I was feeling separated and deprived of this world that had meant so much to me-not the world at large but the world of live music. The story as it exists now, though, came together through a confluence of events: I wrote the book during the pandemic. The first one is the much less sexy answer, which is that my publisher gave me carte blanche for my second book, and I knew that I wanted to spend a year or two writing and talking about something that is incredibly important to me, which is the influence of live music on self-discovery. What inspired you to write Rise to the Sun? Bitch spoke to Johnson about messy Black girls, how live music creates a bond of its own, and how to move through grief.
The novel does what Johnson does best-exploring the ways all relationships (familial, romantic, platonic) shape us and our decisions. It’s about forgiving ourselves for mistakes, shedding the idea of perfection, and finding love in spite of (or because of). Rise to the Sun is about the different ways we grieve, the different ways we figure out how to be together, and the different paths we decide to take. When circumstances force them to work together, they realize they need each other, and music, more than they thought. Toni is one week away from college and reckoning with the loss of her musician-turned-roadie father, in hopes that the festival guides her like it used to guide her dad. Olivia, who just experienced a tragic breakup and is now an outcast at her school, flees to Farmland with her best friend to forget it all. But Leah Johnson, bestselling author of You Should See Me in a Crown, imagined and wrote Rise to the Sun, her second novel, which is set at the Farmland Music and Arts Festival.
Some of us forgot what it was like to hug one another or see our families and friends, and unfortunately, that’s still a reality for many of us. For more than a year, we were unable to safely spend time near others.
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