Norwegian author Camilla Bruce’s You Let Me In is published this week by Bantam Press – an intriguing tale of faerie, murder and revenge, narrated in a very unusual manner. Bruce chatted with Paul Simpson about the questions posed by the story told by Cassandra, and her interest in all things faerie…

 

Thank you very much for the time and thank you for a very intriguing book. It was a distinct experience to read You Let Me In and to be asking questions of myself as I read it, trying to work out how reliable or unreliable a narrator Cassandra was. What was the genesis of the story? Was it a specific incident or a character or a scene that came to mind?

I always blame my cat for it. Actually that was what happened because I had two cats at the time. They had this habit of bringing things inside, like leaves and twigs and greenery, and I found it all over the house.

One day I thought, what if I didn’t have cats? What could a possible reason be then, for all this greenery everywhere? That’s actually where the story started. It was inspired by the cats.

It feels as if it’s got its roots in a lot of different sorts of depictions of faerie and pagan ritual. Was that something you’ve had an interest in for a long time? Or did you have to do a lot of research to meld it into the way that this world works?

No actually, I’ve been interested in folklore and fairy stories for most of my life, so I read a lot of old stories, all the old Scottish stories and things like Secret Camelot. I’ve been through all of that so I didn’t do any specific research for this novel, I just used what I already knew.

I just wanted it to happen organically based on what was in my head at the time. So I didn’t read anything for it.

Sometimes that way your own subconscious is actually melding things that might not necessarily have appeared to be connected on the surface.

Yes that was sort of an interesting way of creating creatures without, just letting them evolve naturally.

Letting them in, so to speak

Yes.

You say you let it evolve organically; did you have a clear idea in your mind when you started as to what the truth of the situation is? I’m not asking you to tell me what you think the truth is because obviously it’s for the reader to decide but did you have in your own mind what you thought it was going to be?

I had not and I still don’t. I can tell that much, I’m just as confused as everyone else as to what was actually going on in that story.

No, I just knew some of what would happen, but the whole novel was written intuitively. I didn’t have a clear plan, I had some milestones along the way but I never decided what was the actual truth. It’s supposed to be fun for me as well, so I spent just as much time as any reader wondering what was actually going on.

When you finished the first draft then did you go back in and change any of the fundamental points of it? Or is it pretty much as you first wrote it?

After it sold it went through some editing and we were sharpening that thrillery feel throughout the story. Before that it had more of a fairytale feel perhaps and was more linear in structure. But I didn’t do many changes myself – actually when I was done with the first draft I thought no one is going to read this ever, it’s so strange. So I put it away. I actually had to have a friend come and tell me: this is it, you have to go back and you have to work on this manuscript. I honestly thought it would be really hard to find a publisher for it because it’s so unusual.

This is something different and I’m personally not surprised it got picked up.

I’m really happy that I did try because if not, it would have lived a sad and lonely existence on my hard drive, never seeing the light of day. So yeah, I’m really happy that I took the chance and I worked on it some more and it ended well.

What sparked your interest in all of this originally? Was it as a child?

Yes, it was very much as a child actually. I was interested in the supernatural and gothic fiction and fairy tales and folklore from a very young age. I think part of that was that it wasn’t so uncommon when I grew up to have a belief in this stuff but it was sort of a secret. I remember eavesdropping on adults who were discussing the latest ghost story or something and that’s what set me off. I found it extremely intriguing. I don’t think I was more than 8 years old perhaps 8,9.

You’ve got wide interests – looking at your website, you’ve got an interest in the Viking culture, and also your story about the Norwegian American serial killer Belle Gunness. What intrigued you about her? I’m wondering if there’s any kind of through line here…

Well, there is of course the geographical closeness because she grew up very close to where I live, and I actually lived where she was born for a year. So I have been there and seen the landscape and there was something…

Usually when you read about serial killers it’s something that happens far away from you and it has nothing to do with you but this was very different and since Norway is a very small country it’s very rare to have Norwegian serial killers. And especially female ones. And there’s something also about her story as a struggling mother, she had a really hard upbringing and things that resonated with me and my personal story that made her uncomfortably familiar in many ways.

I was really baffled by the whole story and couldn’t help wondering how this could happen, how this really poor Norwegian girl could end up in Indiana with a yard full of corpses. It was just so strange to me. I really wanted to know who she was and why she did what she did, even if those were twisted reasons.

One of the things that I really like about You Let Me In is that we get inside Cassandra’s mind and we almost see where she’s going, telling the story for a moment, then it takes a sharp left turn. Did you find that while you were looking at Belle as well?

Yes, it’s actually written mostly from her point of view. I think that’s sort of my MO to go in and try to find the voice, and find the headspace. Which can be challenging when it’s a serial killer..

Yes. My wife was so pleased when I finished doing my book on them. A year and half living in those minds was not pleasant.

No, it’s so strange because they are monsters, much like the Pepper Man or any monster, but they are also people – so to me it’s about seeing where does humanity end? Not just for how other people see you but how you see yourself as well. Is there sort of a line where you no longer define yourself as the same as the rest…

They just can’t relate to anybody away from them..

Yes, it’s so strange and it’s so fascinating because they are monsters and they are real so you have to treat them as humans as well, it can be an extremely exciting topic to explore.

With Cassandra, when you started writing her did you know the level of abuse she was going to get from her human family before you started writing it? Or did that come out during the writing?

No, that was actually one of the things I did know. I knew that this was going to be a story about a dysfunctional family where there were serious things happening in the wings.

I remember, I thought that I was a little unsure at first if she was going to ask for help from the fairies or if it was just going to happen naturally. But I always knew there would be this duality there between the fairy world and the world with the abuse.

The world building, the fairy world, just feels so realistic for something that’s totally unrealistic. Did you find it hard to keep continuity within that world?

No, I don’t think I did. It was because the first draft I wrote over 6 weeks so everything happened so fast and I hadn’t forgotten anything when I got to the next scene. It was all still fresh in my mind because it was so intense in the writing process. So I don’t think I had any problems with that. no.

When you’re writing, do you visualise scenes in your mind as you’re writing? Or is it more that it’s your brain to your fingers? I know some people have a visual which they’re describing as they write, other people it’s that contact between fingers and keyboard that somehow facilitates the description.

I think that I’m more of the head to keyboard type. It’s just happening in my head and I write it and it’s like the keyboard and the brain are talking for a while and discussing back and forth until they have a description that we like.

Do you go back in and out and edit as you go or is it much more of a fluid process?

I edit as I go.

Would you want to go back to the world that you’ve created there for the faerie?

I have been thinking about it and I think I could do that but I would have to do it with another cast of characters because I feel like the cast in the story is done. I’m done with that and you can’t write more about it or you will start questioning it all.

But I really like that the sort of fairies I came up with so I should like to write with them again

I can see them working in a different time period as well. Eighteenth century or even back to sort of turn of the first millennium and see how they’d react with the very different constructs in the Viking society.

Yes.

There’s a timeless feel about them and yet they are rooted in our time in the story. So, what’s next for you in terms of writing?

I am working on a new speculative novel and at least as it looks now I think it will be inspired by Scandinavian folklore. I’m also working on another historical one, it’s another serial female killer. It’s still early days so I can’t talk so much about it.

You Let Me In is out now from Bantam – click here to order from Amazon.co.uk

Thanks to Tabitha Pelly for help in arranging this interview