Kat Ellis discusses her new book Breaker and why we, as readers, enjoy the pull and mystery of dark thrillers.
About ‘Breaker’
Kyle Henry has a new name, a new school, and a new life — one without the shadow of the Bonebreaker hanging over him. It’s been a year since his serial killer father’s execution, and it finally looks like things are turning around for Kyle.
Until he recognizes the girl sitting in the back row in homeroom.
Naomi Steadman is immediately intrigued by Killdeer Academy’s newcomer. She does not know he is the son of the man who murdered her mother. What she does know is she and Kyle have a connection with each other — and a spark that Kyle continues to back away from.
Soon after Kyle’s arrival, the death count on campus starts to rise. Someone is set on finishing what the Bonebreaker started, and murdering ghosts from the past may be the only thing that can stop the spree.
Told in alternating viewpoints, Kat Ellis’s tale of mystery and horror is full of broken bonds and new beginnings.
Shining a light on dark YA by Kat Ellis
My new YA thriller, Breaker, features a serial killer who uses brass knuckles as his weapon of choice, and two teens who have lived their lives in the killer’s shadow. The novel is set in an isolated boarding school teeming with secrets, and someone there is threatening to finish what the Bonebreaker started when Kyle and Naomi were children.
Breaker has been described as a ‘dark thriller,’ and I wouldn’t argue with that. It deals with some tough subjects. But while I don’t think there are many (any?) topics that are absolutely off-limits in YA, the way these topics are dealt with can make the difference between a dark thriller and a story that is… well, bleak. As both a reader and a writer, bleak is not what I look for in a book. I want excitement and mystery, and if there’s a little romance in the mix, then I’m a happy bunny. Finding the right balance in Breaker, where the darker elements of the story could easily have escalated into some great swirling vortex of grim despair, gave me an interesting challenge.
When I first came up with the idea for Breaker, I was watching a documentary about serial killers (as you do). The interviewer talked to friends and family of both the killer and the victims, and I got to thinking about those people — the ones who get swept up in the wake of violent crimes, but are mostly forgotten. The ones who don’t make the headlines, but who feel the impact just as much.
I decided my story would follow the story of two kids: Kyle, a boy whose father was a brutal killer, and Naomi, who witnessed her mother being murdered when Naomi was six. I thought about how both their lives would have changed in the aftermath as they grew up, how they might change. What would happen if these two were unexpectedly thrown together years later? How would they cope with having their lives turned upside down again? Would they be more resilient because of what they’d already lived through, or would a new terror break them?
I knew it would be a difficult story to tell, and while I love a good dark thriller, there had to be a lighter element to give Kyle and Naomi — and readers — a sense of hope. For Naomi and Kyle, their connection is what provides that hope. There is romance, for sure, but that begins with them actually liking each other, and having fun.
People have always assumed the worst about Kyle, but Naomi doesn’t. She treats Kyle like he’s a good person, not just a thug who’s bound to end up behind bars. And Kyle is kind to her where others are cruel, and he gets her dorky sense of humor. She makes him laugh, and this is one of the things that draws them together, despite their past fighting to push them apart.
It smelled different in the boys’ wing, like dirty socks and bare skin. I had to double-check the number of rooms I walked past before I figured out which one was Kyle’s. I knocked, and his voice carried through the door a moment later.
“What?”
I waited, bopping and miming along to a song that wasn’t even playing. When the door opened, Kyle looked at me like I was crazy. So I kept right on shuffling my feet, using my pointer-fingers like antennae, all the while holding his eye and mouthing nonsense words until he couldn’t just stand there any longer.
“What are you listening to?” he said loudly, then rubbed his head where the dark bruises were still in bloom.
I slid my headphones down around my neck. “Nothing. I was seeing how long you could hold out before you talked to me.”
[Excerpt from Breaker by Kat Ellis]
Their relationship hits some pretty harsh roadblocks, with secrets threatening to tear them apart and bodies piling up around them on the school campus. But finding out how Kyle and Naomi might emerge at the end of it all — whether they could possibly come out whole, both as individuals and as a couple — was the thing I was most excited to see when I wrote Breaker. I hoped that when the Big Bad came for them, they would come out swinging. I hoped that they might hold onto something good, even when events took their darkest turn. And I think that’s what a lot of dark YA offers readers: a chance to discover the hope that surfaces when terrible things happen.
About Kat Ellis
Kat Ellis is a YA author from North Wales. Breaker, her latest release, has been praised as ‘A standout thriller with a splash of romance’ (School Library Journal), and ‘Spine-chilling and splendidly gory, with a genre-perfect stormy night denouement’ (Kirkus Reviews). Her debut, Blackfin Sky, was a Junior Library Guild Selection, and a YALSA Popular Paperbacks pick for Murder, Mysteries and Mayhem. Her third novel, Purge, will release in September 2016.
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