Sisters and collaborators Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite take philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s popular adage about class conflict to its furthest extent in their latest YA novel, The Summer I Ate the Rich. We asked the co-authors to discuss how they incorporate Haitian mythology into a modern zombie story, writing a revenge story against the elites, and challenging who we consider monsters.

Maritza Moulite: Hi, Maika! I’m so excited to talk to you about The Summer I Ate the Rich. I know the lore, but for everyone else: how did this book come about?

Maika Moulite: Hi, Maritza! So first, you came up with that amazing title. And then we developed the beginnings of an idea—a girl who wants to exact revenge on the wealthy elites whom she blames for causing her family pain. But we still felt like something was missing…

Maritza: Yes, and then you thought in a flash of genius—wait, what if our main character, Brielle, could literally eat the rich? What if she were a zombie? And that immediately felt right, because the conception of the zombie originally came from Haiti, and when it comes to Haitian pride, we’re like the dad from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. You gotta let them know!

Maika: Exactly. We’ve come a long way from that original mythology, but in Haiti, a zonbi is a person who has been forced to labor even after death. Essentially, the concept of the zonbi was shaped by slavery and the very real fear that enslaved people had of eternal servitude. Following the 1915–1934 occupation of Haiti by the United States, zonbi lore entered the American cultural consciousness, and Hollywood and Western academia did that thing they do and morphed the zonbi into the zombie, a slow-walking, moaning, groaning, brain-eating monster. I would say we merge both versions in this story, what about you?

Maritza: Yeah, we intentionally decided to make Brielle Haitian American so that we could have her experience being a zonbi and a zombie, the grim and the gross. For example, in Haitian culture, a zonbi is really fast and strong, which makes sense if you have to be efficient at work, so Brielle is too. And she happens to also love eating brains as a nod to her zombie nature. Brielle tries really, really hard to keep it to beef brains so as not to upset her mom, though.

Maika: But she isn’t always successful at holding back those urges....

Maritza: Nope! In fact, we have Brielle make quite a few questionable decisions throughout The Summer I Ate the Rich.

Maika: Absolutely. We wanted readers to look at all the things Brielle does and compare that to the wealthy elites she encounters throughout the story. Brielle is a zonbi, so that explains her dastardly, monstrous ways. But what’s the billionaires’ excuse?

Maritza: Precisely. And we mention in our authors’ note how we were really inspired to write this story because of a convoluted issue with our mom’s health insurance. So that constant beeping that Brielle notices throughout the beginning parts of the story is what we actually heard as a family. That experience really makes you very aware of how messed up our healthcare system is.

Maika: Truly. The fact that you can have a pain pump installed in your body and then it can go unfilled because your health insurance refuses to authorize the treatment was mind-boggling to us all. So we channeled that rage into The Summer I Ate the Rich. Throughout the story, as Brielle gets further enmeshed in the world of the very wealthy elites, she decides to tackle her issues from the inside out and uses her special powers to do so.

Maritza: Honestly, the fact that we have her do this through her supper club is pretty amazing, if I do say so myself.

Maika: Absolutely. We took the first-generation-daughter experience of wanting to follow your dreams, even as it pushes up against the desires of the larger family, and cranked it up by 100. So, yes, you could be a doctor, lawyer, or engineer. Or you could become a celebrity chef and use your zonbi abilities to make the wealthy eat their own, which is fitting since billionaires exist because of their cannibalization of workers’ rights. So who’s the real zombie here?

Maritza: Okay, okay. I’m gonna get you off your soapbox now.

Maika: Please do. You know I can keep going!

Maritza: This has been so much fun. I can’t wait for everyone to meet Brielle and read how her revenge fantasy comes to life.

Maika Moulite: Me too. I hope audiences eat it all up!

Maritza Moulite: Ooh, well done.

The Summer I Ate the Rich by Maika and Maritza Moulite. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $19.99 Apr. 22 ISBN 978-0-374-39053-2