All the Bad Apples
by Moïra Fowley-Doyle
Publisher: Penguin
Release Date: August 1st 2019
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Mystery
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Synopsis:
The day after the funeral all our mourning clothes hung out on the line like sleeping bats. 'This will be really embarrassing,' I kept saying to my family, 'when she shows up at the door in a week or two.'
When Deena's wild and mysterious sister Mandy disappears - presumed dead - her family are heartbroken. But Mandy has always been troubled. It's just another bad thing to happen to Deena's family. Only Deena refuses to believe it's true.
And then the letters start arriving. Letters from Mandy, claiming that their family's blighted history is not just bad luck or bad decisions - but a curse, handed down through the generations. Mandy has gone in search of the curse's roots, and now Deena must find her. What they find will heal their family's rotten past - or rip it apart forever.
Can you briefly describe ALL THE BAD APPLES and the characters?
All the Bad Apples is about 17-year-old Deena, whose older sister Mandy goes missing after having told Deena about a curse on the women of their family who do not conform. While Deena’s other sister Rachel is sure Mandy is dead, Deena believes she can't be — especially after she starts receiving letters from Mandy asking her to follow the history of their family across the country in order to break the curse before it comes to her. Along with her best friend Finn, a family member she never knew she had, and a sweet stranger met along the way, Deena travels to places in her family’s past, uncovering the stories of a long line of bad apples, in search of her sister, and the origin of their family curse.
Who would you say is your favourite character from the story and why?
Ohh, this is a really difficult choice. I wrote through so many voices, between Deena, Mandy and their ancestors, and loved delving into each of their stories. I had never written historical fiction before and was surprised at how easily Mary Ellen (whose story takes place in the late 1800s) came to me, and how much I looked forward to writing her chapters. I loved setting up the contrasts between adult twins Mandy and Rachel — hot and cool, wildness and stability — and then exploring their own teenage years. And I loved writing Deena, who’d been knocking about in my head for about a good decade, whose voice was the first thing I heard when I told myself I was going to write this book.
Did you find inspiration anywhere?
I have, so far, stolen the characters for every book I've written from my younger self. When I was 18 or so I started writing a book about the Rys family, and Deena, Rachel, Mandy and Ida came from that, although Ida in particular changed a lot from first to final draft.
The idea of a family curse that is really a curse on women who don't follow the rules was built out of the fury and helpless of the whole country as horrible truths started coming out about the mother and baby homes, as we fought hard for reproductive rights that didn't seem like they'd ever happen. I read a lot of first-person accounts of Magdalene laundries, of having to travel overseas for abortions, and those stories inspired the history of the Rys family.
If you could choose one song to describe your book, which one would it be?
Three Babies by Sinéad O’Connor. I listened to it every day I wrote the second draft of this book & cried every time.
If your book was going to be made into a movie, who would play your characters?
To be honest, my dream cast would be of unknown, age-appropriate Irish actors. I've always had issues with 28 year olds playing teenagers and don't know of any Irish teen actors offhand who fit any of my characters!
Can you recommend your readers any other books in case they are left hungry for more once they finish ALL THE BAD APPLES?
If you want witchy feminist rage, queer characters & stories set in Ireland, please read the stunning Perfectly Preventable Deaths by Deirdre Sullivan and Other Words for Smoke by Sarah Maria Griffin — you’ll fall deep & fast.
What’s next for you?
I'm working on something so new it's too fragile to talk about yet, but it looks like it will be on the more magical side of magic realism, and I'm drawing up a lot of birth charts for it — including one for a house.
Moïra Fowley-Doyle is half-French, half-Irish and made of equal parts feminism, whimsy and Doc Martens. She lives in Dublin where she writes magic realism, reads tarot cards and raises witch babies.
Moïra’s first novel, The Accident Season, was shortlisted for the 2015 Waterstones Children’s Book Prize & the North East Teen Book Awards, nominated for the Carnegie Medal & won the inaugural School Library Association of Ireland Great Reads Award. It received two starred reviews & sold in ten territories. Her second novel, Spellbook of the Lost and Found, was published in summer 2017, received a starred review from School Library Journal and was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards.
Sounds great. Gorgeous cover.
ReplyDeleteI’m a few chapters in to all the bad apples and I’m loving. Thank you for this great book. Will look into your other two. Hope there will be more to come from you. Hi from Canada!
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