It’s my absolute pleasure to welcome Kim Smejkal to the blog today to stay in with me and to tell me all about her latest young adult novel. My huge thanks to Vicki Berwick at Pushkin Press for putting us in touch with one another.
Let’s see what Kim had to say:
Staying in with Kim Smejkal
Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag, Kim and thank you for agreeing to stay in with me.
Tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it?
The Dandelion Riots is my latest young adult fantasy and I brought it because it holds a special place in my heart. I’ve always loved classic fairy tales—full of curses, evil sorceresses, and the magic of true love’s kiss—but I wanted The Dandelion Riots to be fresh, exciting, and unexpected. I had a lot of funflipping familiar tropes upside-down!
That sounds great. What can we expect from an evening in with The Dandelion Riots?
The Dandelion Riots is about forming community and fighting back against injustice and hate.
That sounds like something we could do with in the real world Kim, never mind fantasy fiction!
In this world, some girls are cursed at birth by powerful witches as preemptive punishment for future misdeeds. These cursed girls are the dregs of society: shunned, feared, and often hunted.
That doesn’t sound fair at all. Do they deserve the curse?
They are frightening and dangerous, it’s true! But they’re born innocent, and then they’re vilified. They become the scapegoat so everyone spends time fighting against them instead of the true villains…
Interesting. Tell me more about the curses.
As an aside, crafting the various “flavours” of curses was one of my favourite parts about writing this book! The curses can take many forms, and some examples include transforming food into dust, ruling armies of cockroaches, bringing plague and pestilence, and, in some cases, unintentional murder.
And what about your protagonist?
The main character, Drinn, is a naïve and kind-hearted girl who’s been hidden away her entire life for a very good reason: her curse is the most powerful of them all. When Drinn discovers the nature of her curse, she is stunned: “The destruction I was destined to cause was unfathomable.”
So her life seems inevitable – is that how it pans out for her?
Despite what everyone tells her, Drinn refuses to accept this fate. Instead, she rallies other cursed girls to her side and vows to fight back against both the witches who cursed them, and the world that hates them.
These girls sound like great role models.
The Dandelion Riots celebrates the strength of girls, friendship, compassion, and community. These girls show us that there is power in the riot, there is hope in the fight.
I think The Dandelion Riots sounds very pertinent to today’s society. How is the book being received?
We’ve gotten some encouraging feedback from early readers that the messages in The Dandelion Riots are resonating. One bookseller had this to say: “This story rockets along and is full of amazing characters that all make an impression, bringing surprises at every turn. An empowering story of people sticking together no matter the odds, even when everything appears broken. I loved every word.”
That’s brilliant. You must be thrilled. And what else have you brought along and why have you brought it?
I brought along a bouquet of fresh, spring dandelions for you! (I bet you’ve never received weeds before…)
Er… I’m not so sure about that! But why dandelions?
Dandelions are important in the book for a number of reasons. First of all, our main character, Drinn, lives with an unfortunate side-effect from her curse: dandelions sprout out of her neck when she’s anxious. They tangle in her hair, scar the nape of her neck, and make it quite difficult to hide the fact that she’s cursed.
That explains the cover image – it fits perfectly.
The cursed girls adopt the dandelion as their symbol. It’s a persistent weed, able to grow and thrive in neglected soil and abandoned spaces. Many people hate them and spend a lot of time and effort trying to get rid of them.
I confess I have tried to eliminate them from my lawn. Maybe I need a rethink…
But the dandelion is also one of the first flowers to bloom in spring: a beautiful sunshine-yellow. You can eat the greens, make wine or tea or jelly (dandelion jelly doesn’t just look like sunshine, it tastes like sunshine too!) And when the blooms are spent, we blow on the seed heads and make wishes, sending them off on new adventures.
I’m definitely seeing them differently now.
I really hope you like your dandelion bouquet, and hopefully you’ll look at the yellow flowers and serrated green leaves and see beauty instead of nuisance!
I will indeed Kin. Thank you so much for staying in with me to chat about The Dandelion Riots. I’m delighted to have a copy waiting for me on my TBR. I think you should make us a dandelion tea and I‘ll give readers a few more details about the book.
The Dandelion Riots
A breathtaking queer fantasy in which girls are cursed at birth with terrible powers.
She believed I was meek and unassuming, because for sixteen years, that was all I’d ever been…
Cursed at birth, 16-year-old Drinn has been kept away from everyone – moved from house to house to ensure that she never finds love. But this year, she has decided to break free.
Fleeing, Drinn finds herself in Oblison, surrounded by others just like her – cursed girls whose lives are dangerous and wild. They vow to free themselves once and for all. But rebellion is dangerous, and if Drinn finds love before the curse can be broken, a terrible fate could befall them all…
The Dandelion Riots is out in the UK on March 13, 2025 from Pushkin Press, and in Canada and the US on September 30, 2025. You can pre-order The Dandelion Riots through the Pushkin website, from Bookshop.org, Waterstones and Amazon.
About Kim Smejkal
Kim Smejkal writes fantasy for young adults and not-so-young adults, always with a touch of magic. Her books include The Dandelion Riots, Ink in the Blood, and Curse of the Divine. When she’s not writing, she’s often lost in the woods, wandering a beach, or puttering around in her garden, and she currently lives on Vancouver Island in Canada with her family and anxious dog, Pigeon.
For further information about Kim, visit her website or find her on Instagram and Threads.
English (US) · 