By Ashtyn Britt
abritt@lc.edu

Growing up, one of my favorite authors had been Z Brewer. They wrote the “Chronicles of Vladimir Tod” series, “The Slayer Chronicles” series, “The Blood Between Us”, “The Cemetery Boys”, “Soulbound”, and “Madness”. I grew up loving their work and working my hardest to find ways to see them at local book signings or conventions. I used to follow all of their social media and patiently wait for any new book releases or promotions.

You can imagine my shock at the fact they had deleted nearly all of their accounts and hadn’t published anything new since 2017. I had for a while lately been worried one of my childhood heroes had fallen off the earth, until very recently when I heard some wonderful news. Not only is Z Brewer alive and well, but they’re coming out with a new book called “Into the Real”. The synopsis states:

“Three Quinns. Three realities. Three Brumes. The first Brume is a waking nightmare, overrun by literal monsters and cutthroat survivors. For Quinn, who is openly genderqueer, the only silver lining is their friendship with Lia—and the hope that there might still be a safe place somewhere else in the world. The second Brume is a prison with no bars. Forced to “sort out” their sexuality with other teens at Camp Redemption, Quinn must also figure out why presenting as female has never felt quite right. The third Brume is a warzone. For Quinn, who presents as male, leading the Resistance against an authoritarian government is hard, since even the Resistance might not accept them if they knew Quinn’s truth. As Quinn starts to realize that they might be one person alternating among these three worlds and identities, they wonder: Which world is the real one? Or do they all contain some deeper truth?”

“Into the Real” is currently available for pre-order on Amazon and set to come out Oct 6, 2020. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am looking forward to getting myself a copy of the book and reliving my childhood!