We chat with author Meriam Metoui about Portrait of a Shadow, which is a tender horror story about the lengths we are willing to go for the truth and the ones we love.
Hi, Meriam! How has the past year been since we last spoke?
Hello! It’s been a ride. I’ve loved seeing readers come to A Guide to the Dark over the past year, and with the paperback now in stores, it’s exciting to know it’ll only keep finding its readers. Otherwise, this year has been full of drafting, revising, and coming up with ideas for books not yet written.
Your latest novel, Portrait of a Shadow, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Eerie, twisty, tragic, secrets, fun. Maybe not in that order.
What can readers expect?
Faustian deals gone awry, a lot of pining and yearning, a mysterious panting with a peeling edge, and messy characters that don’t know what they’re doing. Best summarized, this is Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour meets The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue in the vein of The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Where did the inspiration for Portrait of a Shadow come from?
Quite literally, this is based off a massive blank painting in an orante gold frame that I own and wondering what I’d find behind it if a corner began to peel. My drive to write it, though, is more about my fascination with what we’re willing to do and give up and sacrifice for the things we want, wants so desperate and overwhelming they may as well be needs. I’ve loved creating characters and making them explore this in their own particular ways.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
Dev, the boy that insists on tagging along on the roadtrip, has a POV later in the book, which meant I got to explore his relationships with the people in his life on the page instead of having him tell us about them. I loved diving into that side of him, especially since those chapters take place years before the the book begins and inform the version of the Dev we’ve come to know.
There’s also little interludes that follow the strange, peeling painting throughout the book. They span over a century of owners and cities and galleries and hint at what’s come and it was so fun getting to know the history of the painting in this way.
Can you tell us about some of the challenges you faced with this book and how you were able to overcome them?
That there’s no right way to write a book. Not even for a single author. What worked for me the first time around didn’t work for Portrait of a Shadow. And so I’ve been forced to learn that each book requires something else from you. You just have to figure out what and adapt as you draft. It was a frustrating process but a little less so once I stopped forcing what I worked for one book onto another.
With Portrait of a Shadow being a YA horror, have you always had an interest in the horror genre?
R.L Stine’s Goosebumps and Fear Street built my love for reading so a few horror elements, like the woman made of shadows in this book, will almost always sneak into my books. But for me, the heart of this has always been the mystery of Mae trying to uncover secrets her sister was a little too good at keeping.
An eerie but magnificent cover! Can you tell us about its process in coming to life?
Isn’t it! Chuck Styles did the art for this and I am still in awe. We saw a few variations of this cover but the one we landed on really honed in on the gothic and eerie feel we had hoped for. And with L. Whitt’s striking design of the text, it all came together so perfectly.
This is your second published novel! What were some of the key lessons you learned between working on the two?
I wrote A Guide to the Dark without any expectations or concrete plans or book deals. It was a story I was telling myself and, somehow, I was fortunate enough to publish it as a two book deal. But there’s something especially daunting about beginning a second book knowing every word will inevitably be in a book on a shelf somewhere. Eventually, you learn how to write through it. To put aside each unhelpful thought and remember the joy of writing that brought you here. The key has been community; the other writers in my life who I could not have done this without <3.
What’s next for you?
I’m working on a YA novel that’s a little too new to put words just yet but best summarized it’s Gone Girl meets Jordan Peele’s Us through a queer, brown lens. I can’t wait to share more!
Lastly, what books have you enjoyed so far this year and are there any that you can’t wait to get your hands on?
Kate Sweeney’s This is Not a Dead Girl Story is out in August and It was such a beautifully written mystery. I lingered on every word. I LOVED V.E Schwab’s The Invisible Life of Addie Larue so I’m obviously counting down the days to Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil. Speaking of vampires, I need a copy of Immortal Dark yesterday. Rebecca Mix’s The Mossheart’s Promise felt like a classic in the making so I know The Ghostwing’s Lie is going to be a must read.
