About the Book:
Former Lie or Die survivor Kass Kennedy is blackmailed into competing in the reality TV sequel, Blood Moon. Lured to a mysterious location, Kass discovers that the contestants will go to extreme lengths for fame, fortune, and revenge and that far from being on the run, the Lie or Die killer has prepared a deadly comeback. Kass has just three nights of the blood moon to identify the Werewolves and save her friends.
Lie or Die was just a rehearsal. Reality TV just got darker.
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About the Author:
A.J. Clack moved from a small village in Wales to London, to pursue a career in television. She worked on a wide range of shows from Teletubbies to Friends, while also writing plays for the Edinburgh Fringe and developing scripts/pilots for childrenʼs television. She now lives in Suffolk with a houseful of teenagers and can often be found freezing on the side of a rugby pitch.
Interview:
The game Kass and co have to play – and survive – this time around is werewolf meets total wipeout. Why did you choose this combo for their next deadly game?
For me it’s more Werewolf meets Squid Game as I wanted the games as deadly as possible (evil laugh). I’m a huge fan of Squid Games and took inspiration from how they took very simple playground games and elevated them to a whole new sinister level. While I love the Wipeout reference, I think that suggests a more comic element to the story and I think it’s safe to say Blood Moon is not for the faint hearted!
I always knew I wanted the sequel to be based on the game Werewolf and set in Caerphilly Castle which is the most amazing location. Like all TV sequels I wanted Blood Moon to come back bigger, with better budgets and better locations. The games themselves really grew from the setting and the location. A huge mediaeval castle with multiple lakes, several different areas, high turrets and castle walls, there was a lot to draw from and I had a lot of fun thinking up dark and dangerous tasks for the contestants to overcome (yes, I really do need to get out more!)
Sequels typically have to up the stakes for readers. How easy was it for you to work out the balance between an old villain (who this time we know about from the start, rather than trying to work out through the book) and making the villainous side bigger and badder?
This was tricky! Like you say, we already knew who had done it before we started the story, so it was tricky to keep the tension. It’s also a difficult question to answer without giving away too many spoilers but safe to say the killer really does come back bigger and nastier this time around. With so much information already out on the table I tried to subvert the readers expectations and turn that information on its head to create the unexpected. So, you may think you know what’s happening, but the action takes you in a different direction entirely. I wanted to really push this game to its limits and see where that would take us.
Unlike with Lie or Die, Kass goes into Blood Moon knowing that this is going to be a deadly game. How did that affect writing the stakes and the various motivations you had to give her in order for her to play?
Again, this was really hard!! It sounded easy when I pitched it but when the characters know the game and the result how on earth do you get them to take part in the first place? It did give me a few headaches!! In this sequel everything is so much bigger and darker, so character motivations had to mirror that, and the stakes had to be raised accordingly. I had to keep asking myself the question what would it take for Kass to go back into a game she already knew was deadly and why would she continue to play when she knew just how high the stakes were?
There are several additional roles that players can be in werewolf and you use some of them here – as well as adapting some into “advantages” characters can win. How did you decide which ones to bring into your game? Were there any you wanted to use but couldn’t fit in?
It was so much fun thinking up different cards and having different escapes routes for the characters which I couldn’t do with Lie or Die. This was made slightly easier as it was a sequel and the game had already been set up in book one giving me more freedom to explore different character cards and advantages. And Werewolf gives you the freedom to create any additional characters that you can think of, your imagination is literally your limit! Unfortunately, when writing there is only so much time in one story, so I was limited to how many I had time to set up. I did want to add a Seer card in but there simply wasn’t enough time.
This sort of thriller, by necessity, has quite a high body count. What tips would you give aspiring writers for ensuring the reader gets to know the characters fast enough that their deaths are a blow?
The game made this a bit easier as it leant itself towards big characters with big personalities. Try to have a really good image of each character in your mind from the start and how they differ from each other. I do a lot of work on all my characters even if they only spend a short amount of time in the story, so even the smallest roles have detailed back stories. Attention to detail is key, each character has their own little mannerisms and characteristics that make them easily recognizable. I think if you as the writer know your characters really well that will translate on to the page, in their actions and dialogue. The characters in Blood Moon are very diverse, and each has their own reason for entering the game, so even if we don’t meet them for very long,
The cast of this book is a mix of returning characters and new characters – some of whom have links to the dead players of the last game. Some are reprising/filling the roles they/their relative had in the other book, but others are playing a different role. How did you decide who was going to take what archetype in the cast? Was there anyone whose role surprised you?
I wanted to explore the effects of grief and survivors’ guilt in Blood Moon through the returning characters and how the first game had taken its toll on the survivors, but I also wanted the relatives to have their own characters and not simply be copies of the first game victims. The cast is bigger in Blood Moon so I was able to explore more archetypes and take them further than Lie or Die. I loved writing King John, he was such a fun (and horrible) character to write and yes, he surprised me in the end.
If you were forced to play Blood Moon, how well do you think you’d survive?
I think I would be useless, I probably wouldn’t even get over the wall!! I’d like to think I would do well and be all hero-like but I can’t lie for toffee and look guilty even when I’m totally innocent. It’s a standing joke in my group of Mafia-playing friends at how useless I am. I wouldn’t get through the cave trail as that one is based on my own fears!!
Please recommend a UKYA read you think readers will also love.
One of my fav YA books is THE CALL by Peadar O’Guilin*. This is one of the creepiest books I’ve ever read and I love it. The premise is so original. If you haven’t read it and you’re into survival game type thrillers then this one is for you.
Thank you, Ali!
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