the District.

Clara can’t pull off this daring heist alone. She’ll need help from an unlikely team, from a jazz musician capable of hypnotizing with a melody to an aging vaudeville actor who can change his face, to pull off the impossible. But as they encounter increasingly difficult obstacles, a dangerous spirit interferes at every turn. Conflict in the spirit world is leaking into the human one and along D.C’.s legendary Black Broadway, a mystery unfolds—one that not only has repercussions for Clara but all of the city’s residents.

Historical: American, Science Fiction/Fantasy