|
|
| photo: Caleb Whitten | |
Hannah Whitten has been writing to amuse herself since she could hold a pen, and sometime in high school figured out that what amused her might also amuse others. Her books have been international bestsellers and translated into multiple languages. She lives in Tennessee with her family, two dogs who think they run the house, and a cat who actually does. In her sixth novel, Reliquary (Run for It, August 11, 2026), a young woman is lured to her late fiancé's remote island estate--only to uncover eerie family secrets, a haunting past, and a monstrous hunger stirring beneath the sea.
Handsell readers your book:
Reliquary is a wetter, squelchier Ready or Not, with a seaweed garnish and cosmic horror sauce. Claire has been hollowed out by grief and a neglectful childhood, so getting love-bombed by her tech-bro fiancé works a little too well. But when he dies suddenly and she's invited to his stupidly wealthy family's private island for a wake, she has to decide how far she's willing to go for belonging.
On your nightstand now:
I've always got multiple books on my nightstand! Right now, I'm about 100 pages from the end of King Sorrow by Joe Hill, but I also have Convent Wisdom by Ana Garriga and Carmen Urbita as well as Doe by Rebecca Barrow, which I've already read and loved. There's also a Five Nights at Freddy's graphic novel that my daughter left there.
Favorite book when you were a child:
The Seer and the Sword by Victoria Hanley is the book that showed me I loved reading. I think I checked it out from the library at least 10 times.
Your top five authors:
Holly Black
Carmen Maria Machado
Bethany C. Morrow
Michael Wehunt
Caitlin Starling
Book you've faked reading:
I've read just enough of Bram Stoker's Dracula to know what I'm talking about, but at this point I mostly know those things from memes. I'm also chipping away at a copy of House of Psychotic Women by Kier-La Janisse and it's taking me so long that I feel like I'm fake-reading it, but I promise I actually am!
Book you're an evangelist for:
Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White and Middlegame by Seanan McGuire. And when I have romance-curious friends who don't know what they like or where to start, I slip them a copy of Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher.
Book you've bought for the cover:
The Last Witch on the Knock by Aimée MacDonald, and I searched around until I could find the U.K. version! The book was an absolute fever dream and absolutely lived up to the cover.
Book you hid from your parents:
God, so many, but the first one was Ghost Beach by R.L. Stine. I hid a lot of Goosebumps books as a child. I also have a copy of Uzumaki by Junji Ito that I turn around when my parents visit because the picture on the spine might raise some questions I don't really want to answer.
Book that changed your life:
I read Tithe by Holly Black when I was 15, and it's what made me want to write books. As an adult, Valiant is my favorite of the Modern Faerie Tales, but Tithe changed my brain chemistry.
Favorite line from a book:
"I will holler you home" from Lisey's Story by Stephen King. I have it tattooed! A close second (and another tattoo) is "Courage, dear heart," from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis.
Five books you'll never part with:
I never part with books, but the ones I most like to keep around are Lisey's Story by Stephen King, the Gospel of Mary Magdalen from the Apocrypha, Rainer Maria Rilke's The Book of Hours, The Likeness by Tana French, and Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow. I UGLY cried.
The book that felt the most "you":
The Children by Melissa Albert.