Gothic, intoxicating, feminist, darkly provoking and deeply romantic – this is the breathtakingly imagined untold story of the brides of Dracula, by bestselling author Kiran Millwood Hargrave in her much-anticipated YA debut.
We had the pleasure of chatting to Kiran Millwood Hargrave about her debut YA novel, The Deathless Girls, which is published by Hachette Children’s Group on September 19th in hardback at £12.99, along with book recommendations, and more!
Kiran will also be a judge for the BBC Young Writers’ Award 2019 with First Story and Cambridge University, and the shortlist will be announced on 22nd September. Visit www.bbc.co.uk/ywa for more details.
The Deathless Girls is set to publish on September 19th. Can you tell us what readers can expect?
This is an origin story for the so-called brides of Dracula, so expect something gothic and dark, but also full of hope and bravery and sisterhood. I want to immerse my reader in a possible history, one told slightly slant from our own, with enough space for magic.
Where did your inspiration for The Deathless Girls come from?
Of course, Stoker’s Dracula is the origin text, the one I specifically chose to reply to for the Bellatrix commission. But along the way, other influences came to the fore: Carmilla by Le Fanu, Deathless by Catherynne M Valente, Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan. Above all, the women in my life made me reach further. I wanted to explore what being a woman in a man’s world is like, how it complicates desire and body-image, how it sets women apart and against each other. Most of all, my friendships inspired me. My friends are my sisters.
Were there any particular parts of your novel that challenged you?
I wrote the beginning no less than four times. I couldn’t find the voice. I knew my two main characters, Kizzy and Lil, were Travellers, but I didn’t know which lens I wanted to tell their story through. I experimented with dual narrative, third person – but finally Lil started talking to me, her voice came to the fore, and I knew I’d found my narrator.
What do you hope your readers will take away from this book?
I want people to think about difference, and prejudice, and love. I have aimed to decentre whiteness, to destabilise a lot of what we expect from a vampire novel. But above all, I want people to enjoy reading this story, and care about the characters. That’s all I want for any reader of any of my books.
Do you have any book recommendations for us?
Aside from the ones mentioned as inspiration, I’ve recently devoured The Boneless Mercies by April Tucholke (a gender bent reimagining of Beowulf), Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (an epic fantasy of dragons and queendoms that flies by too fast), Song of Sorrow by Melinda Salisbury (political plotting and swoony romance galore) and Ngan’s sequel to GOPAF, Girls of Storm and Shadow (the second in one of my favourite series ever).
