Tag: Book Discussion

Author Interview

Author Meg Howrey on her new novel, Body Language: Alzheimer’s, caregiving, autonomy, and family

Mandy Webster

In today’s author interview, Meg Howrey discusses Body Language, her latest novel about Alzheimer’s, caregiving, family conflict, and the difficult question of how we honor a person’s wishes when they can no longer make decisions for themselves.

When I finished Body Language, I found myself thinking about it long after I’d put the book down—not because it offers an easy answer to the difficult questions at its center, but because it refuses to. Howrey’s novel asks what it means to honor someone’s autonomy while also forcing us to consider the very real emotional, financial, and practical costs that can fall on the people left to provide care.

Meg Howrey is the author of Body Language, which released September 1, 2026.

What I especially appreciated about the novel was the way Howrey lets each of the three sisters—Sloane, Laurel, and Nanette—have a legitimate perspective. None of them is simply the voice of reason while the others are being selfish or misguided. Their feelings about their mother’s wishes are tangled up with their own histories, fears, relationships, and ideas about what they can realistically take on. And somehow, despite the seriousness of the subject matter, Body Language is also genuinely funny in places.

Continue reading “Author Meg Howrey on her new novel, Body Language: Alzheimer’s, caregiving, autonomy, and family” →
Author Interview

Author Suzanne Junered discusses motherhood, identity, and the darkness behind Goodnight Monsters

Mandy Webster

In today’s author interview, Suzanne Junered discusses Goodnight Monsters, her unsettling novel about motherhood, identity, grief, and the disturbing thoughts we don’t always admit. When I reviewed Goodnight Monsters, I was struck by the novel’s unsettling exploration of motherhood, identity, and the thoughts we’re often afraid to admit we have. Through Lia’s fascination with death and decomposition, her complicated relationship with pregnancy, and her increasingly blurred line between fantasy and reality, Junered creates a story that is as psychologically disturbing as it is thought-provoking.

Suzanne Junered is the author of Goodnight Monsters, which releases today!

In this interview, she talks about the deeply personal experiences that shaped the novel, the unexpected origins of the Body Farm setting, and her desire to challenge the idea that there is one “right” way to experience motherhood. She also shares how her own struggles with grief, anger, and loss of identity found their way onto the page—and offers a glimpse at what she’s working on next.

Continue reading “Author Suzanne Junered discusses motherhood, identity, and the darkness behind Goodnight Monsters” →
Writers on Writing

It Had to Happen: Time, grief, and the illusion of control

Mandy Webster

It Had to Happen begins with a devastating, almost clean fracture in a man’s life: Jack Utley loses his daughter just as his business is finally about to take off. In that moment, success and loss become entangled in a way that feels almost transactional—like one has been traded for the other. Jack is left doing what many grieving parents do in fiction and in life: trying to assign meaning to something that refuses to make sense. Then the story shifts into something far less predictable.

On the eve of his daughter Callie’s funeral, Jack encounters a mysterious woman. After that meeting, he wakes to find that time has somehow rewound itself to the morning of the accident. Suddenly, he is given what grief never allows in reality: a second chance. He saves his daughter’s life. But the novel is not interested in treating that as a simple gift.

Continue reading “It Had to Happen: Time, grief, and the illusion of control” →
Author Interview

Author interview: Sarah Gailey on Make Me Better, cults, belonging, and healing

Mandy Webster

In today’s author interview, Sarah Gailey discusses the inspiration behind Make Me Better, including the novel’s themes of identity, belonging, cult psychology, climate anxiety, and the complicated pursuit of healing. In my recent review, I described the novel as an unsettling blend of literary fiction, psychological suspense, and horror that asks difficult questions about what people are willing to sacrifice for connection and certainty.

Author Sarah Gailey discusses the inspiration behind Make Me Better, including the novel’s themes of identity, belonging, cult psychology, and the search for healing. Image credit: Kate Dollarhyde

I had the opportunity to ask Gailey about the creation of Kindred Cove, the challenges of writing Celia’s emotional vulnerability, the appeal of high-control communities, and the literary influences that helped shape their work. We also discussed why stories about cults resonate so strongly today and what Gailey hopes readers will take away from the novel’s exploration of wellness culture, manipulation, and transformation.

Continue reading “Author interview: Sarah Gailey on Make Me Better, cults, belonging, and healing” →
Writers on Writing

Occult satire, unreliable men, and a very bad cat: A deep view inside the novel, One Bad Cat

Mandy Webster

One Bad Cat is a novel that grew out of a simple premise and ended up somewhere far stranger, funnier, and more psychologically tangled than it first appeared. At its core, it’s an occult satire built around two intersecting storylines: a psychology professor who is turned into a cat by members of his coven, and a man trying to keep his life from falling apart after he lets a persistent stray cat into his apartment.

Dr. Stephen Scott begins the story in a position of intellectual authority. He’s a psychology professor with an interest in the occult, someone who believes he understands systems and people well enough to stay a step ahead. That control collapses when a group of female coven members cast a spell that transforms him into a cat. From there, his storyline tightens into something immediate and claustrophobic: a mind trapped in a body that no longer obeys it, focused on revenge, survival, and the recovery of a charm bag that contains the source of his power.

Continue reading “Occult satire, unreliable men, and a very bad cat: A deep view inside the novel, One Bad Cat” →
Author Interview

Interview: Leslie Baird on Salomé, literary suspense, and the allure of charisma

Mandy Webster

Leslie Baird’s debut novel Salomé is a hypnotic blend of literary suspense, psychological intrigue, and gothic atmosphere, following a young American woman who becomes entangled in the orbit of a charismatic French family and the enigmatic woman at its center. When I reviewed the novel, I was struck by its dreamlike sense of place, its exploration of longing and vulnerability, and its willingness to venture into stranger, more unsettling territory than readers might expect. In this interview, Baird discusses the cult-like power of charisma, the French landscapes that inspired the novel, the emotional foundations beneath its mystery, and why she is drawn to stories that take risks and embrace the unexpected.

Author Leslie Baird discusses the inspirations behind her debut novel Salomé, including cult charisma, the allure of France, and her fascination with the ways people become vulnerable to mystery and belonging.

Q: Courtney is drawn into Salomé’s world almost immediately. Were you interested in exploring why intelligent, perceptive people can still be captivated by charisma and mystery?
A: I’m fascinated by cults. Not only organized groups, but how even something as ubiquitous as marketing copy can leak over into cultiness. (Shout out to Cultish: the Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell.) How quick we are to align with something, as humans seeking a safe group. And there are so many levels to this, which is fun to tease out in writing. Courtney may be able to scoff at a person who subscribes to Marco’s vitamin MLM subscription, but wasn’t she just as naive when a pretty French woman paid attention to her?

Continue reading “Interview: Leslie Baird on Salomé, literary suspense, and the allure of charisma” →