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TWENTY QUESTIONS WITH PEADAR Ó GUILÍN:LET’S HEAD TO THE LAND OF THE SÍDHE AND THE BRUTAL WORLD OF ‘THE CALL’ DUOLOGY

26/3/2018

BY TONY JONES

TWENTY QUESTIONS WITH PEADAR Ó GUILÍN:LET’S HEAD TO THE LAND OF THE SÍDHE AND THE BRUTAL WORLD OF ‘THE CALL’ DUOLOGY Picture

Today we have an in-depth interview with Peadar Ó Guilín who in 2016 wrote one of the most outstanding fantasy/horror YA novels of the last few years ‘The Call’ which in the time since it was published has steadily begun to pick up momentum through word of mouth praise. It was also Long Listed for the prestigious Carnegie Medal book prize, this is very high praise, as genre fiction rarely does well in this competition. In the last couple of weeks, the highly anticipated sequel ‘The Call 2: The Invasion’ was released and having read both books it may be one of the rare occasions when a sequel truly tops the original. Both books are set in a version of Ireland where children aged between the age of 12-18 are ripped out of time for 3 minutes and 4 seconds and magically reappear in ‘The Grey Lands’, the exiled home of an ancient race from Irish mythology, the Sídhe. What happens to them there is pretty nasty, but we won’t ruin the surprise. Let’s find out more from Peadar….

GNoH: Irish mythology is at the heart of both novels, would an Irish teenage reader be
familiar with the legends of Sídhe and specific gods like ‘Dagda’? Do you think these old
legends been usurped by Disney princesses? I asked my fourteen-year- old Irish niece who
lives near Cork and she knew very little?

Peadar: Irish kids do learn traditional legends, but a lot of the stuff I used in ‘The Call’ is more obscure. Some of it comes from dying superstitions, some from storytellers or academic studies. There are also large parts that I made up in order to score a political point that nobody will notice. But I amuse myself any way I can.

GNoH: Nessa, who dominates both books, is one of the pluckiest teen characters I have
come across in years. Forget Katniss from ‘The Hunger Games’, this spunky fourteen is the
absolute real deal and you put her through the emotional and physical roller-coaster in both
books, maybe more so in the second. Could you give us some insight into how you came up with such an amazing young woman?

Peadar: I am always interested in people that others discount. The supposed no-hopers who won’t accept the role that society has prepared for them. Nessa is one of those. I remember seeing a line from the Bible about the end of the world, and what a terrible time it would be for the mothers of young children. Most people want to escape the apocalypse. This includes not just the mothers of young children, but also people in wheelchairs. Are they just going to lie there and wait for the zombies? I don’t think so.

GNoH: In both novels the Sídhe enter Ireland through these mounds in the earth, known as
‘fairy mounds’ which are common in Ireland. Obviously as a child you had a very fertile
imagination, did you live near one or visit one as a kid?

Peadar: I did have a pretty vivid imagination, all right! At least, I like to think I did. But sadly, although I was chased through fields by more than one farmer, I spent most of my life in a town and only experienced the Sídhe through books.

GNoH: Would we be right in saying you have a day job working in computing, but are also
skilled somewhat in languages?

Peadar: I do work with computers. I love languages and can speak Irish, Italian and French. I also have a smattering of other tongues.

GNoH: I read you’ve always been interested in writing. Which authors have been pivotal in
your personal development as a writer?

Peadar: Robert Graves, Tolkien and Tanith Lee were all big for me. The first produced my favourite character in the ‘Emperor Claudius’. The second filled my imagination to bursting point. And the third, Tanith Lee -- particularly in ‘Silver Metal Lover’ - did the same for my emotions.

GNoH: Your version of the faerie folk, or the Sídhe, is particularly violent, this race live,
breathe and take great joy in inflicting pain. Is your vision of this race inspired by anything
specific or did you just want to make them as nasty as possible to fuel the novels?

Peadar: Their cruelty had to be proportionate to the suffering that we, the Irish, had caused them, and were still causing them. They are in the ‘Grey Lands’ forever, while we live in what should have been their paradise. They are entitled to be vicious.

GNoH: Which YA authors, not necessarily horror do you read? You share the same homeland as true giants Darren Shan, Eion Colfer and John Connolly after all…

Peadar: Ireland is crawling with writers, of course and I try to keep up with them all. Recent scary stuff I’ve read has come from Deirdre Sullivan, Celine Kiernan and Ruth Frances Long. Meanwhile, the non-Irish Martin Stewart has just written a horror called ‘The Sacrifice Box’ that I’m keen to get my hands on.

GNoH: Your fiction is a fine balance of dark fantasy branching into horror, tell us which adult
writers really give you a kick, I’m guessing you read both genres?

Peadar: Lots of the writers I most admire span the very same two genres. George R. R. Martin, N. K. Jemisin and R. Scott Bakker have all ploughed that particular furrow very well.

GNoH: My twelve-year- old daughter is a particularly fussy reader but devoured ‘The Call’ in
three days loving it, however, upon completion her immediate reaction was “Daddy, Nessa
should have been called earlier!” Would you care to comment [I don’t agree by the way]?

Peadar: I’m delighted she read it and I acknowledge that she has a good point. But narratively, I don’t think it could have worked. Also, in the logic of the world, Nessa might have had to wait until she was 17 to be Called, so, it wasn’t that late.

GNoH: Dystopian literature has been riding a wave of success in YA for over ten years now,
‘The Call’ has many dystopian hallmarks, but the mythology twist takes it into a much
fresher direction. Did you intentionally write a novel which was crossing into several genres?
Most YA literature is usually very easy to pigeonhole ‘The Call’ novels are most definitely
Not….

Peadar: Honestly, all I did was follow the logic of the initial premise. I don’t think there’s any point in classifying a book even as you’re writing it. You’ll just be second-guessing yourself the whole way through instead of creating the strongest possible story.

GnoH: Ginger Nuts of Horror gives YA horror must wider coverage than anywhere else on
the web, but in recent times we’re struggling to find good new stuff to read. What’s your
take on the current state of the YA horror market? Also, there has been fresh interest (and
republishing) of vintage Point Horror novels… Personally I don’t think this reflects well on
the current state of YA horror as I don’t think they’ve aged well… Any thoughts?

Peadar: You and your readers would know far more about this than I! I don’t deliberately go looking for horror. I’ll pick up whatever seems interesting and sometimes it will be a chiller like Nick Cutter’s ‘The Troop’, which I read a few weeks ago, or a non-fiction book or a historical novel. As a result, I am the last person to realise if a particular genre is suffering from a lack of publishers’ attention.

GNoH: Nessa may be the driving force of both novels, but lots of other characters also have
voices, were you ever tempted to tell part of the story from a Sídhe POV?

Peadar: No, never. They are quite insane, and I would be afraid that I wouldn’t do them justice.

GNoH: Superb pacing is key to the success of both novels (no matter what my daughter
says), especially the way you gradually reveal what a desperate mess Ireland is in. For
example, we find out very slowly: there has been no change of government for 25 years,
disabled children are offered poison as an alternative to The Call, or the fact that there is
now only one surviving radio station in Ireland. Could you give us any tips on how you went
about creating such a vividly drawn version of Ireland devastated by The Call? Your ‘world
building’ is truly superb.

Peadar: Thank you! I usually use an extrapolation worldbuilding technique. In other words, I start out with a premise, i.e., the existence of fire-breathing dragons, and from then on, every detail I add must make sense. For example, all villages are built underground. Humans evolve asbestos skin etc.

GNoH: The endnotes of ‘The Call 2’ imply that a sequel was not always on the cards? Did I
read that right? As duologies go it’s near perfect, with one of the best YA sequels I have read
in a long-time. Surely ‘The Call 2: The Invasion’ was not an after-thought?

Peadar: Oh, I always hoped there’d be a sequel and I knew if I wrote one, it would involve an invasion. But other than that, not a single plot-point of the sequel was imagined until the first book was already complete.

GNoH: As YA goes both books are very violent, book 2 perhaps more so, there is a lot of
bloody body-horror with poor unfortunates being turned into horrible creatures and worse… How did you gage the levels of violence? Did your editors ever ask you to tone it down?

Peadar: They never did ask me to tone it down, but there were a few points where I wondered if I’d gone too far. Also, there was already so much violence in the second book that I myself started removing gory details that weren’t absolutely necessary for the plot.

GNoH: By day I work in a school library and have been championing ‘The Call’ for ages, as
has Ginger Nuts of Horror, but the dull-as- dishwater hardback cover really did it no favours.
What possessed your publishers? Initially, the only kids to borrow it from my library did so
on my recommendation and latterly word of mouth. What did you think of the cover?
Personally, I thought the American cover was much stronger….

Peadar: I am the least visually artistic person in the universe. I never know what will make somebody pick up a novel. The thing is, I think publishers are always trying to figure out the exact same thing. After all these years, they still seem to hit on the right design through luck more than anything else.

GNoH: Could you tell us a little bit about your earlier series ‘The Bone World Trilogy’ which
concluded in 2014? Do you think the success of ‘The Call’ will revive interest in this earlier
work?

Peadar: I still love my first books. ‘The Bone World Trilogy’ is about a primitive tribe of humans who share a giant, ruined city with equally primitive tribes from a wide variety of alien races. For generations, all these tribes hunted each other for food, because nothing else was edible. The tribe are considering swapping the main character for food, but just then, a civilised woman falls out of the sky and everything changes. I would love if these came back into print, but we’ll just have to see.

GNoH: If you could hang out with an author for an evening (living or dead) and it doesn’t
have to be horror, who would it be and why?

Peadar: I’d love to spend a bit of time with Douglas Adams and hang on his every word. I’m sure I’d laugh enough to ruin everybody else’s dinner, though.

GNoH: Here’s a real curveball question for you… I was wracking my brains for books I’ve read which use Irish mythology and recall reading Bridget Wood, whose real name is I believe Sarah Rayne. Between 1991-94 (around the time I read them) she wrote a spectacularly brutal violent four-book- series called ‘Wolf King’. I’m not sure if they’re well known or not, but you should check them out. Or maybe you have come across her? I think she has Irish connections…

Peadar: I’m really sorry, but that’s a new one for me! I never heard of her. But it does sound great.

GNoH: I imagine you are, deservedly so, going to be riding ‘The Call’ wave for a while now,
but what do have planned for your next writing project?

Peadar: I am currently editing a YA epic fantasy set in an imaginary land that resembles a mix between 1970s Africa and 19th Century Ireland. It has helicopters. It has witchcraft and demons and a President for Life with a chest-full of medals. I just hope some publisher is interested!

GNoH: That’s twenty questions Peadar and twenty fascinating answers and plenty for our readers to chew over. Thank you very much for taking the time to visit Ginger Nuts of Horror, we’ve had great pleasure recommending ‘The Call’ to everyone we know, and we hope your superb sequel gets the success it richly deserves.

Tony Jones

BOOK REVIEW: THE CALL 2: THE INVASION BY PEADAR Ó GUILÍN
CHILDHOOD FEARS BY TRACY FAHEY

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THE GINGER NUTS OF HORROR ‘ALTERNATIVE TEN’ YA STOKER SELECTION

6/3/2018

by Tony Jones

ginger nuts of horrors youmg adult fiction round up in response to the stoker awards Picture

Ginger Nuts of Horror would like to congratulate Kim Liggett for her recent win in the YA Stoker for her novel “The Last Harvest” which was a decent page-turning devil worshipping tale set in rural America. We wrote in our earlier review: “It’s a solid attempt at spinning a countryside devil-worship yarn in small town America which both boys and girls might get a kick out of. I’m pretty sure a twelve-year-old version of me would have enjoyed this.” It you read Point Horror as a kid, it’s in that ball-park. However, it lacked the power, sophistication and genuine horror featured in the brooding character driven Amy Lukavics novel “The Ravenous” which pressed all the buttons a truly great horror novel should. This was Ginger Nuts of Horror runaway favourite and the strongest novel of those nominated, and the HWA missed a trick by voting for a page-turning pot-boiler over a novel with genuine depth, outstanding writing and sequences to make an adult wince, never mind a teen. One wonders how many members of the HWA cast votes for books they had never read?

The overall short-list was far from stellar and that’s hardly the fault of the HWA though. The depth of very good YA horror novels, across the year, seems to be in very short supply and the YA part of the horror market, at the moment, seems to be tiny. We should know, as we search for new titles far and wide. We reviewed the best of them across the year at the Ginger Nuts of Horror, and we haven’t come across many other good ones we haven’t already featured earlier in 2017. So, this ‘Alternative Ginger Nuts Stoker’ sadly only includes three entirely new books, and seven previously reviewed. As well as straight horror we feature crossover dark fiction and dystopia.

Let’s be clear “The Ravenous” by Amy Lukavics was without doubt the strongest YA horror novel of 2017 and our runaway favourite, but if you want to dig a little deeper all these books come highly recommended and have lots to offer. They are also an international selection, rather than the all-American Stoker short-list.

The Beast is an Animal by Peternelle Van Arsdale

Let us start right at the top with a wonderfully dark fantasy horror novel which may have been pitched at the adult market in the USA, however trust me, it is most definitely a YA novel published by Simon & Schuster Children's UK for teenagers. You’re not going to come across many darker and edgier fairy-tales than this, which is one of those books which can be equally enjoyed by both teenagers and adults.

The setting of this imaginative and dreamlike novel is kept deliberately vague, but there are enough clues to point at medieval Wales, I wonder whether American readers picked up on this? A farmer and his wife being blessed with twin baby girls, Angelica and Benedicta. But there is a problem, the twins are the mirror image of each other, both carrying a mark which symbolises ‘the Beast’ (a simple birthmark) of the novel’s title. Their mother realises this, fearing for their safety, keeps them hidden from the local villagers. But before long their secret is out, and the farmer succumbs to the pressure of the masses and casts his wife and daughters out into the ‘fforest’, an alternative to seeing them drowned or stoned as witches. For a while he visits them but as time goes on, they are forgotten, but begin to change when they have no contact with humanity. Left to fend for themselves, the girls eventually return and take their vengeance on the village, becoming creatures known as ‘souleaters’. Much of this superb novel is seen from the point of view of a little girl called Alys, who the souleaters spare for some reason when they are on a killing spree. The reason why is one of the major cruxes of this exquisitely crafted fantasy horror. Aimed at ages 13+

Ink by Alice Broadway

“Ink” the debut novel of Alice Broadway is a clever fusion of fantasy, horror and dystopia. Set in an unknown location, Saintstone, where culturally everything revolves around tattooing. Babies are tattooed when they are newly born, and thereafter every significant moment in their lives is recorded on their bodies with a fresh tattoo. This ranges from everything from exam success to marriage. The novel is seen from the point of view of Leora, who dreams of being a tattoo artist when she reaches adulthood. However, when her father dies suddenly her life is turned upside down. After a death all bodies are dried, then skinned of their tattoos are once they are removed are converted into a ‘Skin Book’ which records the good deeds and successes in any life, and this is a way of the deceased to enter this society’s version of heaven. When Leona discovers that her father’s ink has been edited and his book is not available for reading, she begins to realise he had secrets she did not understand? Of course, she begins to investigate and there is both mystery and romance along in the way, in this highly readable novel probably more aimed at girls. Shockingly, she discovers there is another disregarded society, those without tattoos, known as ‘Blanks’. “Ink” was a clever character driven novel which lacked action, but more than made up for it with a cleverly drawn world. Aimed at ages 12/13+

Beatrice Beecham's Cryptic Crypt: by Dave Jeffery

“Beatrice Beecham's Cryptic Crypt” was Crystal Lake Publishing big splash into the dark waters of YA and was entertaining and enterprising fun about a group of for teenage misfits (the ‘Newshounds’) who get wrapped up in a supernatural mystery in their sleepy small American coastal town. Although it was supernatural, it was also very good natured, the joy of the first kiss, walks on the pier, holding hands and all that cute stuff. I found the main character Beatrice to be really engaging and innocently likable, and not really the type of girl to get wrapped up in the weird reawakening of World War II and Neo Nazis. But, hey, Bea’ takes it on the chin and rolls with the punches. The Nazi revival comes around via a Second World War survivor who recognises a voice from her past in a dodgy hearing aid which can cross time.

But the quiet fishing town, Dorsal Town, is exactly the sort of place where weird stuff happens. Jeffery makes an excellent job of keeping everything quite light, but fast paced, and the characters deliberately recall famous contemporaries from children’s literature of yesteryear including the ‘Famous Five’, ‘Nancy Drew’ or the ‘Hardy Boys’ with a decent amount of respect for these legendary characters. The book is loaded with larger-than-life and engaging support roles, and along the way the kids deal with everyday issues like bullying, and even hold down part-time jobs. I suppose you could argue the kids are too good to be true, but that’s part of the charm of the book, these kids aren’t going to do drugs or other nasty stuff. Plus, you always know they’ll save the world, and good for them. It’s not at all scary, but it’s not really supposed to be, and I thought it was a rather charming read. Beatrice returns with another book “Cryptic Crypt” later this year. A good read for ages 10/11+

Thornhill by Pam Smy

“Thornhill” was one of the best books I read in 2017, kids or otherwise and the Stoker panel should never have missed this beautifully haunting novel. Even though it weighs in heavier than 500 pages an adult could still easily read it in a couple of hours, mainly because it is a time-slip story with the present-day story told only in pictures, which are just so easy to read. So “Thornhill” has a lot of illustrations, in a style made popular in recent times by Brian Selznick “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” and his other novels. “Thornhill” itself is a care home for kids in 1982 which is shortly going to close for good, the story focusses on Mary who is a lonely orphan who suffers from selective mutism and is bullied mercilessly by other girls and one particularly nasty girl who is the ringleader.
Flick forward to 2017, Ella moves into a new house which overlooks the burned-out shell of Thornhill and she is sure she can see a ghostly figure watching her in the derelict building. Adult readers will be able to tell where the story is going, but it is so beautifully told you will still have a tear in the eye come the end. The drawings are so great they really do tell the 2017 story of Ella without the needs of any words at all. It’s a big old book, but anyone over the age of 10+ (adults included) will adore it. Wonderful in every possible way.

Gravedigger’s Son by Patrick Moody

Patrick Moody’s debut novel “The Gravedigger’s Son” was another absolute belter, telling the lonely tale of a ten-year-old boy who is the son of the local gravedigger. For generations that go back for hundreds of years Ian Fosser’s descendants have always had this same job, which he will inherit from his father in due course. However, Ian would rather work with herbs and study, escaping the generations old family traditions, which is one of the main themes of this wonderful novel. Ian is tutored in the matters of the dead by a 400-year-old ghost Bertrum and to ensure the dead are truly at peace after death, the words heaven and hell are never used, but the gravedigger’s role is an important one in this process. Ian is only an apprentice, but before long he is sucked into a supernatural mystery involving his dead mother, his friend Fiona who has the power to hear the restless dead and an old family feud. Amazingly the whole of this beautiful novel is set almost entirely in the graveyard and the world Moody creates is so believably vivid you’ll be rooting for Ian right up to the superb ending. A tremendous book which I would recommend for anyone aged from ten to 110.

There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins

“There's Someone Inside Your House” was a very quirky change of direction for an author best known for writing teen romances, harking back to the teen horror films popular in the 1990s with a serial killer on the rampage. Set in a small sleepy Nebraska town, a teenager has been killed in a particularly gruesome way and when there is a second death tension ratchets up. The main character is a mixed-race Hawaiian girl, Makani Young, living with her grandmother after her parents split up, having little time for her. Makani has her own secrets as to why she left Hawaii, which are revealed slowly, and the novel very carefully builds her friendships and relationships, whilst maintaining a certain level of attachment to its slasher roots. It’s by no means perfect, has some gruesome scenes, is a lot of fun and overall a decent and undemanding page-turner for kids aged 13+, equally entertaining for those who do not normally read horror.

Who runs the World? by Virginia Bergin

The latest novel by Virginia Bergin “Who Runs the World” is a very cool twist on the dystopia/utopia (which is it?) theme with horror elements thrown in. Set sixty years after a virus has killed off the male population, imagine what a world would be like with no men? Fourteen year old River lives a pretty normal life and, like everyone else, believes men and boys are extinct. However, whilst walking in a local forest she discovers a half-dead boy called Mason who has escaped from a top-secret location where the few men who were immune to the virus are harvested as permanent sperm banks to keep humanity going, but they are given no choice in the matter. This book is very clever on many levels, reveals its secrets slowly and you’ll enjoy the reactions as the teenage girls get to meet a real-life boy. I’m a real fan of this author and her other books “Rain” and “Storm” are also highly recommended apocalyptic fiction. Recommended for ages 12+.

The Fallen Children by DAVID OWENS

I was totally blown away by David Owen’s “The Fallen Children” which is a very clever update of John Wyndham’s “The Midwich Cuckoos”. However, this superb revamp is not set in a quaint English village, the action takes place in a London estate aptly called Midwich Tower. In a single night, many inhabitants of the Midwich tower block loses consciousness, when they wake up, four girls are pregnant. It’s quite graphic, slightly sleazy, and unsettling stuff. Answers are hard to come by - what happened to them? What does it mean? When the pregnancies start developing much faster than they should, time is short, and everything changes for these girls. It’s a great teen novel which meshes horror and science fiction with the troubles the girls face, the shame, the name-calling, and having to tell parents about the pregnancies. In its own way it was explicit for a teen novel, but the conceptions are handled well, and the teenagers are both sympathetically and believably drawn. “The Fallen Children” pays considerable respect to the Wyndham novel, but it really does run on its own two feet and is no copy. Recommended for ages 12+.

Fir by SHARON GOSLING

Red Eye continue to be the only publishing group seriously dedicated to horror and Sharon Gosling’s “Fir” is another decent addition to their expanding catalogue. A teenage girl is disgruntled to be uprooted from Stockholm to remote northern Sweden – especially when never ending fierce storms cut the family off from civilisation. Hints of classic horror, full of creepy children, a housekeeper who the family ‘inherit’ when they move it, coupled with atmospheric snow scenes make this new take on the Scandinavian werewolf legend a solid and engrossing read as the forest seems to be edging ever closer to the house. Recommended for ages 12+. I know many kids who now keep their eyes out for new Red Eye titles and so the brand is finding a place in the UK YA market place. Aimed as 11+

CHARLOTTE SAYS BY ALEX BELL

In 2015 “Frozen Charlotte” really hit the horror hotspot in some style, Alex Bell’s dark and unsettling tale of killer tiny porcelain dolls, the size of two pence pieces, was an edgy, tension rich read for the age group 10-14 and was particularly popular with girls. Tiny little dolls that could sew your eyes shut when you sleep are guaranteed to be a success with young horror readers! We’re pleased to say the dolls are back in Alex Bell’s terrific prequel which heads back to 1910 and explores the origins of the dolls on the windswept Isle of Skye. It covers some of the same themes of seances, contacting the dead and is set in the orphanage which has been converted into a house from the original novel. A young teacher arrives at the school and soon finds strange things going on, a vicious Headmistress and young charges with all sorts of problems. Her past follows her though, and things are going to get a whole lot worse. Aimed at 11+.

If you’re an author or published involved in YA do get in touch with us if you have a book we might be interested in reading for review. The books we love are usually given their own major review, others which we enjoy can feature in our round-ups, which are every second month or so. The books do not have to be brand new, we are happy to feature books we might have missed first time around. Drop us an email by clicking here.

Tony Jones