Before The Ordinary Bruja became the dark, haunting, identity-reckoning novel it is today, it started as a short story I wrote called #InstaBruja. #InstaBruja was born out of the chaos and stillness of the pandemic. It followed a young woman named Marisol—a name I kept when she evolved into the protagonist of The Ordinary Bruja. In that short story, Marisol was trying to find her footing after the world reopened.

There’s a line in The Ordinary Bruja that makes people pause when they read it:“If they were lighter, they made it through.” It’s one of those lines that carries more than a story—it carries history. The kind of history that’s uncomfortable, that sits heavy in the chest long after the page turns. That line came from a place of anger and heartbreak.