Author Interview: Kelly Andrew

Get the inside scoop on ‘The Gravewood’!

Kelly Andrew is the author of our April Young Adult ‘Withered Wilds’ featured book: The Gravewood. Read on to get the inside scoop from inspiration to favourite scenes and more!

What was your inspiration behind The Gravewood?

I have always loved vampires! Well, I was terrified of them as a child; I used to sleep with a turtle neck on at night. That would deter them, obviously! That sort of turned into fascination as I started consuming media, and what I love about vampires as a genre is that no two stories are the same. You’ve got sparkly vampires, you’ve got vampires with no reflection, you’ve got vampires who can compel you by doing a weird things with their eyes. I wanted to put my own spin on the idea of a vampire, in that if you had a bite that was addictive, it would make your victims keep coming back, making it very easy to hunt. And what would that look like if you were getting a high from a vampire bite, especially if you also kind of like that vampire? How would you be able to discern what’s real and what’s a chemically induced dopamine hit? I was really wanting to play with a relationship in that way.

How would you describe the atmosphere readers can expect in this story?

I would say it’s very gothic, sentient forest. But also with a mix of grunge. I know The Lost Boys is having its moment on Broadway right now, but that was such a formative movie for me as a kid. I really wanted to tie in rainy, wet, dark forest vibes with leather jackets and camp grunge. That 80s and 90s feeling!

Expanding on that, what draws you to darker, gothic storytelling?

I just love gothic literature in general. I love the darker themes and the way you can delve into really viscerous storytelling. And also because I really love to write romance, I think that it’s such a nice marriage. In writing, anyway, it’s fun to take the immediacy, the high stakes, the life or death feeling of falling in love which can be scary, and wrapping it into the genre conventions we see in more gothic stories. I just had a lot of fun playing with those elements on the page!

Were there any books, films, or aesthetics that influenced the story?

For sure! I’ve said The Lost Boys, and then I’m a big Buffy fan. A lot of readers have told me that they pick up on my little Buffy easter eggs. I don’t even know I’m putting them in there, I just think it’s so ingrained into my life! Heathers is a big one that I pulled from, and the original Teen Wolf from the 80s. My dad was an 80s teen, and he showed me a lot of these movies probably before I was ready to watch them, and this is the end result! I really love those camp, grunge, horror, final girl vibes.

What is your process like when you’re building eerie or unsettling worlds?

You know when you’re watching a horror movie, and you can see the slasher with the knife and the mask? But the final girl, whoever is going to get killed or chased, does not see them; they’re on the phone or watching TV or looking out the window. That feeling you get, where you want to say look behind you! I love that feeling, it always has me on the edge of my seat! And so when I’m writing, especially if the book has some horror or gothic elements woven in, I try to keep the reader one step ahead of the character at all times. Especially as the characters in The Gravewood are making a lot of mistakes, as they’re bumbling their way through the woods I want the readers to see just enough to know they’re about to walk into a really bad situation, but there’s nothing they can do but keep flicking the pages to see if they get through it. I’m constantly mapping out each scene and thinking about how I can evoke that feeling.

How do you go about crafting emotional tension and yearning that feels genuine and raw, without overpowering the story?

I think I approach it differently in each story. In particular in The Gravewood, it’s a slow burn, it’s a will-they-won’t-they question. I think it’s a matter of taking obstacles and placing them in the way of characters. They’re having all these big feelings but there’s something in the way stopping them from moving forward. And in the case of Lys and Shea, he’s convinced that everything she feels is chemically induced, and therefore to act on it would be to take advantage. And she feels the same way, she’s thinking about whether it’s real or in her head. It’s causing a lot of confusion for them, and I’ve been able to keep ramping it up to these almost-moments, and then make them pull back at the last minute. That’s an internal obstacle, and then there’s the external obstacles of everything in the forest trying to kill them. I think that allows the slow burn to really burn!

Is there a theme in The Gravewood that feels especially personal to you?

For sure! Shea’s deaf, or hard of hearing, and I’m deaf. I call this book my own personal rage against the machine. Shea’s feeding her blood to Lys in a sort of trade-off, as he’s able to go out and scavenge essential supplies, particularly for her, batteries to keep the sound on. I wear a cochlear implant, and the cost of maintaining it, the upkeep and the equipment, is expensive, constant, and not always covered by insurance. It’s a lot of calls and paperwork, and to me it felt like a great metaphor to be draining yourself dry, to someone who is chronically ill and disabled, constantly paying into a system for life-affirming care. It was a natural mirage for me, the fact I’ve fixated on vampires my whole life and that I wanted deal with this.

If The Gravewood had a signature scent, what would it smell like?

A lot of things! Probably the air after it rains, pine needles in the forest, and exhausts, as they’re always on motorcycles or in old RVs!

What was the most challenging part of writing this story?

I would say trying to find a delicate balance of keeping Lys morally ambiguous, as he is, and letting him still be relatable or rooted for by readers. Book one is definitely a lovers to enemies story, and a bit of a villain origin story. He has some questionable motives, he makes a lot of mistakes, and really stands by them. But I was trying to make sure I was honouring the arc that I want for him, without alienating readers. And that required pulling back and pushing forward at certain parts of the writing process, which was a lot of work.

What kind of emotional journey will readers go on with this book?

It’s a found family book at its core, and a road trip book. So there is a literal journey happening, and you have these four characters and their hostage possum, is what I call Kit, and they’re all coming from a place where they have loyalty for family members they have left behind, or loyalty to themselves. They’re kind of recalibrating that loyalty as they’re developing trust and feelings for one another, and I think the emotional journey is watching that shift. How do you honour people from your childhood while learning how to be there for the people you meet once you leave home? Even if you’re not in a post-apocalyptic forest, I think everyone can relate to that. We all leave home and go on to meet new people, but we’re still trying to figure out how to be who we were to our family and friends growing up.

Is there anything you can tell us about the sequel?

Yes! So The Hollow King comes out next spring, and I call it the emotional fallout. In book one, it’s very insular. The four of them are alone, it doesn’t seem like there is a lot else there, and they’re very shut off in the middle of these woods. It doesn’t seem like anything they’re doing impacts anything but themselves, but their whole world is about to blow open. They discover that the actions they have taken have bigger ripple effects than they thought, and there’s a lot more players on the board than they realised. They’re going to spend a lot of time cleaning up their mistakes, and figuring out what side they’re on.

What’s your favourite thing about the FairyLoot Edition of The Gravewood?

This is an impossible question as the whole thing is so gorgeous! I have the say, the foil is beautiful, the art is beautiful, but I am kind of partial to the sprayed edges. When I saw that, my jaw dropped! It’s a good capture of Lys’ character.