Today we’re joined by Charlotte Cross to discuss her debut novel The Brides. This is a stunning novel in conversation with Dracula, full of great characterisation, mystery and altering your perspective.
Hi Charlotte, thank you for joining us today. Please could you introduce yourself and tell us a little about your book The Brides?
Hello! I’m a writer living in Scotland with my partner and our two cats. I’m originally from Oxfordshire, England, and my debut novel The Brides was partly inspired my time living next door to the Littlemore Asylum, in the Oxford suburb of the same name. The Brides is a Gothic horror about the three women who would become the “brides” of Dracula, and the fourth who managed to escape.
Your characterisation in this was stellar. What was your approach for building these messy, complex people?
I started out with character sheets at the very beginning, listing out the minutiae of my characters’ likes and dislikes, where they came from, what they looked like…but I ended up throwing those out. What helped most was thinking about what each character really wants, really yearns for. I got to know the characters as I wrote them, through the framework of that yearning.
I loved the narrative structure of this book and how you adopted the epistolary style too. What were the particular triumphs and challenges with this narrative style?
It’s a style made for secrets and mysteries, of which The Brides has plenty. It gives the reader insight into what a character is hiding, or what a character is choosing to reveal and to whom. Sometimes the reader knows more than any individual character does, which is something I really enjoy when reading for pleasure and which I wanted to recreate. The biggest challenge was making sure all the times and dates lined up properly!
What is one message or lingering thought that you’d like readers to take away from this book?
Perspective is everything; everyone is the hero in their own story, even the villains.
Vampires are having a bit of a renaissance at the moment and in particular, returning to the story of Dracula. What do you think keeps drawing readers and writers back to the figure of the vampire and Dracula specifically?
I don’t know that we ever really move on from vampires. They’re endlessly fascinating – like us and not like us, our predators but also vulnerable in ways we’re not. They’re also often written to be very sexy (all that neck-biting, all those nightgowns, all that barely-controlled desire). Dracula himself is a very compelling character, partly because Bram Stoker doesn’t give us all the information that we as modern readers want to know about him. That leaves a lot of questions, and a lot of space to create new Dracula-focused stories.
If you could re-examine any other classic work through a new lens, what would be it and what would your new lens entail?
Honestly, there isn’t another classic work I’ve thought about reimagining; Dracula is a real gift as there are so many questions to ask and loose threads to pull. Maybe in the future!
What songs or music would serve as your ideal soundtrack for The Brides?
I listened to a lot of Gothic ambience music while I was writing, but there are a few songs I played on repeat for some of the really big intense scenes; “Take Me To Church” and “Work Song” by Hozier, “Young and Beautiful” by Lana del Rey, and “Heaven Written” by indie artist Soldana to name a few.
What books have you enjoyed so far this year and are there any that you can’t wait to get your hands on?
I was lucky enough to read an ARC of Honeysuckle by Bar Fridman-Tell, which has just now been published and which I’ve been recommending to anyone and everyone. Bone of my Bone by Johanna van Veen is a fascinating and truly original horror which I also got a sneak peek of; I read it a couple of months ago now and I’m still thinking about it. T. Kingfisher’s new book Wolf Worm has also just recently been released and I need it, I love their work.
If possible, please can you share a little about what you are currently working on or any upcoming projects you have?
I’m currently working on my second Gothic horror. It’s a dual timeline novel set in Scotland about Vikings, cursed archaeology, and female rage.
Finally if you could only use five words to describe The Brides, what would they be?
Yearning, and slow-burn Gothic dread
