Kalynn Bayron is the bestselling author of Cinderella is Dead, This Poison Heart and This Wicked Fate. She is the winner of the Books Are My Bag Readers Award for YA Fiction 2020 and Wordery's Children's Book of the Year 2020, and has been shortlisted for the Goodreads Choice Award for YA Fantasy 2020 and nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2021. When she's not writing, you can find her listening to Ella Fitzgerald on loop, attending the theatre, watching scary movies and spending time with her kids. She lives in Ithaca, New York, with her family. www.kalynnbayron.com @KalynnBayron
In this latest novel, Bayron (My Dear Henry, 2023) integrates the traditional conventions of a slasher novel with the story of a queer, Black girl protagonist who subverts the trope of “Black people dying first.” Bayron's foray into the YA horror space helps continue the effort of decentering whiteness in the genre. The overall campiness of the novel will appeal to fans of ’90s horror films, and make the book as fun as it is terrifying * Booklist * The book centers Black characters, and its prose sings. This Wicked Fate is a delightful novel about literal Black Girl Magic, found family, and queer love, with adventures and a satisfying twist on Greek mythology * Foreword Reviews, starred review on THIS WICKED FATE * Sharp banter, dynamic characters, and a warm sapphic romance give this even more verve * Booklist on THIS WICKED FATE * Mesmerising and beautiful * Tracy Deonn, NYT bestselling author of Legendborn on THIS POISON HEART * This duology closer delves deeper into mythology while depicting textured, realistic relationships * Kirkus Reviews on THIS POISON HEART and THIS WICKED FATE * A delicious mix of intoxicating fantasy and coming of age, steeped in Greek mythology and peppered with references to the Jordan Peele films Get Out and Us * Observer New Review on THIS POISON HEART * Kalynn Bayron does more than re-write a fairy-tale ... She breaks it apart and rebuilds it into a wholly original and captivating story where girls finally decide for themselves who lives happily ever after * Brigid Kemmerer on CINDERELLA IS DEAD *