Girls Who Burn First

By Dr. Marie L. Decius

Some names remained unwritten. So they stitched them into cloth and let the fire carry them forward.

Spanning from revolutionary-era Haiti to present-day Atlanta, Girls Who Burn First weaves together the stories of five women bound by a single object: a carved wooden comb passed quietly across generations.

Z na de, who is fifteen years old, is fleeing from a fire in Saint-Domingue in 1803 while carrying names that the archives refuse to remember. Amara is a West Point cadet in 2005, hiding resistance in regulation seams. In 2023, Lyah discovers a cloth that hums when she holds it-and starts to remember events yet to come. Other girls follow suit, stitching, humming, burning, and refusing to erase themselves.

Told in fragments, dreams, and spirals, this novel blends historical fiction, magical realism, and oral history to explore how Black women have survived by remembering each other in silence, in cloth, and in flame.

For readers of Jesmyn Ward, Toni Morrison, and Rivers Solomon, this is a story about legacy, rage, love, and the kind of fire that does not consume-but passes forward.

If you've ever felt like your body remembers more than your mouth can say... You are already part of the thread.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FBM7X8F4
• ISBN13: 9798283075839
• Release Date: June 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 464 Pages
• Weight: 1.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.0"