I got to ask some questions of Author Sarah Porter and her answers are fabulous! Definitely
don't skip reading them, as well as enter the giveaway below, and follow the rest of the tour here.
By Sarah Porter
YA Fantasy
Hardcover & ebook, 368 Pages
March 19th 2019 by Tor Teen
Summary
Seductive. Cruel. Bored.
Be wary of…
Prince and his fairy courtiers are staggeringly beautiful, unrelentingly cruel, and exhausted by the tedium of the centuries ― until they meet foster-siblings Josh and Ksenia. Drawn in by their vivid emotions, undying love for each other, and passion for life, Prince will stop at nothing to possess them.
First seduced and then entrapped by the fairies, Josh and Ksenia learn that the fairies' otherworldly gifts come at a terrible price ― and they must risk everything in order to reclaim their freedom.
Praise for NEVER-CONTENTED THINGS
“Sarah Porter is a genius. Her language is lush and dangerous, and her books burn with the beautiful, ferocious intensity of a bonfire in the darkest night. Read Never-Contented Things with the lights on. Then read it again.” ―Brittany Cavallaro, New York Times bestselling author of A Study in Charlotte
“Sarah Porter’s Never-Contented Things creates a creepy new world like none I’ve seen before. Eerie, edgy, and filled with mystery, Porter takes us to the depths of the magical and psychological.” ―Danielle Paige, New York Times bestselling author of Dorothy Must Die
Praise for WHEN I CAST YOUR SHADOW
“You’ll never think of your nightmares the same way again. Darkly seductive. Sarah Porter’s writing glitters and her storytelling stuns in this twisted tale of siblings, love, and death.” —Stephanie Garber, New York Times bestselling author of CARAVAL
“Sarah Porter’s darkly imaginative WHEN I CAST YOUR SHADOW intrigues from the start. Tragic and engrossing, filled with nightmarish dreamscapes and menacing villains, it also treads the tender terrain of family, and the strange and sometimes dysfunctional ties between siblings. Highly recommended!” —Kendare Blake, New York Times bestselling author of THREE DARK CROWNS
Author Interview
What do you love most about the cover for NEVER-CONTENTED THINGS and how does it portray the story?
What do I love most about the cover? You mean, apart from its utter, eerie perfection and disturbing beauty? It’s a portrait of one of the faerie characters, Unselle. I’ve been a fan of the photographer, Darla Teagarden, for years, so when Tor Teen asked if I had any ideas I suggested her as someone who would really get the book’s dark, faerie-punk vibe. She created Unselle’s costume and aesthetic with incredible attention to detail and asked me lots of questions so she could get it just right. I’ve never seen my vision brought to life with such precise and loving care before, and I was beyond thrilled when she sent the results of her shoot. Then Peter Lutjen took her image and turned it into such an elegant design!
Darla sent me Unselle’s mink familiar; I can’t wait for the right occasion to wear it!
Would you tell us a little more about the characters from the book?
The story is focused on the human characters and the ways they succumb to, and resist, the faeries’ entrapment. Josh and Ksenia are both smart, complex, queer, and not too comfortable with gender binaries. But Ksenia has a sharp-edged wariness that serves her well when faced with the uncanny. Josh, on the other hand, is so fed up with humanity that he assumes faeries will be better without any real evidence, and his trust turns out to be tragically misplaced.
I think of Prince and his faerie court as being similar to human predators: they target Josh and Ksenia because they’re vulnerable teenagers on a quest for self-determination and a place where they can create a life together. Their devotion to each other and their desperation create openings that the faeries exploit without mercy.
The last major human character is Lexi, Josh and Ksenia’s friend—and she’s exactly the wrong person for the faeries to target. She’s brilliant and self-possessed and keenly aware of manipulative tactics, whether they’re used by faeries or humans. Let’s just say that the faeries might end up wishing they hadn’t messed with her.
What did you find the most challenging about writing this story?
For the first two sections I was in a whirl of inspiration, and it all flowed so easily! The challenges came later. I wasn’t sure how to resolve the story and got myself into a terrible tangle. I completely cut two of the later sections and started them over from scratch, which isn’t usual for me. I wasn’t sure who would survive, or how, until I was almost at the end.
What do you love most about the fairies in NEVER-CONTENTED THINGS? Any particular favorites?
I have a soft spot for the scene where Ksenia meets Prince outside the liquor store. The uncanny works by seducing its victims, luring them in, and I think that scene has such a finely balanced dance of entrancement and resistance. I really, really love Prince’s dialogue there, too. So creepy and insinuating!
I love their perverse logic and their hallucinatory extravagance and their treatment of human relationships as a kind of living TV.
My favorite of them has to be Unselle, though. I dreamed her name, then looked it up the next day and learned that unsel is a German word for misfortune. Her delirious, childlike malice is oddly endearing to me, and very true to the faerie lore I grew up with!
Do you have a favorite fairy story in classic or modern literature?
It’s hard to pick just one—but I think I’d go with the Russian fairytale “The Frog Princess.” She’s such an incredible, powerful character: the wind’s granddaughter, under an enchantment that forces her to wear a frogskin, but that doesn’t stop her from using her own magic. And the story is so rich with amazing imagery!
I’m lucky to have grown up with Russian fairytales! I love their beautiful, wild, dreamlike elements. But even more important, I grew up in an era when most kids’ literature had male protagonists, and the rare female protagonists weren’t exactly badass. Looking back, I realize that Russian stories were practically my only exposure to brilliant, dangerous, creative female MCs. The Frog Princess uses magic as her art, and as far as I can remember she was the only example of a female creative genius in the books I read as a child.
What are you working on next?
I have another YA fantasy coming out with Tor Teen next year! Not sure what the title will be, but it’s about a boy, Angus Farrow, who thinks of himself as an innocent romantic on a quest to find his true love. In reality he’s an embodied curse cast by an evil sorcerer, designed to kill any girl he kisses.
Then I have a few new projects barely started: a fairy-talish urban YA fantasy with a falcon shapeshifter, a pseudo-science epic fantasy for adults set during the Napoleonic wars, and a YA about a girl who finds a prophesying cat. I’m not sure where all these threads are going to lead me; I just have to trust that they’re going somewhere.
About the Author
SARAH PORTER is the author of the Lost Voices Trilogy (Lost Voices, Waking Storms, The Twice Lost) in addition to Vassa in the Night—all for the teen audience. For over ten years she has taught creative writing workshops in New York City public schools to students in grades K-10. Porter also works as a VJ, both solo and with the art collective Fort/Da; she has played venues including Roseland, Galapagos, Tonic, Joe’s Pub, The Hammerstein Ballroom, The Nokia Theater, and the Burning Man festival. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two cats.
PHOTO CONTENT FROM SARAH PORTER
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