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Book Launch: Shaken Free with Author Ilana DeBare

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Thursday, June 5, 2025 - 7:00 pm | Cost: FREE
Faction Brewing | 2501 Monarch St., Alameda, CA

Event Details

Enjoy a devilishly fun reading by author Ilana DeBare, celebrating the release of Shaken Free, her new novel set in Hell. (And in Heaven and in … Mill Valley!?)  Ilana will read a selection from Shaken Free and join in conversation with Berkeley write Monica Wesolowska. Signed copies and hellish/heavenly snacks available. You’ll even have an opportunity to take a selfie in the afterlife!

To ensure a copy, we encourage you to pre-order Shaken Free online from A Great Good Place for Books and pick up your book at the launch. Come early to buy dinner from the on-site food truck while enjoying amazing views of San Francisco from Faction’s patio.

Shaken Free is a sequel to Shaken Loose, Ilana’s debut novel that was published in 2023. Here’s what it’s about:

She went to Hell and returned to life. Hell was the easy part.

Annie Maple died, went to Hell, then escaped back to Earth through a mysterious portal. But amidst her gratitude, she is painfully alone. No one believes her story of visiting the afterlife. When unexpected tragedy strikes, Annie returns to Hell with old and new allies—the Hun horseman Trua whom she loves, the fumbling revolutionary Haisheng, and Kezia, a devout Christian widow with losses of her own. As Annie learns that the systemic ruptures in Hell go far beyond her own “shaking loose,” she embarks on a quest to protect earthly life and answer the question: how can a supposedly just God permit a universe with so much injustice?

ABOUT ILANA AND MONICA

Ilana DeBare, a former San Francisco Chronicle reporter and communications director for Golden Gate Bird Alliance, was one of the co-founders of the Julia Morgan School for Girls. Publishers Weekly compared her 2023 novel Shaken Loose to the TV show The Good Place, saying “Not a word is wasted in DeBare’s intense and challenging… debut about a college dropout navigating a decaying Christian hell in search of redemption and justice.” Ilana lives in Oakland.
Monica Wesolowska, who writes for both adults and children, is author of the memoir Holding Silvan: A Brief Life and two children’s picture books, Leo + Lea and Elbert in the Air. A longtime editor and a teacher of creative writing at Stanford Continuing Studies and elsewhere, she lives in Berkeley.

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.


Cost: FREE
Categories: In Person, Literature
Address: 2501 Monarch St., Alameda, CA