Liselle Sambury gives us an in-depth look at the world of Blood Like Magic

Liselle Sambury’s Blood Like Magic is one of the most exciting contemporary fantasy releases hitting shelves this month, a story of literal Black Girl Magic set in a complex future where magic and technology exist side by side.

The story follows Voya Thomas, a 16-year-old Black witch preparing for her Calling – an ancestor-given trial that she must pass in order to inherit her magic. If she refuses to participate, no future members of her family will become witches. If she accepts her tasks and fails, every witch in her family will lose the magic that helps provide their livelihood.

A Thomas hasn’t failed a Calling in a century, but Voya’s always struggled with making choices. and that’s basically what this entire event is about. But when she’s Called, she learns things are even worse than she could have imagined. To pass her Calling, Voya must destroy her first love. But since she’s never been in love before, Voya’s going to have to find a boy, fall in love with him, and kill him, all in a month’s time.

What follows isn’t just a story about magic, but a complicated and compelling look at identity, family, self-determination, and the ways we allow others’ expectations to define who we are (or aren’t). The novel feels like one fantasy fans will be buzzing about all summer, and rightly so.

We got the chance to chat with Sambury about everything that went into crafting Blood Like Magic, how she came up with the story’s complex world, publishing during a pandemic, and lots more.

Culturess: First, I love this book! It’s so layered and rich – in terms of world-building, relationships, and characters. How did you come up with this story?

Liselle Sambury: Thank you so much! It’s funny that you mention layers because that’s truly how the components of this book came together. With each revision, I added on more and more depth, which is how it came to where it is today.

When I began the story, I had an image of a girl lying in a bath of blood, and a desire to write about a family of Black witches in a future Toronto. From there, I started with simple rules for the magic system, and this idea that she had to kill her first love to save her family’s magic.

Things really began from these simple high concept points that I had thought of and then slowly evolved through multiple drafts.

Culturess: Blood Like Magic is your debut novel – how exciting has this process been for you? How has trying to release – and promote – a book during a pandemic been?

It’s been such an exciting process because this is truly my childhood dream coming true. I also find that since everything is new, it’s all an exploration, and I’m learning a lot of things as I go. But it’s been so wonderful to experience everything for the first time.

Releasing and promoting during the pandemic hasn’t been bad at all, I think because the 2020 debut authors really paved the way for us in 2021. Having a debut group who had already been through that coming before me meant that I could learn from the things they did.

Obviously, there are things that I wish could happen. I would love an in-person launch with friends and family where I could connect with readers, but I made my peace with that not happening pretty early in the year. I’ve been focusing more on what I can do and the experiences that are still possible. And I have to admit that as a Canadian author, there is a certain level of access I know have with virtual events that I didn’t have before considering that much of YA publishing is based in the U.S..

Culturess: There’s an intriguing mix of fantasy and science fiction elements here – magic is real, but there’s technology that can also live in your head. How did you strike a balance between them all?

Sambury: When I wrote the book, I made a very specific effort to blend the magic and the science fiction together in a way that wouldn’t allow them to be separated. To me, that was the best way to strike a balance because then those factors rely on each other.

But overall, it was a lot of thinking, setting-wise, [about] how technology would work and then deciding how magic would fit into it. Would the technology displace magic? Or would witches rely on a lot of technology? It was a lot of asking myself questions and figuring out how it all worked together. I admit that this was a lot messier in the beginning of the process and took a lot of finessing to get to the level I wanted.

Culturess: Voya is such a great character – stubborn, kind of messy, but so easy to root for and love. What’s your favorite thing about her journey in this story?

Sambury: I think my favourite thing about Voya as a character is that she’s the sort of strong female lead who doesn’t know it, and whose strength instead of being something overt like a swashbuckling and door kicking bad ass, is more rooted in her sensitivity towards others and her ability to be vulnerable.

I liked being able to show that sort of strength in a main character. I also think it’s important to explore those different representations of what makes a character “strong.”

Culturess: Blood Like Magic is full of such thoughtful and effortless representation of all kinds – from race and culture to sexuality and gender.

It’s obvious that must have been a big priority for you as a writer but it never feels as though you’re thinking and NOW I will include a trans character, if you know what I mean. Can you tell me a little bit about how you approached that aspect of the book?

Sambury: I’m so happy you took that away from it because that’s definitely what I wanted. A lot of characters came to me with formed identities, but I knew that just because I thought ‘oh this character is trans’ right off the bat didn’t mean I could slap that on and go about my business. I really had to think of how their identity would play into their character and their arc in the story.

But at the same time, I didn’t want characters whose entire personality is struggling with their identity. As a Black woman, my life is not all about Black woman struggles, so why would I do that with other people? I worked hard to strike that balance of not ignoring how the character’s identity would play into their lives but also making sure everyone had a fulfilling arc outside of that. I was striving to create what felt like real people. And real people are nuanced and multi-faceted. In addition, I had the help of wonderful sensitivity readers to point out things that I had missed, suggest opportunities to do better, and note anything that might be harmful that I could work on fixing.

Culturess: Tell me about the Gifts that you wanted to put in this story and couldn’t. Did anyone get an ability that was just straight-up terrible?

Sambury: I, with all my heart, wanted to put in the gift to grow your nails at will.

There was a movie or TV show or something that I watched where someone could do that, and they scratched another character and I thought it was hilarious. I love gifts that seem useless that actually could be great. I didn’t get it into the first book, but I did put it in the sequel.

That being said, I do think Keisha’s gift is not the greatest, but she’s the sort of character who makes it work for her, and that’s what I love about her having the ability to sense discomfort. I also think that even though the gift on its surface is terrible, that it also speaks to something deeper and more meaningful about who she is as a person. I do try, even with things that I put in and think are funny, to create purpose with it.

Culturess: What is the one thing you hope readers take away from reading Blood Like Magic?

Sambury: I hope that readers come away feeling represented in some way, whether that’s identity wise or in relating to the struggles of the characters. But in terms of messages from the books, I do hope that teens get a sense of feeling like they can be the masters of their own futures.

Oftentimes, young people are told they need to know exactly what to do with their lives from eighteen, and it can feel so suffocating when you don’t achieve that, or when the thing you picked doesn’t work out. It seems like more than ever, teens have this pressure to achieve huge feats at a young age, and messing up becomes this failure rather than a natural part of the process of growing up.

I think a lot of this book explores the messiness of finding where you belong in the world, and I hope readers learn to relieve themselves of that pressure a bit.

Culturess: Can you give us any hints about what the Blood Like Magic sequel might contain/be about?

Sambury: Well, things definitely get worse for Voya. She’s had so many challenges in the first book and now she has this new set of different ones.

I think it feels very much like one step forward, two steps back for her. But we also get to explore the wider Black witch community and meet some new characters from the other families and experience those dynamics. Also, some characters with smaller roles in the first book will have much larger ones this time around. I, personally, think it’ll be a satisfying end to the series.

Culturess: What else are you working on as an author?

Sambury: Currently, I’m working on my first adult horror/thriller novel. It’s definitely been a struggle to find my footing, but I’m excited about the prospect of diving into a new age category and seeing how it works out.

And I’m sure that at some point I’ll be hopping back into Butcherbirds which is my 2023 YA standalone about a girl and her mother who inherit a less than idyllic mansion in northern Ontario, and in another timeline, also follows the investigative journalist who is trying to find out what happened to the girl.

Culturess: What have you been reading lately that our readers should make sure to check out? Not that my TBR pile needs to get any bigger, but still….

Sambury: I finished The Ones We’re Meant to Find by Joan He a little while ago and it was absolutely amazing. I love dystopias and sci-fi, but this one really stood out with the environmental themes and strong sister relationship drama.

And my most recent read was In The Ravenous Dark by A.M. Strickland which follows a pansexual bloodmage who has been bound to a dead guardian and is trying to fight against the powers trapping her and her father. If you love snarky heroines and dark magic, then this one is for you. It also has such a sweet found family element.

Blood Like Magic hits shelves on June 15. Let us know if you’re planning to give it a look!