The fantasy genre, in particular, gave Adeyemi freedom to abandon the histories and problems of America, and create a world in which racial dynamics are more concretely right and wrong, black and white. Essentially, there can be no excuses made for egregious and unnecessary displays of force from law enforcement. “No one can look at Zelie being attacked in the very first chapter, and say, ‘Okay, but…’ You can’t argue that. It is undeniably wrong,” Adeyemi said. By reading Children of Blood and Bone, then, she hopes readers will be more receptive to applying the sentiments to interactions they hear about on their Twitter feed and on the news. “So when you say hey, do you want to see the video of the Black girl being thrown to the ground by the policeman in a bathing suit that inspired this? And now do you want to tell me that there are more sides to this story?”