As promised in yesterday’s review, I’ve got a nice little treat for you today… Please help me (and Bella) warmly welcome YA Author, Holly Schindler, to our little corner of the interwebs with her fun interview!
Were there times when you were writing FERAL that you found yourself afraid of unexpected noises, or checking over your shoulder for stray cats or creatures lurking near the edge of the woods?
Itās funnyāI didnāt.Ā But my experience with FERAL is quite different than my readersā.Ā Anyone who picks up the book dives straight into full-blown creepiness (think jumping cannonball style into an ice-cold swimming pool).Ā For me, the creepiness was more gradual (think edging your way into chilly water slowly, bit by bit).
The book actually started out as an MG mystery, believe it or not.Ā (When I started revising, the book started getting darker and drifting away from MGāuntil I felt sure it actually needed to be a YA.)Ā The MG version was about a girl looking into a cold caseāthat cold case eventually turned into the far more recent death of Serena Sims as it appears in FERAL.Ā The death always took place at school, and it always revolved around a ācheatingā clue (though ācheatingā took on a different meaning when it became YA), and the manner of Serenaās death was always the same.
Once I knew I was going to bump the book up to YA, my main character didnāt work.Ā (Bumping a book into a different age group SOUNDS simple enoughābut oh, boy!Ā It results in a complete and total overhaul.Ā Trust me.)Ā So I had to brainstorm a new seventeen-year-old protagonist.Ā Thatās when I discovered that Claire was the victim of a gang beatingāthat discovery made me realize the theme would be recovering from violence, and that the genre would be psychological thriller instead of straight mystery (or even horror, as Iād suspected it might be as I started to revise).
I was actually continuing to darken the details all the way through the bookās development once it was acquired at HarperCollinsā¦
I do have a loose idea for a straight teen horror novel, and itāll be interesting to see how it feels to do the cannonball dive into dark, creepy material.
I am a shameless cat lady and I was genuinely spooked by my little mews, purring contentedly beside me while I read. Where did the idea of these menacing, are-they-or-are-they-not-supernaturally-evil-felines come from?
Iām actually an animal person myself.Ā Iāve only spent three of my 37 years without an animal of some sort.Ā I grew up with two cats I loved to piecesāTuffy, as her name suggests, was born feral.Ā The creepy use of cats in the book has nothing to do with what I think of cats in general.Ā Iād love to have anotherāright now, Iāve got the worldās most spoiled Pekingese.Ā Heās definitely an only child.Ā Iām not exactly sure what heād do if I brought another animal into the house, but my suspicion is that carnage would ensue.
When the book was an MG, I knew I wanted the victimās corpse in the cold case to be torn apart by Missouri wildlife.Ā In the original draft, it simply kept the police from accurately pinpointing the manner of death (as it also does in the final version).
Once I started to move the book toward YA (and the murder became recent rather than a cold case), I knew I wanted the cats to play a bigger role.Ā So much of Peculiar is a mirror-image of the Chicago, reminding Claire of the horrific beatingāthose cats are a kind of gang, too, just like the human gang that trailed Claire in Chicago.Ā And Sweet Pea specifically also becomes the vehicle to depict how Claire feels about herself post-beating.
The atmosphere was so beautifully handled and consistent throughout the entire book. You really transported the reader to this small Missouri town and brought it to life, just as if it were a movie unfolding on the big screen. Did you have any audio or visual aides you used while creating the haunted atmosphere of Peculiar, Missouri?
I appreciate thatāI think, when youāre writing something thatās a bit more dramatic, plays out scenically rather than internally, hearing that your book unfolding like a movie is one of the best compliments you can receive!
Mostly, I was using my own surroundings.Ā Iām a lifelong Missouri gal, and I live in Springfield, which is an even mix of urban and rural.Ā Itās a medium-sized city (third largest in the state) with three universities; I live in a city-style neighborhood, but the end of my neighborhood is marked by a field surrounded with barbed wire.Ā Barns, hay bales, horses, cowsāyou can see all that, less than two minutes from my house.
My hometown also got really hammered by a couple of ice stormsāone in ā07 and one in ā08.Ā Those storms made a big impact on meāIāll never forget the frightening sounds of tree limbs snapping and transformers sparking and not knowing if or when the power would get back onā¦
I mentioned before that FERAL is a psychological thriller.Ā It really follows so many classic conventions of the genre: Hitchcockian pace, attention to the main characterās psycheāeven those feral cats are a nod to Hitchcockās THE BIRDS.Ā Psychological thrillers also frequently use water as a metaphor for the subconscious (the shower scene in PSYCHO, much of WHAT LIES BENEATH).Ā The ice storm is also making use of the water metaphorāhere, it symbolizes Claireās frozen inner state, her inability to move on after a violent attack.
Who were some of your favorite authors growing up, and did any of their stories or styles help you with the crafting of this novel?
I mostly read contemporary realism.Ā Iām a child of the ā80s, so you can picture me in a perm and giant glasses, combing the library for Judy Blume books.Ā I stumbled on a Christopher Pike book in junior highāFALL INTO DARKNESSāand I fell in love.Ā Iād read a few mysteries before, of course, but this was the first adventure-driven book Iād read.Ā There was something so compelling about itā¦I wound up reading every Pike book I could get my hands on after that.Ā It made a big impact, thatās for sure.
In the spirit of Halloween, and the scary thrill-ride that is FERAL, whatās something that terrifies you now? Or even something that scared you as a kid?
Heights.Ā Iām terrible with heights.Ā Probably because my vision absolutely stinksā20/700.Ā Yeah.Ā I know.Ā The silliest thing that makes my skin crawl?Ā Slugs.Ā Slugs drive me crazy.
Whatās a fun fact that no one knows about FERAL?
Itās kind of a fun fact about me as a writerā¦If I want to completely turn off my inner critic, I take my glasses off while I draft.Ā My eyesightās so crummy, I canāt see the screen.Ā If I canāt see the screen, I canāt get nitpicky.Ā Itās cool when a āweaknessā turns out to be a blessing in disguise, isnāt it?
Holly Schindler is the author of the critically acclaimed A BLUE SO DARK (Booklist starred review, ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year silver medal recipient, IPPY Awards gold medal recipient) as well as PLAYING HURT (both YAs).
Her debut MG, THE JUNCTION OF SUNSHINE AND LUCKY, also released in ā14, and became a favorite of teachers and librarians, who used the book as a read-aloud.Ā Kirkus Reviews called THE JUNCTION ā…a heartwarming and uplifting story…[that] shines…with vibrant themes of community, self-empowerment and artistic vision delivered with a satisfying verve.ā
FERAL is Schindlerās third YA and first psychological thriller.Ā Publishers Weekly gave FERAL a starred review, stating, āOpening with back-to-back scenes of exquisitely imagined yet very real horror, Schindlerās third YA novel hearkens to the uncompromising demands of her debut, A BLUE SO DARKā¦This time, the focus is on womenās voices and the consequences they suffer for speakingā¦This is a story about reclaiming and healing, a process that is scary, imperfect, and carries no guarantees.ā
Keep up with Holly online:
FERAL jacket copy:
The Lovely Bones meets Black Swan in this haunting psychological thriller with twists and turns that will make you question everything you think you know.
Itās too late for you. Youāre dead. Those words continue to haunt Claire Cain months after she barely survived a brutal beating in Chicago. So when her father is offered a job in another state, Claire is hopeful that getting out will offer her a way to start anew.
But when she arrives in Peculiar, Missouri, Claire feels an overwhelming sense of danger, and her fears are confirmed when she discovers the body of a popular high school student in the icy woods behind the school, surrounded by the townās feral cats. While everyone is quick to say it was an accident, Claire knows thereās more to it, and vows to learn the truth about what happened.
But the closer she gets to uncovering the mystery, the closer she also gets to realizing a frightening reality about herself and the damage she truly sustained in that Chicago alleyā¦.
Holly Schindlerās gripping story is filled with heart-stopping twists and turns that will keep readers guessing until the very last page.
Interested in watching the book trailer? Check out the link by clicking H E R E.