Ibi Zoboi The Fire In Your Sky

“The Fire in Your Sky”, a short story by Ibi Zoboi, is a horror mystery based on Haitian mythological traditions. In the story, a Chupacabra, a folklore creature that feeds on souls, and her daughter migrate to New York disguised as a human single mother (Zoboi, n.d.). My favorite character is Lourdes, the protagonist who is a Chupacabra (Zobio, n.d.).
I like Lourdes because she is a complex character. She is not a malevolent spirit obsessed with sucking people’s souls (Zoboi, n.d.). Nor is she an altruistic being who tries to overcome her nature and refrains from hurting humans. She clearly enjoyed satiating her “hunger”, as seen when she sucked her brother-in-law’s soul (Zoboi, n.d.).
Her primary purpose is to teach her daughter to survive and maintain her immortality (Zoboi, n.d). However, she is also an individual with her own desires, and her aversion to permanent settlement makes them move around even when there is no risk of persecution by people who suspect them of being chupacabras (Zoboi, n.d.). This makes her an interesting mother as well. The fact that Lourdes is not a stereotypical mother who selflessly devotes her entire life to her children makes her
She is well aware of the socioeconomic realities of people in the places she has stayed (Zoboi, n.d.). The way she describes the souls that she targeted, “cursed souls born to bodies with hungry mouths and weary, overworked mothers and bandit fathers who shirk blame like thieves”, shows her understanding of people who suffer (Zoboi, n.d., para. 5). The role identity plays in her life is also interesting. In her statement that “one innocuous Haitian immigrant woman paid the heavy price” when she sucked souls in a wealthy neighborhood in the Dominican Republic, there is almost a tinge of sympathy (Zoboi, n.d., para. 5). This adds an emotional depth to Lourdes in addition to her already complex