CHATTING HORROR WITH DAWN KURTAGICH

 “I was a precocious young adult,
and I write for precocious young adults.”

Today we are delighted to bring you an in-depth interview with Dawn Kurtagich who has impressed us greatly with the three novels (and novella) she has written since 2015. There are few authors which blend the troubled teenage psyche with the enticing ambiguity of horror so convincingly. Dawn writes intelligent and challenging horror novels which keep teenager readers on their toes with clever and multi-layered plots. If you have never tried her fiction, we highly recommend it, with The Creeper Man a perfect place to start.   

When I come across adult horror fans being dismissive of YA horror (“we didn’t need it in my day blah blah blah I read IT when I was ten…”) Dawn Kurtagich is one of the ‘go-to’ authors I would use to put these individuals straight! In fact, her fiction is more thoughtful and advanced than many adult novels. If you ever thought YA was just for kids, think again. Anybody can read these stories and enjoy them, and you will quickly forget you are not the target audience.

In our recent top 100 countdown of my favourite YA horror novels of the last decade Dawn was one of a select few authors who made two appearances with The Creeper Man (Number 8) and The Dead House (number 24). Female authors currently dominate the YA dark fiction landscape and Dawn is one of the very best.

I was also delighted that of the seventeen female YA horror authors she name-checks later in the interview that Ginger Nuts has reviewed fifteen of them on the site. I will have to investigate the odd two out! Now, let’s talk horror….

Did you have many false starts, or unpublished manuscripts under your bed, before ‘The Dead House’ was published in 2015?

 I did, yes. I wrote my first novel at 12, finishing it at 17. That one taught me a lot about what not to do. After that it took another four manuscripts (some written many times), before I got my book deal. Honestly, writing is the best way to learn and I don’t consider any of my previous books false starts because they taught me so much.

‘The Dead House’ beautifully blends psychological thriller and crime with elements of horror. Did you see yourself as a ‘horror’ author at this stage or could your career have taken a slightly different literary direction, I’m thinking mainstream thrillers perhaps?

I definitely saw myself as a horror writer at that stage, though I always knew I would branch into thriller and fantasy at some point. I love dark stories, and horror is my “beloved”, my bread and butter, my cherry on top, but I am drawn to other genres as well. One of the previous books I wrote was a psychological thriller, another was a paranormal, and two were fantasy.

Our recent feature on Ginger Nuts of Horror ranked your second novel ‘The Creeper Man’ the eighth best YA horror novel of the last decade, the level of ambiguity in that novel connected to the horror was stunning, how did you pull it off?

Thank you. I have a mind that naturally seeks out ambiguity—my family often jokes that I’m obsessed with mirrors and duality, and it’s true. Ambiguity is fascinating—how stories can be one thing and another at the same time. I grew up having to dig through many narratives and I suppose it taught me a great deal and framed how I think.

‘The Creeper Man’ character which lurks in the background was as good a ‘boogieman’ style character as I have come across in a YA novel, where did you dream him up from? Is he inspired by any other characters in fiction?

I’ve always been fascinated by boogieman type figures, and they featured heavily in my childhood (literally and figuratively). There are some fascinating African versions that I have up my sleeve for future works. I remember being fascinated by Babadook, Slenderman, the Judderman from the TV advert for Metz, which incidentally my friend Kat Ellis reminded me of when she was reading The Creeper Man in manuscript form, and I think had a small helping of inspiration for her novel, Harrow Lake (we love the Judderman!). Any type of boogieman legend is immediately fascinating to me.

Along with Amy Lukavics, the troubled teenage voice in The Creeper Man is one of the most convincing I have come across in recent years. How did you go about developing her voice?

Thank you. Silla came to me first, fully formed, so I suppose she’s inside me somewhere; a part of me.

The range and quality of horror and dark fiction being produced by women in the YA world is incredible, who are your favourites?

Amy Lukavics, of course, but I recently read Rules for Vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall, which had a beautiful, nightmarish quality of atmosphere and dread. It was almost like a mash up of The Dead House and Neil Gaiman! It was also written in a found-footage style, which I, of course, love. Some other favourites include Rory Power, Kim Liggett, Ann Davila Cardinal, Kendare Blake, Holly Black, Danielle Vega/Rollins, Brenna Yovanoff, Emily Lloyd Jones, Emma Berquist, Cat Winters, Sara Faring, Christine Lynn Herman, Amelinda Berube, Seanan McGuire, and Kat Ellis. We really are spoiled for choice.

Is there much of the teenage ‘you’ in your novels? Which of your characters is closet to yourself?

Absolutely. They are all some part of me. The closest though? Probably Emma and Seamus from Teeth in the Mist.

Do you feel you could pull of a male narrative? They have all but disappeared from modern YA horror fiction. There are many men writing female voices, but virtually no women doing boys…

I agree. I would love to see more male narratives. It would be an interesting challenge for me, since I have a particular obsession with women in general.

Your most recent novel ‘Teeth in the Mist’ was a multi-stranded (and time periods) complex haunted house story. How close was this to being an adult novel? It seemed more ambitious than your previous two novels…..

Teeth in the Mist was definitely my most ambitious novel. It is a complex, glorious nightmare and it was a challenge to write. I think most of what I write in the YA space could be considered crossover—but honestly, my books so far have been for teens. I don’t believe in holding back when it comes to teenage readers. They are smart, cunning, and vastly more capable than most adults give them credit for.

Do you read much current YA horror? If you have been following Ginger Nuts of Horror recent top 50 novels of the last decade there is much for you to check out….

I have been reading as much as I can with deadlines for several projects looming. I greatly enjoyed the Ginger Nuts Horror top 50 list.

Was YA a thing for you when you were growing up? Who did you read, and did you graduate to adult horror early?

I was not a natural reader, being dyslexic. I positively hated reading. But my mother persisted, and eventually I found my love of books (thank you, Mum!). I remember loving Goosebumps the most (along with Animorphs, which are sci-fi novels). Soon after I was onto Stephen King, as I think a lot of us were. Then Brigitte Aubert and other adult novelists. There certainly didn’t feel there was as much choice as there is now. I’m honoured to be a part of that.

Do you feel you write books you would have loved to read as a 13 or 14-year-old?

DAWN: Absolutely. There is a reason I sought out adult novels so early. Books for younger readers felt, in a way, limiting. I wanted to know more, delve deeper, have more complicated stories—I wanted a puzzle to solve. Too many books for young readers shied away from real darkness, and I had questions that didn’t get answers. I was a precocious young adult, and I write for precocious young adults.

Your fiction is a whisker away from the adult market, do you have any plans to write an adult novel?

Yes.

There are elements in all three of your novels which many teenage readers will find challenging and will have to devote their concentration to. Your novels are not throwaway easy reads and are more akin to ‘literary’ writing than straight genre fiction. Have you been tempted to perhaps pitch your fiction at a more mass-market audience? 
 
No. I have always been more on the literary side, both in what I write and what I read. But never say never, as they say. I like a challenge. That’s not to say that there isn’t a place for more easy reads, because there is—and trust me when I say that “easy reads” are difficult to write! I just like to indulge in what I enjoy, and what I enjoy are puzzles.

Could you tell us a little bit about what you are working on at the moment?

Currently in the works: My fourth YA novel and two other projects. When I can reveal more, I will do.

If you were to see any author (living or dead) reading ‘Teeth in the Mist’ on the train, who would it be?

I might fall over if I ever saw Shirley Jackson, Neil Gaiman or Edgar Allan Poe reading Teeth in the Mist. I have been lucky enough to have my books blurbed by authors I admire, like R. L. Stine, Christopher Pike, V.E Schwab, and Teeth in the Mist was blurbed by an author I admire very much, Juliet Marillier, so it feels like I’ve already had that “falling off my chair” moment, knowing that my book was in their hands.

It has been a pleasure having you visit the site. We would like to wish you good fortune for your future projects, but please don’t abandon YA horror for the adult markey, we need to hear your very distinctive voice!

Tony Jones

A spine-chilling psychological thriller from stunning talent and author of The Dead House, Dawn Kurtagich. Sinister and creepily atmospheric, Dawn's second YA title is sure to grip fans of Stephen King, Kendare Blake and Juno Dawson.

When sisters Silla and Nori escape London and their abusive father, Aunt Cath's country house feels like a safe haven. But slowly, ever so slowly, things begin to unravel. Aunt Cath locks herself in the attic and spends day and night pacing. Every day the forbidden surrounding forest inches slowly towards the house. A mysterious boy appears, offering friendship. And Nori claims that a man watches them from the dark forest - a man with no eyes, who creeps ever closer. . .

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