Interviewing Sunyi Dean

Hellooo!

I recently reviewed the excellent The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean a strange modern gothic tale about a secret group of families who all devour knowledge via eating books. It touches on themes of rebellion, motherhood and sibling relationships and on top of that wonderful moments of action and even horror. Yes you needs it. I was very happy to have the opportunity to ask Sunyi some questions about the book and future projects.

Usually when we have e lead rebelling against their magical family they want to be more human but Devon very much does her own things and sometimes quite monstrous things. What led to her becoming your lead?

The story was always built around Devon! Character first, everything else later. I will drop rafts of world building or tank whole storylines if they don't fit an mc :-) 

Where did the idea for the actual Book Eaters come from? 

Lots of different things, I suppose! I'm interested in the ethical dilemma that underpins vampires, their need to commit evil in order to survive. I'm really interested in family relationships in sff. And thinking of books as food is probably normal for many readers; we often describe books as food words. It felt like it came together naturally if that makes sense :)

Fathers and sons seem to dominate fantasy stories these days but here we have a mother and her son at the heart of the story. What did you want to explore with motherhood?

Truthfully, I just wanted to see motherhood reflected, the mundane and the magical side by side. I don't have experience of fatherhood so would not have felt qualified to write that (but I think there are some great examples out there already). Parenting often feels, for me and for many women I talk to, like a slow landslide of tiny failures and looming fears, and I hope some of that comes through from Devon, too. Plus I know quite a lot of people think motherhood themes are maybe not so interesting, and I suppose I hoped to prove them wrong! 

Do you see yourself returning to this world in the future?

I would love to wrap up some of Devon's loose plot ends but at the moment TBE is standalone, and any books which tie up her story would nominally standalone as well, and probably told form the pov of a different character. 

What ese can we look forward to from you in the future and where can we find out more?

I'm currently writing an alternative history fantasy set in post war 1960s Hong Kong, still occupied by the Japanese and plagued by an epidemic of ghosts. It is a bit of a gear shift but I hope readers will find it interesting all the same! I have a website and a dogletter if that interests people. A dogletter is like a newsletter, except you just get occasional pictures of my dog. Once or twice a year, it has some book news, too. 

If there was one book, not your own, that you could get everyone to read (or possibly eat) what would it be and why? 

Maybe the History of Western Philosophy, if that isn't too pretentious to say! I think it would encourage people to look at the world in a different way, and help them to see (as it helped me to see) a glimpse of how our culture in the west has come to.