books
All of Us with Wings
A Barnes & Noble Most Anticipated #OwnVoices YA of 2019
A Book Riot Most Anticipated LGBTQ Read of 2019
A Book Riot Must-Read Debut Book of 2019
A Barnes & Noble Most Anticipated YA Fantasy of 2019
All of Us With Wings, Michelle Ruiz Keil’s mythology-inspired #OwnVoices debut is a post-punk San Francisco fairy tale about a seventeen-year-old Latinx governess, her tween genius change, the girl's rock star family, and a pair of ancient children bound to right the wrongs of her stolen childhood.
Seventeen-year-old Xochi loves her job as live-in governess for tween genius Pallas, enchanted by the girl’s pagan rock star parents and the storybook Victorian mansion they share with their band, Lady Frieda. Determined to deserve the fairy tale life she's fallen into, Xochi does her best to put Pallas's needs before her own--ignoring the grief that lingers from her grandmother's death and rejecting her growing attraction to Pallas’s guitar player dad, who shares her half Mexican heritage and troubled past.
Then, on the night of the Vernal Equinox with a party raging in the house below, Xochi and Pallas perform a riot-grrrl ritual that unintentionally summons the Waterbabies.
When her new life and past traumas collide, Xochi must come to terms with her complicated feelings for Pallas’s father, save the mother who abandoned her and find a way to send the Waterbabies home before the San Francisco fog extinguishes their fierce magic.
Praise for All of Us with Wings
“A spellbinding tale about finding magic in the mundane and hope in the unknown. Filled with dizzying danger and electrifying music, All of Us with Wings left me breathless.”
—Ruth Ozeki, Los Angeles Times Book Prize-winning author of A Tale for the Time Being
“Michelle Ruiz Keil creates a vivid and original novel full of music, rage, and characters that sing with purpose. Keil is a new voice to keep an eye on.”
—Zoraida Córdova, award-winning author of Labyrinth Lost
“A love letter to live music, a poem to a city in novel form, and a poignantly nuanced examination of the ways in which performance impacts life on and off stage. In equal parts realistic detail and surreal vision, All of Us with Wings bursts off the page and goes with you into real life.”
—Anna-Marie McLemore, author of Stonewall Honor Book When the Moon Was Ours and Blanca & Roja
“All of Us with Wings is a decadent slice of post-punk rockstardom that will have you begging to stay at the party till sunrise. This gorgeous debut looks unflinchingly into often unexplored experiences of adolescence—abuse and addiction, lust and desire, found families and chosen homes—finding beauty and redemption even in the darkest places.”
—Tehlor Kay Mejia, author of We Set the Dark on Fire
“I'm convinced that Michelle Ruiz Keil has woven a magic spell into these pages. All of Us with Wings is gorgeous, gritty, and utterly transfixing.”
—Sara Holland, New York Times bestselling author of Everless
“Michelle Ruiz Keil puts exquisite language and wild imagination to the fierce onslaught of sensation and doubt that is adolescence. This is a story for young adults, but perhaps it is also a deeply poetic tale of what is lost in the transition to adulthood.”
—Joanna Rose, author of Little Miss Strange
“Keil’s ambitious debut is jam-packed with twists and depth and froth and function...a transcendent journey...[this is] a book about embracing everything—people, lifestyles, beliefs, experiences—and, in so doing, finding your own distinct power.”
- The New York Times Book Review
“In her debut novel, Michelle Ruiz Keil crafts a fantastical ode to the Golden City’s postpunk era.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“A fascinating story about growing up.”
—Rich in Colour Blog
“An irresistible punk rock spirit . . . sets it apart from standard fantasy fare.”
- Popsugar
“A sort of goth Weetzie Bat, but even that doesn’t quite capture [its] beauty . . . The prose is gorgeous and lyrical and positively glitters, and the characters are vivid and lush. I loved this book.”
—Book Riot
“Magical realism that hits hard.”
—Cultura Colectiva
"The writing soars . . . This tale of found family and recovery weaves an unforgettable punk rock-infused spell.”
_ Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
“[An] atmospheric debut . . . Keil plays with prose and imagery, interweaving the dreamlike language of Francesca Lia Block with a Latin-American sensibility. The frank inclusion of sexual exploration and drug use adds an extra level of maturity to this thoughtful story about trauma and vengeance, adult decision making, and recovery.”
—Publishers Weekly
“All of Us with Wings is unapologetically queer, sexy and colorful. It doesn’t pull its punches, but it also examines narratives of rape recovery in an as ethical a manner as possible. There is hope, it says. There is family. There is life beyond the trauma.”
_ Young Adulting
“All of Us with Wings is a book about trauma in all its forms and the price others pay for us accepting, rejecting, or ignoring our pain. But it’s also about found families and not letting your past define your future. Every library with a young adult section should buy this book—you never know which of your teens will need it as much as I did.”
- Alex Brown, Punk-Ass Book Jockey blog
Color Outside The Lines
This modern, groundbreaking YA anthology explores the complexity and beauty of interracial and LGBTQ+ relationships where differences are front and center.
When people ask me what this anthology is about, I’m often tempted to give them the complicated answer: it’s about race, and about how being different from the person you love can matter but how it can also not matter, and it’s about Chinese pirate ghosts, black girl vigilantes, colonial India, a flower festival, a garden of poisons, and so, so much else. Honestly, though? I think the answer’s much simpler than that. Color outside the Lines is a collection of stories about young, fierce, brilliantly hopeful people in love.—Sangu Mandanna, editor of Color outside the Lines
With stories by:
Samira Ahmed | Elsie Chapman | Lauren Gibaldi | Lydia Kang | Michelle Ruiz Keil | Lori Lee | Sangu Mandanna | L.L. McKinney | Anna-Marie McLemore | Danielle Paige | Karuna Riazi | Caroline Tung Richmond | Adam Silvera | Tara Sim | Eric Smith | Kelly Zekas & Tarun Shanker
