If you can’t get enough of comic book movies, superheroes and Black Girl Magic, Alora Factor is your next read!
Soon to be thirteen-year-old Alora Factor is growing up in the 757 (psst - that’s Hampton Roads for you non-Virginia folk). She’s the latest in her family’s long line of females who fight for social justice with their supernatural powers. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Before Alora gained her powers, her biggest problem was figuring out what dress to wear for her first mixed gender party and navigating a difficult relationship with her mother. She’s got her best friends since preschool by her side: Andrew, a first generation Korean-American boy learning Shamanism from his mother who named his dog Chimmy because he loves K-pop and Andrea, an outspoken Afro-Cuban trans girl who practices Santeria alongside her priestess mother who is just trying to make it through puberty at the moment, thank you.
On the night of Alora’s awakening, her ancestors give her some of the most dangerous powers ever possessed by Factor Females. In fact, the last Factor to possess them accidentally killed herself. Not to mention that her two cousins currently in the field are reporting altercations with jumpers - beings from an unknown realm that are establishing symbiotic relationships with humans. So, on top of learning how to control dangerous powers, Alora must now fight beings from another dimension while keeping the energy of this realm in balance and still find time to just be a teenager.
Did we mention that she’s the only Factor female for more than a generation? Well, that’s another problem that she will eventually have to face. Fortunately her ancestors had the foresight to draft her friends to fight with her and that gives Alora hope. Because if Alora Factor, with her curves, natural hair and ability to manipulate matter can’t save the world alongside her besties, then who can?