DIVAH
The author of the wildly successful trilogy Poisons of Caux series aimed at ‘tweens, Appelbaum’s newest novel Divah is set to grab the Young Adult market with a dark, funny, clever and glamorous take on the epic battle of ages between good and evil, with a doomed love story at its core.
The plot is truly intoxicating: Seventeen-year-old Itzy Nash is spending the summer at the exclusive Carlyle Hotel in New York. But the hotel harbors more than the rich and privileged; it is host to a gorgeous fallen angel, reclusive movie stars and demons of the worst sort.
When the Queen of the Damned checks in, all Hell breaks loose. Itzy is called upon to save herself – and all of humanity – from the ravages of the Underworld. There’s only one problem: Itzy’s possessed.
Part gothic thriller, part historical fiction, the novel straddles the lush trappings of the Upper East Side as well as Paris, circa the Reign of Terror 1789. Marie Antoinette is the Queen of the Damned. Marilyn Monroe is an expert demon hunter. And in order to kill a demon, Hermés scarves, Evian water (holy water) and a guillotine are the weapons of choice.
Divah was born, in part, from Appelbaum’s own life experiences; she lived at The Carlyle Hotel for a time and spent many years abroad in both Paris and rural France, modeling and attending high school, respectively. As it pertains to her craft, the author said she is intrigued by taking “real world elements” and turning them on their head. “The Carlyle is on par with The Ritz in Paris. It’s the lap of luxury, with the best service and literally the smell of money in the air. It was fun to transform this beautiful locale into the entry to the gates of Hell. This is one of the reasons that the realm of fantasy writing is so appealing to me. I can connect one universe with another, tapping into what is real with what lives in my imagination.”
