The Pledge Tour: Charlaina Character Interview

1. When did you first realize that you could understand languages not of your class?

For as long as I can remember, I just sort of understood everything. I remember standing in the marketplace with my parents—I must have been younger than Angelina then—when a woman starting shouting at my father that I was supposed to look away because she’d been speaking in her class tongue, which wasn’t my own. I had no idea what she was talking about because I’d understood her perfectly.

It was the first time I realized that I was breaking the rules.


2. When did you first meet Aron and Brooklynn?

Again, I don’t remember not knowing them. We grew up in the same neighborhood, and even before we were old enough to go to school, we were playing together all the time.

3. How does Max make you feel?

At first, I was just very curious to find out who he was. But the moment I’d heard his friends speaking in that strange, foreign language, I knew I had to be cautious. Ultimately, though, Max proved that I could trust him, and now I can’t imagine my life without him.



4. Before the book began, what were your thoughts on the Queen?

Well, she was my queen, I both feared and respected her.

5. Can you tell us something about yourself that we don't know from reading the book?

Apparently, I’m afraid of horses. I didn’t realize it either until recently.

The Pledge by Kimberly Derting
Simon & Schuster

In the violent country of Ludania, the classes are strictly divided by the language they speak. The smallest transgression, like looking a member of a higher class in the eye while they are speaking their native tongue, results in immediate execution. Seventeen-year-old Charlaina has always been able to understand the languages of all classes, and she's spent her life trying to hide her secret. The only place she can really be free is the drug-fueled underground clubs where people go to shake off the oppressive rules of the world they live in. It's there that she meets a beautiful and mysterious boy named Max who speaks a language she's never heard before . . . and her secret is almost exposed.

Charlie is intensely attracted to Max, even though she can't be sure where his real loyalties lie. As the emergency drills give way to real crisis and the violence escalates, it becomes clear that Charlie is the key to something much bigger: her country's only chance for freedom from the terrible power of a deadly regime.