So, Kami, tell us a little about yourself.I’m a totally normal girl. I’d describe myself as level-headed and sensible. I get fairly high test scores and hardly ever ride around in fast cars with dangerous boys. (More’s the pity.) I’m part Japanese, which is unusual for my tiny English town but totally normal. I live in a thatched cottage (very picturesque, also very damp) with my parents and my two little brothers. I want to be a journalist, because I want to find out the truths of the world and tell people stories about them: I want to have a hundred adventures and tell people about them, too.
It’s true that in the cause of sleuthing I did get a little bit entangled in some forgery this summer. And that I can frequently be found talking to myself, but that’s because I have an imaginary friend. And I have been known to break into people’s homes and swimming pools, but all this vandalism and trespass is done in the pursuit of great justice!
… All right, I admit to having a few quirks. But my best friend Angela’s description of me as ‘crazy as a bedbug in a straitjacket’ was both untrue and hurtful!
Us readers can understand crushing on someone who doesn’t exist, with novels full of hot, awesome guys. However, Jared isn’t a fictional character, he’s an imaginary friend. How long have you two been friends?
Since I can remember: I don’t remember a time before I knew him any more than I remember my first breath in the world or the first word I spoke.
He’s necessary like that: like breath and words.
I’m a reader myself, so I completely see what you mean: I’m used to caring about imaginary people. I love mystery novels! Nothing I like better than poisoned marmalade or an evil butler: I always try to figure out whodunit before the book tells me.
At what point did you realise that maybe your imaginary friend shouldn’t really exist
anymore, that you were too old – yet he was still there in your head? Basically, when did you start thinking your friendship with Jared is probably a little... odd?
I never knew anything else: I don’t know how people stand being alone in their own
heads. The only way I knew that people did things differently, that they didn’t all have imaginary friends and constant company, was how they reacted to me: how my mother reacted to me.
She was really scared. Sometimes I still worry that she’s scared: of me, of Jared, that I’m crazy. I never quite know what to do to comfort her. I try to play it down, to plan out my life to show her I have everything under control, that I’m okay, that I’m happy and I can take care of myself. I don’t want her to worry, and I don’t want to lose him.
The fact that he’s still in your head, doesn’t that make life a little... difficult? What do others think?
Having an imaginary friend is cute when you’re seven: it’s very different when you’re seventeen. Sometimes I think that all the whispering in this town, all the dark looks, are just because of me.
And let me tell you, very few guys are super into it when the hot lady they’re taking out for a pizza starts talking to or laughing at thin air. That’s third date kind of stuff, you know?
Not that I have, so far, been on a third date. The boys of my town Sorry-in-the-Vale may unfairly regard me as mad as a bathtub full of tomato sauce. Besides which, my best friend is more or less the most gorgeous girl on the face of the earth, so boys get a bit dazzled by her and stagger around as if they have hotness-related heatstroke.
There was this one college guy that one time, though. I figure college is where they
appreciate sparkling wit. (I’m also totally willing to break out some cute low-cut vintage dresses.)
Running the school newspaper, it’s your business to know about the goings on in Sorry-in-the-Vale. As well as the return of the Lynburns, some other strange things have been happening. What’s up with that?
Believe me, I plan to find out. As the brand-new editor of the brand-new school newspaper, I know we need to establish ourselves by breaking out some good stories, and I’m dedicated to getting every detail about the Lynburns, the family who just returned to the Gothic manor on the hill above our town, after seventeen years.
I may have to interview both the new Lynburn boys going to my school: I’m inspired by other intrepid journalists to do whatever I have to do for a story!
Besides which, allowing mysterious screaming in the woods to continue is just not being a good citizen.
I pretty much always have a plan, and they pretty much always work.
You know, for a given value of ‘work.’
What would you say readers are likely to expect from reading Unspoken? What would you say this story is about?
I don’t think anyone can say what their own story is about. I’m hoping that there will be a mystery, but one I can solve: nobody wants to sign on for stories about heartbreak or loss, but some people cannot escape them. There’s a sinister manor: there are dark woods: there is no assurance of safety.
I’ll tell you one thing, though.
Nora Ephron said ‘Be the heroine of your life, not the victim.’ And I’m going to take that as my guide for whatever story I find myself in: to never be too frightened to act, to keep on asking questions and searching for answers. Above all else, I will be the heroine of my life.
Thank you, Kami, for such a brilliant interview! Aren't you all the more intrigued by Unspoken now? Be sure to visit Sarah Rees Brennan's website, and check out Unspoken, which was released on 13th September 2012!
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