It seems that all the characters (Max, Mantis, Audra, Juniper, and even Lance) are guilty of something. Do you think any of the characters here are inherently good?
You know, I became increasingly aware of this as I kept writing and rewriting these people! No one comes out as a great candidate for any sort of humanitarian award. But! I don’t think people are all good or all bad, of course. Not even Max and Mantis are all bad. (Though, to be sure, they are mostly bad!) So by this logic, all of them are inherently good(!). But the levels of goodness vary wildly from character to character. I think Coral might have the highest “good quotient” and then maybe Lance.
Can you talk about the different forms of complicity in this story?
There’s so much! But I think all of it can basically be broken down into two major types: complicities of action and complicities of silence. There are characters who knowingly and deliberately do things that have major and horrible impacts on others. I think of Moss, Mantis, and Audra in particular. And then there are characters who understand and recognize various forms of peril and abuse around them and remain silent. I think of Juniper, Lance (who’s a bit of a mix), and even Coral to a lesser extent—perhaps when it comes to Ashley Pelletier. I think one of the interesting things about all of this interplay of complicity is that a lot of the time it emerges out of a character’s strong need—however selfish that need might be. Moss needs to be great artist. Mantis needs his past to remain a secret. Audra needs closure. Juniper needs the connectivity friendship affords. Lance needs Audra. Coral needs relief. So they each do what is within their power to do to achieve these ends. Often with tragic consequences.
What kinds of books are you reading these days?
I’m currently reading Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan and Black Widows by Cate Quinn. I recently finished Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam, which absolutely knocked my socks off!
Acknowledgments
A published book, I’ve learned, holds within it a stupendous ecosystem of very kind, very talented, and very enthusiastic people. The making of a book—the making of a writer—is quite a magical, alchemical, and collaborative process. And I’m so grateful that it is. My book is better for it. I am better for it.
For loving my manuscript so fast and being willing to help me shape it so much; for our instant chemistry and your gracious patience; for always looking out for my best interests: Sarah Bedingfield, agent extraordinaire, thank you.
For your commitment to and enthusiasm for this story; for your ability to see and articulate narrative possibilities that I never could have dreamed of without you; for helping to make my book far better than when you first met it: my editors, MJ Johnston and Jenna Jankowski, thank you.
For giving me a shot and granting my work such a fabulous home among such fabulous company: Sourcebooks, thank you. Titan Books, thank you.
For your instruction, your welcoming habitats, your power as homing beacons in my heart: the English departments of the University of Maine and the University of Notre Dame.
For your excitement, your cheerleading, your kindness, and your friendships: Joan Peters, Mary Peters, and my whole work family, thank you.
For years—years!—of belief, support, shop talk, love, and the simple fact of your profound presence in my life, the High Council, the friends: Megan Soderberg, Chris Tarbell, Tim Berrigan, Dave Kress, Evan Bryson, Beth Towle, and Drew Kalbach, thank you. For all my friends who happen not to be named here—but you know who you are—thank you.
For a lifetime of love, support, belief, and imagination; for being the people I got to start with—which put me way ahead of the game, if you ask me: my dad, Ken Lattari; my mom, Mary Lattari; and my brothers, KJ Lattari and Joe Lattari, thank you. Kerrie Lattari and Sarah Hardy, and the extended Lattari and Foss families, thank you, too.
For your incredible ability to see me and love me in a way I had not thought possible; for consulting as Plot Doctor when I was close to ripping my hair out; for keeping things light when the work felt heavy; for believing, believing, believing like it was a law of the universe, intractable, irrevocable: my husband and partner, Kevin Foss, thank you. I love you.
About the Author
Katie Lattari holds degrees from the University of Maine and the University of Notre Dame. Her first novel, American Vaudeville, a small press work, was published in 2016. A native of Brooklyn, New York, she now lives in Bangor, Maine, with her husband, Kevin, and their cat, Alex. Dark Things I Adore is Katie’s debut thriller.
Keep up to date with Katie Lattari by joining her mailing list or checking her out on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads.
Thank you for reading this Sourcebooks eBook!
Join our mailing list to stay in the know and receive special offers and bonus content on your favorite books and authors!
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP
Books. Change. Lives.
Dark Things I Adore Page 31