Tigest Girma is the debut author of the YA Black vampire trilogy opener Immortal Dark, which hit shelves in September 2024, and immediately rocketed to the top of the bestseller list becoming an instant #1 New York Times bestseller.

The Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma

The Adane family has been intertwined with the immortal and dangerous world of vampires for generations. But Kidan grew up far away from this with no plans to enter a world where humans can only survive and gain power through dangerous and all-encompassing companionship with vampires. But when her sister June goes missing, it is up to Kidan to make her way deeper and deeper into the arcane society where she discovers even more about this world than she could have ever thought, and a centuries-old threat is heading for her and her sister.

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Interview by Karis Rogerson

A few weeks before publication, I had the pleasure of hopping on a Zoom with Tigest, an author of Ethiopian descent who now lives in Australia. We chatted about writing, her debut, and who her favorite character was.

What originally drew you to writing and storytelling?

I always loved books as a child. I had two brothers and they always spent a lot of time together, [so] I would just go into my little corner and read my books to keep myself busy. They wouldn’t let go of the TV when I wanted to watch TV shows or movies.

So my option was books. I remember that very clearly in my childhood brain, I was like, “Okay, what’s another way to get into storytelling? If I can’t watch TV, it’s books.”

That’s the closest thing you can have as a child. So I just spent a lot of time reading by myself and it became sort of an escape from just the day to day loud noises. And I was like, “This is pretty cool. It might even be better than movies. How come no one told me?”

So I just really fell in love with reading as a child. When I became a teenager, I moved a whole continent away [to Australia]. And at that point when everything was going crazy, my outer world was shifting so much, the only thing constant was, again, books. So I went back to that and I was reading a lot of paranormal romance at that age and Twilight and Vampire Academy were taking off, all these vampire shows. And I was like, “Okay, now I feel safe. I feel happy again. I’m going to keep going with this because as long as I have my little books to go to, everything will be fine.”

So that’s what originally just drew me into storytelling. It was a way for me to feel less alone and feel a bit braver as well to go out and you know, take on and seize the day.

Why do you write, specifically, stories for teens and young adults?

It was those teenage years when everything was shifting around my world. And, as I said, paranormal romance gave me that joy of reading. At that point in my life, everything was just so messy, you know? Like high school is hard enough, but when you switch a whole country and a whole new language, it’s just really hard. So I really relied on those books to get me through day to day.

I finished all of the fantasy romance books from my high school library. And I went up to the library and I’m like, “Can I get more?”, [They were] like, “It’s going to take a few weeks.”

And at that point I was like, “Oh, I can’t survive a few weeks without it. So I’m going to start writing my own.”

I just constantly needed another world to escape to. So that’s when I actually started writing. I would get on Wattpad. And I would write, I would write a chapter here and there. And on Wattpad it was great because it was just so many books, it would never end. And my fear was that it would end, that’s always my fear.

But here it is online, you know, go crazy. So I would just keep going on that website and I would get courage to post my own chapters. And it would just, yeah, organically happen from then.

What stories and pieces of media influenced Immortal Dark?

Definitely shows as well, or movies. I’m also a big fan of those mediums, as well as anime. I love a good anime.

I think a lot of different forms of storytelling really appeal to me. With shows specifically, The Vampire Diaries. Of course, the CW shows like The 100. Oh, I loved Bellamy Blake. Oh God, yes. And How to Get Away With Murder.

And that’s a bunch of law students at a college trying to learn about how to get away with murder, which is, you know, a similar [concept to Immortal Dark]. And because of my book as well, there’s a found family trope where, they run around doing corrupt things. Definitely that actually influenced me, thinking about it.

And movies as well. Black Panther had a huge impact on how I grew more confident to only write about, about a Black cast, a wholly Black cast. That was the first time I realized I could even do such a thing. I was like, that’s so unapologetically Black and beautiful. I remember walking out of that cinema and I was like, oh my goodness, that’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. And it was set in Africa, where I’m from as well. So I’m like, “If I can write fantasy, I’m going to bring pieces of my culture into it as much as I can and mix it with some of the interesting lores I grew up reading. So vampires, what if they originated from Africa?”

So a lot of influences really shaped the book, if you think about it.

What is your favorite thing about Immortal Dark?

I do love that it is the first time that I am seeing a Black girl be the object of desire and nightmare for the vampire.

She’s, you know, gonna be loved or protected or even argued with. She’s just the center of the story. I really love that. That he would find her beautiful and because, obviously, immortal creatures are these stunning beautiful creatures and to have such a creature find you desirable is very beautiful and I haven’t seen that.

I haven’t seen any Ethiopian girl be the center of that love. So I’m really excited for that. I am also excited for the romance. Enemies-to-lovers is my favorite trope. I grew up on that. And Susenyos, the vampire, he has such interesting lines of dialogue. I had fun writing him.

Trying to get into his … he’s not old … I would say more like he’s lived longer, so he has knowledge of the world. So sometimes he sees through things really easily. So tapping into his dialogue was really fun for me as a writer. And sometimes I would even write in a different font whenever I have his dialogue, so I can tap into him as a vampire.

So I’m really excited for readers and I also had fun writing his character. He’s such a mysterious dark character. So definitely those two things are my favorite things.

What is something about Immortal Dark that might surprise readers?

I have been getting earlier reviews and comments saying people are surprised by how dark and violent it is. But it’s in the title!

And I think it’s because we have a heroine, Kidan, she starts off the page already having killed someone. The book opens up with her in a dark apartment by herself, plotting out how to find Uxlay University where her sister has been kidnapped to. So her head is very not in a great space. And that tone carries throughout the first half of the book and people find it a bit like, “Oh my God, this girl is not doing well.”

And that is actually the point. She’s not, she’s killed someone and she’s struggling with accepting that dark part of herself. And then she attends this university where she’s challenged by all these students running around, friends she makes, and Susenyos who keeps, you know, trying to pull her out of the dark space she’s in. So a lot of people are surprised that it’s quite violent and gloomy, but I hope you stick with it because, you know, that’s the beginning of an arc.

And by the end, they say [they] really loved her, but at the beginning, people are like, “Oh, I don’t know about this. I don’t want to relate to her,” and you shouldn’t relate to her at the beginning, but you should empathize.

What has been the most challenging thing about the process of publishing your writing?

I think for a long time it was even getting an agent. I had two books that I tried to get an agent with before Immortal Dark and both of them didn’t work.

[My second book went on] submission to the agents as well. And they would keep saying they couldn’t relate to the story. And I was like, “What is wrong with it?”

And that book was heavily set in East Africa, heavily inspired by Black Panther, those trials and tournaments. And I got disheartened at that point. I thought, maybe diverse stories are not really ready yet, you know? They might be in a few years, but at this point, the publishing world doesn’t really want to acquire a lot. So I put that book aside, and then I started working on Immortal Dark. And again, with this one, I was so nervous of making my whole cast Black and African, but that’s the only way I’m going to do it. I don’t care if it works or not. I’m going to keep trying to publish my book this way. And I think it worked out really well. I got lucky with that.

And I also used TikTok and Twitter to keep teasing my book while I was writing it. So definitely proving to myself and the potential agents or editors watching [that] these stories will sell. So that’s the way I kind of broke out of that challenging part of publishing where it was just rejection after rejection. I had to use TikTok and Twitter to prove there was interest.

Were there any positive surprises along your journey to publication?

Definitely the community online. I had no idea when I was posting those teasers of Immortal Dark [what] the love of the community online [would be]. That just gives you so much confidence as a writer because you don’t know what you’re doing at that point.

You’re really looking for a lot of validation because you’re like, “I just need someone to tell me that I could do this huge thing I’m aiming for,” and the likes and the comments really helps you get down the pages at that early stage.

It helped me not conceal any parts of myself. I was putting everyone, anything I wanted to, [in the book] because it gives you freedom. So it became truly mine in that sense.

And there’s hope. You’re like, “there is an audience for this, no matter whether I go publishing traditionally or self, the book will find its people.”

Once you have that belief that there’s an audience, who’s going to stop you?

Can you recommend 1-3 books you’ve read and loved lately?

The first one is Sing Me to Sleep by Gabby Burton. It is a YA fantasy book about a siren that has the urge to kill. (Can you tell that I like girls that kill in books?) She has this deep bloodthirst inside of her. And she’s trying to control that. She hates the kingdom and the crown prince, but of course, she becomes the bodyguard of the crown prince. It’s very fun.

Another one I read recently, I think everyone’s read this, but Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross, [in which] two journalists find love through a magical typewriter. The idea of it is just so unique that it swept me up into the romance.

The third one would be Seven Days in June [by Tia Williams]. This is an adult romance about two authors that have an interesting past. So 15 years ago, they met as teenagers. They had seven days in June to fall in love. They did a lot of fun stuff. And then they didn’t talk again for 15 years. Then they reunite as authors at a convention. And they still share this chemistry. I really loved it, it was such a beautiful read.

Is there anything else I should have asked?

Maybe ‘who is my favorite character to write?’ but I feel like I already sort of answered it. I’m going to answer it again. I say Susenyos again, because he came to me two, three years ago now, it was just dialogues. He would say interesting, creepy dialogue. So one of the dialogues that came to me was, he says, “You have such vile expectations of me. I look forward to proving them true.” That’s the first thing that he said. And I’m like … “Who are you, sir? Where did you come from?”

I truly loved writing his dialogue because this guy is so mysterious and cool. I want to know more about him.

More About Tigest Girma

Tigest Girma was born in Ethiopia and grew up with her two brothers and parents, and now lives in Melbourne, Australia. After graduating with a Bachelor’s in Education, she splits her time between teaching and writing beautiful narratives inspired by Ethiopian culture and fables, with a few added dark twists. She loves to spend her free time curled up on the couch watching her favorite comfort shows, ideally with an enemies-to-lovers trope where the villain gets the girl.