I’ve just treated myself to the special anniversary edition of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab and it’s absolutely beautiful! I read it at the end of NaNoWriMo, which I took part in last year to get my first draft of my third book finished.
I find this such a difficult question, but as a former English teacher, I’ll say The Hunger Games as it made so many teenagers excited about reading and that’s such a gift.
My favourite would have to be the trend of revisiting myth and folklore to tell those stories from fresh perspectives. I love the light that these shared, ancient tales can shed on our modern lives and humanity and how different authors conjure them into life so creatively and vividly. I guess my least favourite trend would be snobbery about literature, particularly when people dismiss and diminish books with a female audience as ‘chick-lit’.
I wish I had a more exciting and glamourous answer but it would have to be buying a proper office chair. I used to write at a co-working space but when we went into lockdown, I wrote at home and spent months typing in armchairs or in my bed and I emerged from it very hunched! Getting a decent chair has really saved my back.
Really wonderful! Writing is a fairly solitary job so I’ve found it incredibly rewarding to have Ariadne out there in the world connecting with readers. Hearing from people who loved the book is such a joy and a privilege and I feel extremely lucky.
Due to a lifelong fascination with Ancient Greek mythology, Jennifer Saint read Classical Studies at King’s College, London. She spent the next thirteen years as an English teacher, sharing a love of literature and creative writing with her students. She is the internationally bestselling author of Elektra and Ariadne.
