Hi, Justine and Scott! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourselves?

Justine: I’m an Australian American novelist who adores the New York Liberty, Octavia Butler and vintage clothes.

Scott: I’m an American who writes science fiction for young adults and dark crime novels for adults while drinking disturbingly bitter cocktails.

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

Justine: I’ve pretty much always loved stories. As soon as I could talk I was telling them, and once I could write I was scribbling them down.

Scott: I come from a big family in Texas full of great storytellers and inveterate bullshit artists. Every family gathering came with lots of tall tales (and some true).

Your latest novel, The Mortons, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Scott: Dark academia, but family sized.

Justine: Late-stage capitalism is really bad.

What can readers expect?

Justine: Dark humour, beautiful clothes, family politics and broken hearts.

Scott: A look at family mythologies, how they create us and control us, and how we escape them to find ourselves.

Where did the inspiration for The Mortons come from?

Justine: The Mortons emerged from my research on psychopathy for my previous novel, My Sister Rosa. I wanted to explore how it might play out if an entire family going back generations was deliberately raising their children without empathy.

Scott: I went to a venerable east coast college in the US, and love dark academia. I thought Justine’s family needed a dark, forbidding college to send their evil kids to. Adding Helshire gave the novel a deeper backstory and connection to history.

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

Scott: The rituals of Helshire College, like the Primal Scream, are partly based on my own college experiences, but this gave me the chance to make them more intense.

Justine: Grandmother Elizabeth, the head of the Morton clan, was one of my favorite characters to write. She doesn’t say much, mostly just sits in the corner knitting, but she knows where the bodies are buried, because she gave the orders.

Can you share some insight into what your co-authoring process was like?

Justine: Our process was pretty unusual because The Mortons began life as a solo project. I wrote the first draft alone but I couldn’t get the rewrites to work so I dared Scott to finish it.

Scott: Justine hasn’t read much dark academia, so that became my part of the story. Justine was more focused on the Morton family dynamics. Having our own separate domains meant less arguing, and also more space to add layers and depth.

What’s next for you both?

Justine & Scott: A follow up Mortons book! This one is from the point of view of our favourite character in the first book. She has a very different perspective, so the world expands.

Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up? Any you’ve read so far this year that you’ve enjoyed?

Justine: I’m excited for Jaclyn Moriarty’s Time Travel for Beginners, which publishes soon. The most delightfully aslant meditation on death and mourning I’ve ever read. I still don’t understand how a book this gentle and funny made me sob my guts out.

I just inhaled Shirlene Obuobi’s Die For Me which is a smart, sexy, paranormal romance that undercuts many of the hoariest tropes of that genre. I’ll always be Team Living and Aging.

Scott: Loving Alix E Harrow’s The Everlasting, a great novel about how mythologies are created, and how they grind up the real people inside them. Not unrelated to The Mortons, though a different kind of mythology!

Will you be picking up The Mortons? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: Justine Larbalestier and Scott Westerfeld, Co-Authors of ‘The Mortons’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

There’s also new releases from Lian Moriarty, Khaled Hosseini, and Paulo Coelho. Need a little history of fantasy? The Lost Queen follows Languoreth, the twin sister of the man who inspired the legendary character of Merlin, while The Silence of the Girls focuses on the timeless legend of The Iliad, as experienced by the captured women living in the Greek camp in the final weeks of the Trojan War.

Read on to discover our picks and tell us in the comments below which ones you are most excited for!

Impostors by Scott Westerfeld
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Scott Westerfeld returns to the world of Uglies in this new series. Frey and Rafi are inseparable . . . but very few people have ever seen them together. This is because Frey is Rafi’s double, raised in the shadow’s of their rich father’s fortress. While Rafi has been taught to charm, Frey has been taught to kill. Frey only exists to protect her sister. There is no other part of her life. Frey has never been out in the world on her own – until her father sends her in Rafi’s place to act as collateral for a dangerous deal. Everyone thinks she’s her sister – but Col, the son of a rival leader, is starting to get close enough to tell the difference. As the stakes grow higher and higher, Frey must decide whether she can trust him – or anyone in her life.

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty
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The retreat at health and wellness resort Tranquillum House promises total transformation. Nine stressed city dwellers are keen to drop their literal and mental baggage, and absorb the meditative ambience while enjoying their hot stone massages. Watching over them is the resort’s director, a woman on a mission to reinvigorate their tired minds and bodies. These nine perfect strangers have no idea what is about to hit them.

Vengeful by VE Schwab
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In the sequel to Vicious, Sydney once had Serena—beloved sister, betrayed enemy, powerful ally. But now she is alone, except for her thrice-dead dog, Dol, and then there’s Victor, who thinks Sydney doesn’t know about his most recent act of vengeance. Victor himself is under the radar these days—being buried and re-animated can strike concern even if one has superhuman powers. But despite his own worries, his anger remains. And Eli Ever still has yet to pay for the evil he has done.

Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini
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A short, powerful, illustrated book written by beloved novelist Khaled Hosseini in response to the current refugee crisis, Sea Prayer is composed in the form of a letter, from a father to his son, on the eve of their journey. Watching over his sleeping son, the father reflects on the dangerous sea-crossing that lies before them. It is also a vivid portrait of their life in Homs, Syria, before the war, and of that city’s swift transformation from a home into a deadly war zone.

The Lost Queen by Signe Pike
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Mists of Avalon meets Philippa Gregory in the first book of an exciting historical trilogy that reveals the untold story of Languoreth—a powerful and, until now, tragically forgotten queen of sixth-century Scotland—twin sister of the man who inspired the legendary character of Merlin.

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
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From the Booker Prize-winning author of the Regeneration trilogy comes a monumental new masterpiece, set in the midst of literature’s most famous war. Pat Barker turns her attention to the timeless legend of The Iliad , as experienced by the captured women living in the Greek camp in the final weeks of the Trojan War.

Escaping From Houdini by Kerri Maniscalco
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In this third instalment in the #1 bestselling Stalking Jack the Ripper series, a luxurious ocean liner becomes a floating prison of scandal, madness, and horror when passengers are murdered one by one…with nowhere to run from the killer. .

Dare You To Lie by Amber Lynn Natusch
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When her FBI agent father is framed for murder, Kylene is forced to move in with her grandfather, back to the small town that turned its back on her, and the boy who betrayed her. All Ky cares about is clearing her father’s name, but someone won’t let her forget the photo scandal that drove her away two years ago. As the threats gain momentum, Ky finds an unlikely ally in the rookie FBI agent sent to keep an eye on her. Determined to expose the town’s hidden skeletons, Ky unwittingly thrusts herself into a much bigger plot. They thought she’d forgive and forget. They’re about to learn they messed with the wrong girl.

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White
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Elizabeth Lavenza is on the verge of being thrown into the streets . . . until she is brought to the home of Victor Frankenstein, an unsmiling, solitary boy who has everything–except a friend. Victor is her escape from misery. Elizabeth does everything she can to make herself indispensable–and it works. Soon she and Victor are inseparable. But her new life comes at a price. As the years pass, Elizabeth’s survival depends on managing Victor’s dangerous temper and entertaining his every whim, no matter how depraved. Behind her blue eyes and sweet smile lies the calculating heart of a girl determined to stay alive no matter the cost . . . as the world she knows is consumed by darkness.

In Her Bones by Kate Moretti
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Fifteen years ago, Lilith Wade was arrested for the brutal murder of six women. After a death row conviction, media frenzy, and the release of an unauthorized biography, her thirty-year-old daughter Edie Beckett is just trying to survive out of the spotlight. She’s a recovering alcoholic with a dead-end city job and an unhealthy codependent relationship with her brother. Edie also has a disturbing secret: a growing obsession with the families of Lilith’s victims. She’s desperate to see how they’ve managed—or failed—to move on. While her escalating fixation is a problem, she’s careful to keep her distance. That is, until she crosses a line and a man is found murdered…

Hippie by Paulo Coelho
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In Hippie, his most autobiographical novel to date, Paulo Coelho takes us back in time to re-live the dream of a generation that longed for peace and dared to challenge the established social order – authoritarian politics, conservative modes of behavior, excessive consumerism, and an unbalanced concentration of wealth and power.

The Glass Ocean by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White
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From the New York Times bestselling authors of The Forgotten Room comes a captivating historical mystery, infused with romance, that links the lives of three women across a century—two deep in the past, one in the present—to the doomed passenger liner, RMS Lusitania.

Check out our other September book picks on our Goodreads list!

Any other releases you’re excited to read this month? Tell us in the comments below!

The post September Book Releases appeared first on The Nerd Daily.