Quick Q & A with Rook Hastings

I was fortunate enough to receive a review copy of Rook Hasting's new book Immortal Remains recently - you can find my review here. Not to mince my words, it scared my freaking socks off. However, scares are not all that Rook has to offer - I found the first book in her Weirdsville series, Nearly Departed, to be superbly written and not just in its paranormal aspects (review here). So, when the lovely people at Harper Collins offered me the chance to ask Rook a few questions, I jumped at it. Here are the results:

In Nearly Departed, I was as frightened by the estate setting and violence within it as I was by the paranormal aspects of your story. What inspired you to set what was essentially a ghost story in such a bleak, modern setting?

When I was a child, my reoccurring nightmare was being chased around a dark and abandoned concrete landscape by some unseen malevolent force. I didn't put two and two together until quite recently, but I think that Woodsville is the landscape of my dreams.

Immortal Remains absolutely terrified me - more than anything has since the classic ghost stories that I read as a kid. Do you have a ghost story that particularly frightens you (either your own experience, an apocryphal tale or a known work of fiction)?

My favourite ghost story in literature is The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. It’s subtly written, the unspoken subtext so skilfully implied and I love the uncertainty about the lead character - is she haunted or mad?

Immortal Remains ends on a bit of a cliffhanger - is there anything at all you can tell us about future Weirdsville instalments?

No... Oh, OK then. I think book three is where Kelly and particularly Bethan will come into their own. There is still a dark shadow hanging over Jay and will Hashim finally face what he can't escape. Read it and see!

So there we have it. If you haven't read Nearly Departed then it is in stores now, while Immortal Remains is released on September 2nd by Harper Collins Children's Books. I highly recommend both titles - although perhaps not if you are of a nervous disposition, pregnant or have a heart condition... Prepare to be scared...