This Author Spotlight is close to my heart because I had the lovely opportunity to interview author Sami Ellis, whose debut book “Dead Girls Walking” is published through Abrams Books. I am so fortunate to have been interning at Abrams Books as their Children’s Publicity intern for two seasons so I am very excited to share more on Ellis’ book!
“Dead Girls Walking” is a shocking, spine-chilling YA horror about a girl searching for her dead mother’s body at the summer camp that was once her serial killer father’s home—perfect for fans of “Friday the 13th” and “White Smoke.”
Temple Baker knows that evil runs in her blood. Her father is the North Point Killer, an infamous serial killer known for how he marked each of his victims with a brand. He was convicted for murdering 20 people and was the talk of countless true crime blogs for years. Temple never believed that her dad killed her mom. But when he confesses to that crime while on death row, she has no choice but to return to his old hunting grounds to try to see if she can find a body and prove it. Turns out, the farm that was once her father’s hunting grounds and her home has been turned into an overnight camp for queer, horror-obsessed girls.
So, Temple poses as a camp counselor to go digging in the woods. While she’s not used to hanging out with girls her own age and feels ambivalent at best about these true crime enthusiasts, she tries her best to fit in and keep her true identity hidden. But when a girl turns up dead in the woods, she fears that one of her father’s “fans” might be mimicking his crimes. As Temple tries to uncover the truth and keep the campers safe, she comes to realize that there may be something stranger and more sinister at work—and that her father may not have been the only monster in these woods.
Sami Ellis is a queer horror writer inspired by the horrific nature of Black fears and the culture’s relation to the supernatural. She is also co-founder of the Write Team Mentorship Program and has been published in the Black horror anthology “All These Sunken Souls.”
In my interview, I wanted to touch upon the serial killer plot, Ellis’ relationship with horror as a child into adulthood and discovering how her debut seems to be more than just a horror book. It has meaningful undertones of slavery and truth about writing queer black characters.
As a writer and reader, what draws you to serial killers? Why do you think people are drawn to this certain trope?
Personally, I think about serial killers from the viewpoint of a very empathetic person. It’s in the back of my mind as the worst thing I can imagine someone doing – not just killing one person, but multiple. Without reason. My friends make fun of me, but I genuinely cannot be the type of person that says, “oh yeah, we’re friends, and I would help you bury a body.”
Brave of me to say, but I strongly believe murder is wrong. So, what can make someone think it’s okay?
But as an author, that’s the very dynamic that makes it worth writing about for me. There’s a spectrum to how much we respect and love other humans that aren’t related to us, and serial killers are kind of outside of that. How do we reconcile the idea that humanity is supposed to all be in this together when there’s someone who has completely removed themselves from that formula?
Serial killers often leave clues behind. For you, you used metal coins that Temple has memorized as markers of her father’s victims. What made you choose coins? Were you inspired by a real-life serial killer?
I was not inspired by a real-life serial killer. I’ll glance at a Wikipedia page every few years, but overall, I tend to avoid true crime because it can really get in my head. So for “Dead Girls Walking,” I was working off of my imagination. And the coins were just practical. I needed a physical representation of the mark, because the Mark has always been the important part. It has always been the thread between her father being a serial killer, “Hearts Stop” which all the campers loved, and the future of what happens at the camp.
The reason I chose the coins is a bit darker and more specific. Temple herself calls them coins, but she makes it clear early on – they are iron. They’re the branding heads of branding irons for livestock, which her father would use to burn the Mark into his victims. I chose branding, specifically, because a common practice for slaves was to brand with a mark of ownership – just like a farmer would a cow. Temple’s father is that far outside of empathy. We learn a lot about what happened to enslaved people, but I think we learn so much that the true horror of it fades away. Like how traumatic it would be to physically melt someone’s skin, that close to them.
Her father is doing that to people, as an act of violence, and as a slave descendant who should know better. He may be a sympathetic figure, but he is a monster.
What parts of yourself do you see in Temple? How do you hope readers can connect with her?
Temple is based on a student that I had, and how much of myself I saw in her. There was one incident, while she was working for me – she had been for about two years. This student was fired because she cussed a boy out in the employee group chat – after he made some explicit comments about her in that same chat. He apologized and she refused to, and she got fired immediately. I saw myself in that situation. It hurt me so deeply that I couldn’t protect her from the way the world works. Because I know that the world’s not fair.
I simultaneously felt like she should have gotten fired and should not have gotten fired. She was right, even though she was wrong. And a lot of us have moments like that, where we did something in anger so absolutely justified that it’s crushing when we face the consequences of our actions. I’ve felt that way before. I hope that readers can connect to that self-sabotaging anger. And the main takeaway I want readers to have is that it’s not about holding in your anger at all. It’s about doing what’s best for you – and sometimes, that’s not what feels best. That student’s job was absolutely not worth being insulted and holding it in, but some of you do have jobs like that, or hobbies like that.
While it’s not fair that we have to pick and choose these things for our own happiness, it’s reality. And we need more awareness of that reality – not that you can’t make mistakes, but that you always have to be ready for retaliation. And at the end of the day, you have to make sure you’re happy.
How has your relationship with horror changed since the first time you were introduced to the genre? Has writing this book contributed to your relationship with the genre?
Ever since writing “Dead Girls Walking,” I’ve started to realize horror has much more hidden depth than I realized. I am a horror fan and have been since childhood – but I used to think that horror was an ubiquitous genre. I mean, there are multiple multi-million-dollar blockbuster horror franchises. Stephen King isn’t just a mega-bestselling author – he is the author. A modern-day legend. And Stephen King writes horror. To me, that’s not niche. That’s mainstream.
But I’ve found in the conversations that people have had with me since release, that that’s not the case. While I was trying to sell the book I was surprised to find that there are people who really dislike horror. Really hate the genre itself, even if it’s not just about fear.
There are also people who only read one type of horror. Some people really hate horror that’s not speculative – it will ruin the entire book for them if there’s no ghost revealed!I was always someone who knew what I liked in horror, but I never realized that all of us are like that. And some people are very passionate about their tastes.
In your acknowledgments, you write about how you knew “Dead Girls Walking” was “going to be published,” which is often different from other authors who have untouched drafts. How did you know this was going to be published, and what pushed you through when it received rejections?
When I finished “Dead Girls Walking,” I was simply confident that I was speaking to the exact right audience. Sometimes I finish writing books and I don’t know what I said. I may have gotten some points across but I didn’t make one cohesive argument.
“Dead Girls Walking” was an argument from the first draft. It was a story about an angry girl learning that it’s okay that she’s angry, but she should still love herself and try to move forward. That has always been the core message of the book. And it was that in every draft. I just knew that this needed to be heard. I also knew that it was the perfect time. If publishing was smart, it would be. “Dead Girls Walking” had a full cast of color, a Black horror off the coattails of Get Out – and a YA horror book right at the cusp of Wilder Girls pre-release hype. It was a rare time that I was not only a clear voice, but also market-forward.
Unfortunately, like I’ve said in my acknowledgments, none of that mattered and it didn’t get picked up for another 6 years. I got 110 rejections. There was even a point where I gave up on it completely. After I got an agent a few years later, I only worked on it again because I never gave up on the message that I was trying to send. I never gave up on trying to tell an angry girl that it’s okay to be angry.
I wanted to make sure that it got into the hands of readers that needed that message. If it didn’t get published then, I think I would have tried again, eventually. Because that’s just how much I believed in the story.
Temple’s complicated family dynamics are woven throughout your story. Why do you think family relationships are often found in thrillers?
We all have complicated relationships with our family. I don’t think anybody, even if it’s a positive relationship, has a flawless relationship with their family. There is a complexity that comes with merging two identities together, and the more people you add, the more complex it gets. That’s why complicated family dynamics are not just pervasive in thrillers, it’s pervasive in fiction. I love a complicated family story. I personally have told people if it’s not a life drama with jump scares, it’s not the kind of horror for me. What makes a family? Who do you choose, and who don’t you choose?
My own work focuses on family dynamics in the sense of what we owe to each other, and the emotional impact of the relationships. Who do we turn to when things get difficult, and how can that go wrong? What do we do when the people who we love are no longer there – and what if the reason they’re not there is your worst fear?
And even more interesting is thinking about what makes relationships persist. What would cause these relationships to rip apart? What would keep them together? I know I’m much more on the hopeful side of horror, so I’m more interested in making relationships stronger, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy a breakdown or two.
In the theme of getting over fears, what is something no one knows about you and/or your writing or something you’ve never shared?
Every book I’ve ever written was a challenge to myself.
Not in a metaphorical sense – a literal sense, like they’re glorified writing prompts. Every book was a challenge to myself to explore something. Not always a trope or a relationship, but sometimes entire genres of writing styles. In “Dead Girls Walking,” for example, I challenged myself to write a straight horror book, a tribute to Friday the 13th.
For the third book I ever finished, I challenged myself to write an entire book and then revise it. The fourth book’s challenge was to utilize Black culture in the world building. Every book I write is a challenge to myself because sometimes it’s difficult to do the thing that you’re afraid of.
I love writing so much that I never want fear to keep me from writing what I want.
Thank you, Ellis, for answering my questions! Congratulations on your debut. Wishing you much success with this book, and I hope to see your name in print again. I’d also like to thank Anna Merz from Abrams Books for making this interview happen and giving me an ARC of “Dead Girls Walking.”