47North/Amazon Publishing
From author and body-positive activist Leah Vernon comes a daring dystopian novel that explores the power of friendship in a future society built on violence and division.
A thousand years in the future, a Black elite class reigns. The lower classes toil in the fields or scrape by in blighted cities, serving their rulers in a cruel, divided world.
Among the Elites is eighteen-year-old Avi Jore, born to a powerful father and destined to rule. But as she comes of age, Avi cannot help but notice the injustices in her world―the treatment of enslaved workers, the oppression of the lower classes. Her disillusionment grows when she meets Saige Wilde, a mixed-race enslaved girl whose only goal is escaping beyond the borders of their brutal nation.
When Saige saves Avi from an assassination attempt, their paths become intertwined in ways they never imagined. As Saige plots her path to freedom, Avi tries to enact change from the inside. But it’s a complicated endeavor, fraught with danger and malice.
Together, their efforts could spark a revolution―and underscore the staggering power of friendship.
Beacon Press
A searingly honest memoir of one young woman’s journey toward self-acceptance as she comes to see her body as a symbol of rebellion and hope and chooses to live her life unapologetically.
Ever since she was little, Leah Vernon was told what to believe and how to act. There wasn’t any room for imperfection. Good Muslim girls listened more than they spoke. They didn’t have a missing father or a mother with mental illness. They didn’t have fat bodies or grow up wishing they could be like the white characters they saw on TV. They didn’t have husbands who abused and cheated on them. They certainly didn’t have secret abortions. In Unashamed, Vernon takes to task the myth of the perfect Muslim woman with frank dispatches on her love-hate relationship with her hijab and her faith, race, weight, mental illness, domestic violence, sexuality, the millennial world of dating, and the process of finding her voice.
She opens up about her tumultuous adolescence living at the poverty line with her fiercely loving but troubled mother, her deadbeat dad, and her siblings, and the violent dissolution of her 10-year marriage. Tired of the constant policing of her clothing in the name of Islam and Western beauty standards, Vernon reflects on her experiences with hustling paycheck to paycheck, body-shaming, and redefining what it means to be a “good” Muslim.
Irreverent, youthful, and funny, Unashamed gives anyone who is marginalized permission to live unapologetic, confident lives.
Reviews for Unashamed:
“I love the fierce, unflinching honesty and integrity in Unashamed. The courage and raw emotion grabs you from the start and demands you open your heart and mind without judgment or preconceptions. I laughed and cried and read this book in awe of Leah Vernon’s brave, bold, and beautiful voice.”
—Randa Abdel-Fattah, author of The Lines We Cross and Does My Head Look Big in This?
“Deeply powerful in its vulnerability, Unashamed invites us into the pain, beauty, and redemption that have shaped Leah Vernon. We are transformed through the act of witnessing. Yes, this is a book for Fat Studies and Critical Race scholars, but it’s also one of the most generous memoirs I’ve ever read. There’s not a moment in this book where Vernon doesn’t take risks. That’s rare and beautiful to see.”
—Virgie Tovar, author of You Have the Right to Remain Fat
“Unashamed is everything Leah Vernon embodies on a daily basis: authenticity, resiliency, and, most of all . . . unquestionable courage. Unashamed is exactly what this world needs, and I’m so thankful for Leah: the fantastically powerful force behind this literary triumph.”
—Jes Baker, author of Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls and Landwhale