Libba Bray Creates 'Real World' Magic in YA NovelUnder the Same Stars(Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Libba Bray and the cover of ‘Under the Same Stars’.Photo:Simon Joseph; Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

Simon Joseph; Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

If it weren’t for a terrible accident,Libba Braymight not be an writer at all.

When the author was a teenager, she was driving her father to the airport one morning when it began to rain. On her way home, as she came up to an intersection, her vehicle hydroplaned and spun out of control. Bray hit a light pole, slamming her face into the steering wheel.“One inch higher or lower, I’d be dead,” Bray tells PEOPLE of the accident, which resulted in two broken legs and the loss of her left eye. The author spent two weeks in intensive care and had to have her jaw wired shut for the summer.

“I had that magical thinking that you have when you’re an adolescent, which is, ‘Well, they’ll just wave a magic wand and it will all be better,’” she recalls. “Then, of course, when they were fitting me for an eye and trying to make me a nose, I was like, ‘There’s no do-over for this.'”It wasn’t until Bray’s high school graduation, when she was gifted a small yellow journal, that she began to write out her feelings about the ordeal.“I basically started writing in that thing to keep myself alive, because it was the place where I could be truthful,” she says. “I started looking forward to writing. I would think, ‘Oh, I can’t wait to get back to my room and write about what happened today … after a while, I thought, ‘There’s something to this writing thing.’”

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

Now, Bray is the bestselling author of over 10 books, including theGemma Doyle trilogyandDivinersurban fantasy series. Her latest book,Under the Same Stars, is out Feb. 4 from Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers, and reflects the message of perseverance her readers have come to expect from her work.Taking place in Germany in the 1940s and 1980s, as well as 2020 New York City during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic,Under the Same Starsweaves together the stories of multiple teenagers, each dealing with the social and political movements of their respective time periods. It combines elements of mystery, historical and contemporary fiction, like much of the author’s work.

Bray began writing the novel during the pandemic, after she heard of theBridegroom’s Oak, a 500-year-old tree in Germany that locals believe has matchmaking powers. People from all over the world write letters to the tree in search of love, and anyone can read a letter from the hole where a postal worker delivers them. Dozens of people have gotten married as a result of taking a chance on love — and the oak.“It almost felt like a fairytale to me,” Bray says. “And then, of course, because my brain is my brain, [I connected] this beautiful romantic fairy tale-like tree to espionage.”

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Libba Bray.Simon Joseph

Simon Joseph

“The thing about fiction is that you’re always trying to mine for that truth,” Bray says. “When we talk about resistance, I think we were marching for those rights, and to see how far things had come …that’s why we’ll fight like hell not to have them go back.”

“Secrets don’t keep anybody safe. They just make you live in shame. And I just would not want the next generation to feel that,” she adds. “I wanted it in the novel because it’s very important to me.”Bray, who is already at work on new projects, also wants her longtime readers to know that she hasn’t strayed away from magic completely inUnder the Same Stars— it simply appears differently.“I had to think about the forms of magic that happen in the real world: community, the ways in which humans love each other,” Bray says. “If you can change, and grow, and transform, and help other human beings … to me, that is a form of magic.”

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.“There’s still romance in there, there’s still banter, there’s still friendship, there’s still heart-rending moments,” she says of her new book. “And there’s still hope. I think that that is a through line through all of my books. So hopefully they’ll be along for the ride.”Under the Same Starsis available now, wherever books are sold.

source: people.com