Little Rumours by Bryony Pearce
Writing real monsters
I used to write Young Adult (YA) novels, exclusively. Then I began to write short stories for adults and realised how much fun it was to occasionally write about things that wouldn’t much interest teenagers. So, I started writing novels for adults.
Little Rumours is my second book for adults, The Girl on the Platform (2021) being my first.
All my novels whether for young people or older readers, have strong female characters and are dark and thrilling.
My books for teenagers tend to also contain elements of the paranormal, myths and legends. Even books like Savage Island and Cruel Castle, which is my teen horror duology with only human monsters, has hidden mythological elements.
Monsters are fun to write about and, as a writer, you can use them to explore issues. I’ve written about fallen angels, Nephilim, ghosts, Gods, hell hounds, parallel universes, giant carnivorous worms, zombies, witches and talking cats.
However, I soon realised that the scariest monsters are not witches, zombies and ghosts; they’re people. Good people who do awful things. Or simply bad people whose only interest is ‘what benefits me’.
I’ve been toying with this idea since the beginning, playing with the concept of what makes good people into monsters and the idea of the anti-villain (good people who do bad things), rather than the anti-hero (a bad person who does good things). And the more I’ve written, the more obvious my interest in this topic has become. In Angel’s Fury (my first ever novel) I look at the second world war. Raising Hell, my most recent YA novel, is filled with recognisable monsters, but the real evil in the story comes from the politicians who want to use them for their own agenda. After all, monsters have no choice in the way they act (that’s one of the reasons I chose zombies for the novel – they’re literally brainless and seeking brains). People who know right from wrong, who still make the evil choice - that’s scary.
My books for adults have made the full transition. They are about people, not monsters. Often, otherwise good people, who make the bad choices. Who do the wrong things. They force the reader to ask themselves, what would I do in this situation?
In Little Rumours we are faced with three mothers whose worlds are each turned upside down when the worst possible thing happens and one of their children disappears. What would each mother do to protect their own child? What happens when this is the wrong choice, the bad choice, the evil choice?
And what would you do?
For more information about Bryony and her work, please visit her website www.bryonypearce.co.uk
Follow her on Twitter @Bryonypearce or on Instagram BryonyPearce.
No comments:
Post a Comment