The author of exciting new book Oh My Gods opens up about putting young black girl magic on the page
What happens when your mum’s no longer around, and you’ve been sent to live with your dad (a literal Greek God from Mount Olympus), and your older sister is Aphrodite, the literal embodiment of beauty? Chaos, that’s what. Add that to trying to fit in at a new school, make friends, and start speaking to new boys, and surely you have a recipe for disaster on your hands!
That’s what’s happened to Helen, the protagonist in new book, Oh My Gods. Set in North West London, the story is all about Helen adjusting to the quirky, supernatural whims of her family, new imports from Mount Olympus – all while trying to navigate the normal teenage dilemmas we know so well. Aside from the whole ‘related to Gods’ thing, author Alexandra Sheppard sees a lot of herself in her main character – in fact, she created Helen in order to see someone just like her in a light-hearted teen book. She told Pride about the much-anticipated release of Oh My Gods and the importance of black girls having a chance to see themselves reflected in a carefree, light and funny way.
My choice to make a story that combines Greek mythology and London life is twofold. I grew up loving myths in general – folk tales, and origin stories about the world – but what kick-started my love for it is, firstly, the film Hercules. I first watched it when I was about 10, and I adored it – I loved the gospel-singing muses, the Charlton Heston voiceover, everything. But what really sparked the inspiration for the book is a film called Down To Earth, with Rita Hayworth – it’s about a Greek muse who comes down to earth to confront a Broadway producer who’s making a musical about the Gods. So many movies and books have taken a look at what might happen when Gods come to earth – but none of them have reflected me, my environment, or my particular way of thinking. So, I just wanted to do it for me, essentially! It’s very selfish…
‘There should also be room for carefree books… books that show black and mixed-race girls living their best life!’
I’ve been reading my entire life, and I think the only Black British children’s books I read were those by Malorie Blackman. My little sisters (ages 11 and 15) are avid readers, and they don’t seem to have as big a problem – but the books they read by black people and people of colour come from America. There are very few books where they can actually see their reality of living in inner city London – and if they do exist, it’s in a way that’s quite serious, and can be quite traumatic. I think Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give is one of the best books of the last ten years full stop, but I think there should also be room for carefree books, and books that show black girls, and mixed-race girls living their best life, and getting up to no good, and just having fun! Yes, we live in a racist society, but that doesn’t mean that every single thing I want to read about has to be about that. I think that there’s definitely a lack of diversity in young adult fiction, especially in Britain; sometimes, people of colour can have carefree lives, and they might want to read sci-fi and rom coms, and time travel books with protagonists that look like them! It doesn’t have to be this heavy, traumatic story.
Oh My Gods is a long time in the making. I first had the idea 10 years ago, but I really started working on it about four years ago; I joined a creative writing group for women, and it really changed my life. It gave me the confidence to really write every day and then create a focus group for my writing. Three years later, we still meet up every month to share our writing and give feedback on each other’s work.
Three words I’d use to describe Oh My Gods would be… Funny, relatable, and… pink! (She laughs.)
Oh My Gods is out now.
As told to, and edited by, Nicole Vassell
