For LaDarrion Williams, the journey to his debut novel started with a single question: “What if Harry Potter went to an HBCU?” The answer comes in his highly anticipated YA fantasy novel Blood at the Root, out today, with a first printing of 100,000 copies. The trilogy-starter was bought at auction last year by editor-in-chief Liesa Abrams at Labyrinth Road.

Williams first recognized the need to center Black boys in fantasy when in high school his own passion for reading began to wane due to the lack of representation in the stories that he loved, such as Twilight and the Hunger Games. But reading stories where Black characters were treated as “sacrificial lambs” or “tool[s] to teach racism” inspired Williams to imagine worlds where that was not the case.

“I felt really connected to all those characters, but I just didn’t feel seen by those stories,” Williams told PW. “I was like, ‘Where’s the Black kid with the Southern twang who lives in small-town Alabama, who has the magical sword or can run with super speed?’ ”

In Blood at the Root, Black children wield all the power. At the age of seven, Malik Baron watches his mother disappear from right in front of him, triggering his innate magic and questions about where it comes from. He’s led to New Orleans Caiman University, a historically Black college for hoodoo and vodun practitioners, where he’s surrounded by a Black magical community and learns to hone his powers and investigate what truly happened to his mother.

During the pandemic, Williams sent out a life-changing tweet that asked the question, “What if Harry Potter went to an HBCU?” which received an overwhelming amount of attention online. With confirmation that the desire to see Black children thriving in fantastical worlds was present, Williams set out to bring his vision to life on screen. With resources from his online community, Williams and friends raised enough money to produce a short concept film.

The short film Blood at the Root was released in April 2021, and Williams was sure that “Hollywood would come knocking” and that this would finally be the big break he needed to share this story. But when no further progress came, the disappointment almost led him to drop the project entirely.

“I was really depressed for a very long time about it, because I was like, ‘I got the viral script. I got the viral short film. What more do you want?’ ” Williams recalled.

Despite feeling discouraged, when a friend suggested he attempt transforming the script into a book, Williams, unable to let the idea go, decided to give his Black boy fantasy one more chance. Williams then found his agent, Peter Knapp at Park & Fine Literary, and soon they were in the query trenches.

That manuscript landed on the desks of Liesa Abrams, editor-in-chief at Random House Children’s Books imprint Labyrinth Road, and assistant editor Emily Shapiro.

“From the moment I started reading the manuscript I loved it instantly,” Abrams said. “The way LaDarrion captures Malik’s blend of vulnerability, maturity, and strength was so authentic, and so appealing. It just really rang true.” Shapiro similarly felt that it was a “no brainer that [the story] would really resonate.”

Williams had faced several setbacks for this story up until this point: “we can’t connect with the characters” was a repeated refrain from agents who declined the project. And then he finally got the call: his story about magical Black boys was going to be published. Labyrinth Road acquired Blood at the Root at auction in 2023.

Ahead of publication, Blood at the Root has been featured on “most anticipated” lists at TheNerdDaily and Cosmopolitan, and was selected as a May/June Indie Next pick. Williams’s journey to getting Malik Baron and his story out into the world has been one of resilience, and he says he has many more stories to share.

“I just want to write different facets of Black fantasy, because we’re here,” Williams said. “I want to write, for us and about us, but not at the expense of us.”

Blood at the Root by LaDarrion Williams. Labyrinth Road, $20.99 May 7 ISBN 978-0-593-71192-7