The characters at the center of Kiersten White's newest book aren't the typical voices found in stories of the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century — and the story itself isn't told in what people might think of as the Utah native's typical voice.
A reimagining of the early life of Vlad the Impaler, "And I Darken" — published last month, the first of a planned trilogy — is an addictively readable book with a depth and richness that justifies every one of its 496 pages. The lush historical fiction feels like a fantasy, but the world is as real as it is brutal — well, except for one key fact: In White's story, Vlad the Impaler is a woman, Lada.
Lada grows up practically feral, playing in the forests of Wallachia. She protects her younger brother, Radu, who — for good and bad — is soft where she's tough. But more than anything she's determined to win the respect of her father — Vlad II, The Dragon — by being as smart, as strong, as any son.
The shades fall from Lada's eyes when she and Radu are teenagers and their father, threatened by an uprising, takes them to Edirne, capital of the Ottoman Empire. They become living collateral to ensure he doesn't betray his allegiance to the sultan, and Lada realizes that her father's love for his children — for her in particular — has turned them into tools to be used against him. As she and her family are made to watch the brutal executions of two prisoners, she vows never to let anyone have such power over her.
Power is what it all comes down to for Lada, and being the daughter of a leader or the influential wife of an important man is far from enough — she wants to earn it herself, to use it the way she wants.
She bides her time, enjoying the food of the Ottoman Empire, training with its troops and even forming a friendship — and more — with Mehmed, the sultan's son and heir. Still, her goal is never in doubt: Get home to Wallachia. Be the leader her father wanted to be but was too weak to become.
Radu — whose third-person perspective alternates with Lada's — finds a new life in the Ottoman Empire. Initially bewildered at being shoved out of Lada's shadow and protection, he discovers friendship and purpose in studying Islam, and comfort in a new god.
It's rare that religion — so personal, so fraught — is broached in young-adult novels. But it's an unavoidable topic when you're writing about the Ottoman Empire, White notes — people "were doing very horrible things in the name of religion, both Christianity and Islam." The political aspect of religion is a backdrop to wider conflict, but White's characters also engage with it as individuals. For some, it's just a culture or a necessary path to navigate the world. For Radu and others, it's much more.
"I wanted to write a religious conversion, I wanted faith to be a very powerful, healing thing in someone's life," White says.
It was a feat to write not just about religion but about Islam, a faith sometimes viewed as foreign or even dangerous. "It was important to me that I portrayed Islam in a very fair and positive light. Most American depictions of Islam right now are incredibly negative and damaging," White says. "It's a beautiful religion, it's a religion that has brought comfort to people across the globe and across time."
For all that it's an uncommon subject, Radu's faith conversion feels natural, just another facet of this fully realized story. So, too, does his growing realization that his love for Mehmed goes beyond friendship or even brotherhood.
There's not a lot on Radu in the history books, but he did convert to Islam and remain faithful to the Ottoman Empire. There were also rumors that he was part of a secret male harem — "so I knew that was going to be part of it," White says.
Radu joins no harem in "And I Darken," as he's still very much grappling with what he feels and whom he feels it for. He finds no easy answers, living as he does in a time and place where "the norm" is more than what's normal — it's everything.
"You wouldn't have been able to easily network and connect with other people going through the same thing," White says. "How do you come to terms with something when there's not even a terminology for it?"
White, who's been vocal on social media about being a Mormon as well as about her support for the LGBT community, particularly its youths, was eager to delve into the topic of sexuality — though, she says, "I didn't set out to say, 'I'm going to tell a story with X, Y and Z elements so I can explore them!' They just came about very naturally and very organically.
"I tried again to be very aware and tell the most emotionally honest version of that story that I could," she adds.
The honesty and fearlessness of "And I Darken" — in its characters and in its author — are what makes White's ninth book her best yet.
It's a bit of a rebirth for White — this is her first book published by Delacorte, her first to receive multiple starred reviews or be chosen as a book of the month by Amazon. And it rose almost literally from the ashes of a story more similar to her earlier work.
Though she's since written historical fantasy, thrillers and co-authored a sinister, spooky graphic novel, her first book, "Paranormalcy," and its two sequels — comic, Buffy-esque takes on the supernatural romance trend — are still her most popular. So Kiersten White sat down to write what she thought people wanted from Kiersten White.
Turns out, her then-publisher didn't want it.
"That was kind of a nice moment for me to say, 'OK! What I thought that somebody wanted, they don't want, so I'm just going to do whatever,' " she says. "This was the first 'whatever.' "
The elements of "And I Darken" — Romanian history, an epic fantasy feel — had been in her head a long time, she says. But it wasn't until she thought of writing Vlad the Impaler as a woman that everything clicked.
Even with that fairly major deviation from reality, it was never going to be a full-on fantasy book. "I loved this historical period, I loved the people who were the key players — larger than life, brilliant figures — and so I did want to use as much of the actual history as I could," White says.
She also wanted to tell the stories of the people whom historical records often exclude — people like Radu, who don't fit into the mold, or the sultan's wives and concubines, who are dismissed as unimportant by historians and Lada herself, who doesn't believe that there's any strength in women's traditional roles.
"I wanted to find those stories — they've always been there, they just weren't told," White says. "I tried to find what I could that was real, and pull it to the forefront, and really explore those identities, and how those people would have carved places out for themselves in the time period."
But story supersedes historical fact, so readers who turn to Wikipedia for more on the Ottoman Empire won't have Lada's fate spoiled. Book 2 will follow the actual details of the siege of Constantinople, but Lada's narrative "completely departs" from Vlad's timeline, White says. "I definitely will hit some highlights, but the intricacies get compressed" so that Lada isn't 45 by the end of the trilogy.
What she isn't tinkering with is the Lada she's created. Lada's all-consuming thirst for power might have stemmed from a childhood spent seeking her father's attention, but it's who she is. She has no soft underbelly — there's not a gentle, wounded Lada inside just waiting for the right person to love her.
"I'm not kidding when I say she's an antihero," White says. "I really like antiheroes, I like the challenge of bringing a reader along each step of the way. And you get to the point where you're agreeing with something that's happening on the page and you're like, 'Oh, wait a second, this is awful. Why I am agreeing with this?' "
"And I Darken" is certain to win readers who will want to follow Lada to all the dark, awful places her single-mindedness takes her. And, lucky for them, she's only getting started.
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Holding out for an antihero
Kiersten White will discuss and sign "And I Darken," the first book in The Conquerors Saga.
Where • The King's English Bookshop, 1511 S. 1500 East, Salt Lake City
When • Saturday, July 16, 7 p.m.
Info • kingsenglish.com or kierstenwhite.com
Also appearing • Provo City Library, 550 N. University, Provo; Friday, July 15, 7 p.m.
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