Content Warning: This section discusses racial prejudice and enslavement.

The Marvellers is set in a magical realm that invites comparisons to the Harry Potter heptalogy. The Potter books are set in England with a largely Caucasian cast of characters. Most of the magic and mythology in the novels is drawn from European folklore. In contrast, The Marvellers uses a globally diverse cast and draws much of its magical lore from Africa. While intolerance and prejudice are depicted in the novel, these reactions are not racially motivated. Marvellers look down on Conjurors as inferior magicians and don’t want to associate with them, but there are many non-white Marvellers in the book who exhibit prejudice against Conjurors.

That said, the author takes inspiration for her Conjuror lore from the folk religion of the approximately 11 million Africans transported to the islands in the Caribbean and the Americas during 400 years of the transatlantic slave trade. These beliefs took multiple forms, such as hoodoo, voodoo, conjuring, Santeria, root work, and other variations.

Because Ella’s family lives in New Orleans, Clayton reflects the city’s historical interweaving of Voodoo and Catholicism in the novel’s lore. Voodoo existed as a covert practice in New Orleans because of the legal ban on the practicing of religions other than Catholicism for the African population.