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[et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text”]Good Girls Die Last by Natali Simmonds is a tense, feminist thriller set during a heatwave in London. Perfect as a summer read! Released in hardback this week, it has already received excellent reviews and been signed for a tv series.
I was fortunate to preview the book before release and found it hard to put down until I reached the unexpected end! It covers important topical themes in a captivating, modern and thought-provoking way.
During and after reading, it prompted several interesting discussions with my partner about how so many people have significant experiences in day to day life – which are too often overlooked and ignored. I admire when authors insist through storytelling that we dig deeper and consider several personal perspectives on things happening around us all the time.
I particularly enjoyed the highly visual way in which it is written – I felt I was almost there in Trafalgar Square.
Many internationals in The Hague will identify with some of the challenges of being an immigrant that she weaves into the book. We are fortunate that Natali is based here in the Netherlands and I interviewed her in person with a celebratory cocktail at Little V in The Hague last week.
So great to meet up with you, Natali. I really enjoyed Good Girls Die Last. I felt many emotions while reading it. This book must have been a tough one to write.
So glad you enjoyed it, Renee. Yes, writing Good Girls Die Last was pretty gruelling at times because everything that happens in it has happened to me or a woman I know, one way or another. Thankfully not the part about the serial killer, but the microaggressions we all encounter day to day. I cried writing it, I got anxious, but most of all I sweated. It wasn’t easy editing a book set during a heatwave during last summer’s real heatwave!
Although Good Girls Die Last is your debut thriller, it’s not your first book. Tell us about your other books.
Good Girls Die Last is actually the twelfth book I’ve written. My first was a fantasy trilogy (The Path Keeper, Son of Secrets, and Children of Shadows), the last of which was shortlisted for an RNA Fantasy Award. With my writer friend, Jacqueline Silvester, I have co-written four books so far for our Caedis Knight paranormal romance series Blood Web Chronicles, as well as a manga series. I also wrote two middle grade books, a historical fantasy, and a YA romance…but they have not been published. Maybe one day! I’m currently writing my thirteenth book (another thriller).
Is writing fantasy very different to writing a thriller?
Totally. Fantasy takes a lot longer as it involves a lot of world building and research (especially historical fantasy). It’s a lot of fun though as literally anything can happen and you get to invent monsters and create magic systems. Thrillers, on the other hand, are usually a much smaller word count and quicker to write, as they are set in our own world, but they can be hard to get right as you have to kill characters. You have no idea how hard it is to plan a fictional death that’s realistic and hard to predict.
Although Good Girls Die Last is a tense thriller, it covers so many themes relating to women – especially those who have emmigrated to another country. Tell us more about that.
As the daughter of a Spanish immigrant myself, one who moved from Spain aged seven and lived in London until I was thirty, I wanted to write a story about a woman like me. A woman with a foot in each culture.
It’s a very unique position to be in, because wherever you are you never quite feel like you belong. While Em is trying to battle some very desperate external issues; a heatwave and having to walk to the airport while there’s a serial killer on the loose, she’s also trying to come to terms with who she is and what she wants. All the while being confronted by the worst people society has to offer.
As well as highlighting the everyday racism immigrants encounter, I also wanted to write a book that reflects the realities of being female. Yes, it’s a story about a woman trying to reach a destination while the city dissolves into chaos, but it’s really about the little things that make women want to snap; uncomfortable clothing and shoes, not being able to find a toilet, a broken suitcase, long hair on a hot day, constant harassment and judgement, and the ever-growing pressure of social media hysteria.
What has the general reaction been to such a thought-provoking thriller? Is it what you thought it would be?
Good Girls Die Last was released on Kindle and audio 1 May and hardback 22 June and I’ve been pleasantly surprised, and touched, by the amazing feedback I’ve been getting.
I expected readers to be shocked by the rawness of some parts, to have people ask me why I made Em bisexual, or why the book is littered with profanities…but, so far, most reviews have been very positive.
One thing I didn’t expect to receive was the influx of private messages from women with their own sexual harassment stories; mainly women who were Em’s age forty or fifty years ago and had even less of a voice than we do today. Having read the book, these women have been thinking back to their own youth and realising how the things they experienced day to day were not acceptable, and they are thanking me for highlighting that.
What was your main aim for this book?
My main aim was to entertain. I love to make readers feel something, and I’m secretly happy I’m keeping everyone up reading all night as it’s a very pacey book. But more than that, I wanted to start a discussion about immigration and how it feels to be a woman in today’s society. I wanted to ask the question ‘Is it safer to stay quiet about abuse, or to speak up?’ and I think I achieved that.
And I hear Good Girls Die Last is being made into a TV series?
YES! Months before the book was released, three TV scouts started reading it and STV, the production company behind UK dramas such as Screws and Elizabeth is Missing optioned it for TV. I’ll be Executive Producer, so it’s been lots of fun getting a say on the team we put together and casting. There’s a long way to go until anyone gets to see it on the TV, but even getting this far is a dream come true.
Thank you so much for such a thrilling, and thought-provoking, read.
Good Girls Die Last is in all good bookshops 22 June 2023. It also available as an audio book and can be (pre)ordered in paperback and as an ebook via Bol, Amazon and elsewhere. More info – save-em.com
As well as being an author (writing as Natali Simmonds, N J Simmonds, and Caedis Knight) Natali is a brand consultant for a number of entertainment brands, has a column in Kings College London’s Inspire The Mindmagazine, and lectures for Raindance Film School. Originally from London, she now divides her time between the UK, Spain, and the Netherlands. Find out more and contact her via: www.njsimmonds.com or follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/NJSimmondsbooks or Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/njsimmonds_author/
Article: Renée Tentori[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column]
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