Afterland books pilled on a wooden floor in a bookshop
Afterland books pilled on a wooden floor in a bookshop
Afterland books pilled on a wooden floor in a bookshop

Alison Flood at The Guardian put together a very cool collection of thoughts from authors on their most spine-chilling creations. Such an honour to be featured alongside some horror writing legends.

Billie from Afterland is a very particular kind of scary – the kind of scary that is actually out there in the real world – not only in books. Here’s an extract:

“My time-travelling serial killer Harper Curtis from The Shining Girls and possessed murderer Clayton Broom from Broken Monsters represent misogyny and toxic masculinity, and are technically scarier, but Billie is the kind of person you’re going to meet in real life. Most of us are probably not going to meet a time-travelling serial killer, but there are a lot of Billies out there.”

We’re not used to seeing women as the villains in this way. I spent two years trying to make the bad guy a man. Then I realised it had to be the sister. And she just emerged and she was like, ‘Come on bitch, I’ve been waiting!’