We Are the Ashes, We Are the Fire

After Em Morales’s older sister, Nor, is raped at a college fraternity party, the attacker is convicted but receives only time served. A year later, Em struggles with anger and guilt, while online attacks against Nor and the strain of the case affect their family. In Seattle, Em notices the persistence of rape culture and patriarchy around her. She begins writing poems about Marguerite de Bressieux, a fifteenth-century French noblewoman who trained as a knight after surviving rape. Her classmate Jess illuminates the poems like medieval manuscripts.