My Revenge Book: A Guest Post by Tigest Girma
Dark academia. The undead. An orphaned heiress. An irresistible vampire tale steeped in mystery rooted in Ethiopian lore ensues. Brimming with enemies-to-lovers tension, family secrets and dark magic, it’s a sharp-edged story that packs bite. Read on for an exclusive essay from author Tigest Girma on writing Our Monthly Pick, Immortal Dark.
Paperback $12.99
Immortal Dark
Immortal Dark
By Tigest Girma
In Stock Online
Paperback $12.99
The Cruel Prince meets Ninth House in this dangerously romantic dark academia fantasy, where a lost heiress must infiltrate an arcane society and live with the handsome vampire she suspects killed her family and kidnapped her sister.
The Cruel Prince meets Ninth House in this dangerously romantic dark academia fantasy, where a lost heiress must infiltrate an arcane society and live with the handsome vampire she suspects killed her family and kidnapped her sister.
I like to call Immortal Dark my revenge book because I wrote it to prove to myself and the world there has always been an avid audience for black fantasy books. However, it took me a while to build that confidence.
In my teen years I remember yearning for characters who looked like me but when I finally glimpsed that representation, the Black girl was often cursed with the “good friend trope”. If you don’t know, the good friend almost always dies to teach the heroine a valuable lesson.
Enter 2018.
Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther and Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi enter the mainstream. I’m convinced the lives of many Black creatives were changed that year, including mine. It was the confirmation I didn’t know I was desperately seeking. A celebration of diverse storytelling by the masses.
I say all this because it’s an image that’s always at the forefront of my mind. It kept me company through the rejection of my previous books and it was there while I was watching Twilight in early 2021 and had the thought, “What if vampires originated from Africa?”.
Now, some ideas give you a chill. Others come with dread because of their sheer scale. For this one, it was pure thrill. Like I’d finally reconnected with an old piece of myself. I could envision it clearly. My vampires would be dark-skinned and beautiful, with eyes that had lived a thousand years and found it all rather dull. I felt like a teen again, picking up those fantasy books but this time with the ability to alter their very origin.
The world came to me first. Black vampires––only able to feed from eighty bloodlines, would coexist with these families in a prestigious, secret university. However, Kidan Adane, the main character in the Immortal Dark series, took a few tries to get right. At first, she was shy and quiet in the vein of Bella Swan and Elena Gilbert. But I kept being drawn to the morally corrupting circumstances that could push young girls to unholy acts. Because what if they weren’t so innocent? This line of thought unlocked Kidan’s first chapter.
In the opening, we find her guilt-ridden and entertaining self-harm because she took a life. Why? A vampire has kidnapped her sister and there is no line she won’t cross to find her, even murder.
In crafting Kidan’s enemy, the accused yet captivating vampire Susenyos Sagad, I approached it similarly. I asked how could he be the perfect sparring partner for Kidan. What could a vampire teach a girl that believes the world is a better place without her in it? As it turns out––a lot.
In the sequel, Eternal Ruin, Kidan digs into a dangerous philosophy. Can humans only gain true power and control if they sever their closest relationships? Hm. Perhaps. What I like most about this series is we never quite know who the true monster is. The girl. The vampire. The magic? And it is quite fun making readers guess.