Blog Tour | Go Hunt Me by Kelly deVos | Author Interview

GO HUNT ME

Author: Kelly deVos

Genre: Young Adult Horror

Pages: 304

Publishing date: June 14th, 2022

Synopsis:

For Dracula lovers and fans of Diana Urban’s All Your Twisted Secrets, this spine-tingling thriller follows seven horror buffs as their dream trip to a remote Romanian castle turns into a nightmare when they begin to be killed one by one.

Alex Rush is ready for the trip of a lifetime.

She and her friends have made some creepily awesome films together throughout high school, so with only a few months left before they go their separate ways for college, they’re determined to make the best one yet: an epic short film that reimagines the story of Dracula, filmed on location at a remote castle in Romania.

But when they get there, it’s not quite the majestic setting they planned for. Menacing weapons line the walls, the twisted halls are easy to get lost in, and with no connection to the outside world, the group is unexpectedly off the grid. After just a few hours spent under its roof, Alex and her friends have no trouble imagining how this dark, terrifying castle inspired one of the most enduring horror novels of all time.

Only soon they no longer have to use their imaginations to understand the location’s terrifying history—just as they get the film’s first shot rolling, one of Alex’s friends disappears, and she’s nearly certain she saw a cloaked stranger lurking in the shadows. As more members of the group begin to meet an untimely demise, Alex is desperate to stop the bloodshed, even if it means facing a monster she never thought would be let loose.

Content warnings: Some discussion of sexual harassments and abuse, death, violence, gore

Author Info:

Kelly deVos is from Gilbert, Arizona, where she lives with her high school sweetheart husband, amazing teen daughter and superhero dog, Cocoa. She holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from Arizona State University. When not reading or writing, Kelly can typically be found with a mocha in hand, bingeing the latest TV shows and adding to her ever-growing sticker collection.

Kelly is represented by Chloe Seager of the Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency in London. Her work on body positivity has been featured in the New York Times as well as on Vulture, Salon, Bustle and SheKnows. Her debut novel, Fat Girl on a Plane was named one of the “50 Best Summer Reads of All Time” by Reader’s Digest magazine. Her second book, Day Zero, is available now from Inkyard Press/HarperCollins.

Thank you to TBR and Beyond Tours, Netgalley and the author for providing me with a free digital copy to read. This in no way, has influenced my thoughts on the book. You can check out the other posts on the tour here.

Interview:

Q1: Hi there Kelly! I am so happy to have you here with us! Before we begin, do share some interesting facts about yourself with us!

Ans: Hi! Thanks so much for having me! I’m from Gilbert, Arizona. My family immigrated here from Croatia in 1904. I collect stickers, am an expert on coffee shops in the Phoenix metropolitan area and have a growing family of creepy, possibly haunted, dolls.

Q2: Full disclosure, I haven’t read the novel yet, due to impending exams. What can I, and all my readers expect going into the novel?

Ans: I hope your exams go great! Regarding the book, I hope readers will be immersed in the creepy castle atmosphere and I hope that I am able to deliver some chills and surprises. It’s an updated Dracula retelling from the perspective of Lucy Westenra. I really wanted to examine a certain question. What if Lucy had been free to tell her story?

Q3: Paranormal activities seem to be a theme in this novel. Do you believe in them, for real? Have you ever experienced a paranormal experience yourself?

Ans: The book is not necessarily paranormal. I am really interested in the things in life that don’t seem to have a clear or easy explanation. When I was a child, I spent a great deal of time with my grandma, who was a master of the scary, thrilling ghost story. She’d seen spirits and heard voiced of warning at various points in her life and told stories to great effect. I guess, in my writing, I really want to capture the feeling of her stories for readers. A few days before she died, she told me that if it was possible for the living to contact the dead, she’d turn the porch light on three nights after she was buried. At the time, the light didn’t come on, so I’ve been conflicted about these possibilities and I explore this tension in my work.

Q4: The cover for Go Hunt Me is so hauntingly beautiful. What was the cover design process like?

Ans: I feel like I just keep getting really lucky with my covers. I have loved all of mine. With Go Hunt Me, the design is by Kristie Radwilowicz and Theresa Evangelista and I think they were going for a pulp horror novel feel, like from 1980’s versions of Stephen King’s It or Firestarter. They started with the picture of the castle and experimented with various typographical treatments, eventually landing on the stylized letters that look like teeth.

Q5: Your first novel was on body positivity and does not seem anything like this one… What inspired you to switch up genres? What genres do you enjoy writing the most?

Ans: Honestly, most of my writing has always been in the mystery/thriller/horror space, I just happened to have some initial success with a contemporary story in terms of what helped me land an agent and a book deal. Growing up, I read a great deal more horror and thriller fiction than contemporary stuff and I have been glad that I have been able to publish in both spaces.

Q6: Lastly, what do you hope readers will take away from this novel?

Ans: I always hope that I’ll keep readers up after their bedtime. Beyond that, I hope Go Hunt Me makes people think a bit about unlikeable female characters. I hope readers will left with one major question. Who are the real monsters in the world?

Thank you so much for the insightful interview Kelly!

Have you picked this book up already? Is it on your TBR? Who do you think the real monsters in this world are? (I think it’s us!) Let me know in the comments!