LaDarrion Williams is having his “I told you so” moment. After struggling to have his short film featuring Black boy magic picked up by Hollywood executives, Williams is sitting on a New York Times bestseller: his YA debut fantasy novel, Blood at the Root (Labyrinth Road).

It all started in his Alabaster, Ala., high school—specifically during detention (for what, he says, he can’t be sure, because “what was I not in detention for back then?”). Sixteen-year-old Williams was handed a copy of Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun. It was love at first read. Williams said to himself then, “I want to write something like this one day.”

His plan was to become a playwright, but Williams quickly learned that the journey to becoming a writer, particularly as a “poor Black boy doing theater,” was more challenging than he had anticipated. His high school theater teacher encouraged him to enter the Alabama State Thespian Conference with Katrina, his first play, about two people trapped in a hospital room during Hurricane Katrina. Though Williams had his first taste of success upon winning first place in the playwriting division, when he was unable to attend an acting conservatory in New York due to finances, he realized, “I don’t have the same access to opportunities as other people.”

But Williams wasn’t deterred. In 2015, he moved from his hometown of Helena, Ala., to Los Angeles to pursue his passion as a playwright, writing and producing his own stage plays while supporting himself by driving for Lyft and Uber. In L.A., he built his own community, collaborating with fellow creatives who were “tired of not getting the opportunities on the big stages or film sets.” He came up with the idea for Blood at the Root in 2020, following such tumultuous events as the pandemic lockdown and the riots following the murder of George Floyd.

In a viral tweet, Williams described the YA fantasy trilogy starter—which blends the beloved trope of the magical school with Southern culture and a Black cast—as “if Harry Potter went to an HBCU.”

Williams says, “I love to put my father, my mother, my cousins on the page, and everybody who doesn’t really get to see themselves reflected, to show that their life matters, too.” He adds, “That’s what the South is. It’s poetry. It’s the language of the everyday people.”

Blood at the Root started off as a short film that Williams released in 2021. Despite the film’s online success, it wasn’t enough to break through the gates of Hollywood, leaving Williams feeling discouraged.

“When Hollywood kept telling me no, they basically kept telling me Malik’s story doesn’t deserve to be told,” Williams says. “Nobody wants to see this. They’re not interested in this Black boy’s story.”

Though Williams was hesitant about entering the publishing industry because he felt his book was “too Black,” he says, “Malik was bothering me day and night.” He decided to pivot; the first draft of Blood at the Root the novel was written in a Cheez-It and Oreo–fueled haze over the course of 12 days. “As I started putting words to paper, it just drained out,” he says. “I’d have my computer on the passenger seat and when I’d get done with driving for Lyft and Uber, I would go home and write until four in the morning, and then sleep for the rest of the day—then do it all over again.”

Because Blood at the Root was a story born of “anger that needs to be seen,” Williams says he wanted his team to be made up only of people who wouldn’t compromise the story’s voice. He signed with agent Pete Knapp at Park & Fine Literary, who was “fully on board with the mission,” in 2021. Williams’s debut was acquired by Liesa Abrams at Labyrinth Road in 2023; he credits Abrams for being “all about pushing the boundaries in publishing.”

“I was like, this book’s got a lot of AAVE. It’s got cursing. Yes, they say the N word. These are Black kids being Black kids. And she understood that,” Williams says.

It’s safe to say that Williams’s efforts have paid off. Blood at the Root hit the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists, and with his three-book deal, Williams has more magic in store for readers. “It means the world because now I think the doors are opening more for stories like this,” he says. “I think my publisher made a good investment. They probably were like, ‘I don’t know, we’re a little hesitant.’ But I was like, trust me: if you build it, people will come.”