This is such a great topic! I get a lot of inspiration from music, and I find that the songs that I listen to over and over sometimes end up inspiring parts of my writing. Here are a few songs that remind me strongly of characters from The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly.
“Pretty When the Wind Blows” from the God Help the Girl soundtrack: I just watched the movie God Help the Girl, which is fantastic and features lots of original music and a super cool plot about teenagers making music in Scotland. This song in particular is a little scary in how much it sounds like Minnow.
“Bones” and “Romeo and Juliet” by The Killers:The Killers perform songs that could almost be their own YA novels—there’s something so young and yearning and painful about a lot of their music. These songs in particular remind me of Minnow’s relationship with her love interest, Jude. Minnow and Jude’s relationship is so earnest, yet imperfect, and I think these songs fit that dynamic well.
“Vuelie” from the Frozen soundtrack:This song reminds me less of a character than a place—the Community, secluded, strict religious commune in the woods where Minnow grows up. This song could almost be something the Community-dwellers chant in one of their ceremonies (I also listened to this song a lot during the writing of Minnow Bly, so it’ll probably always be inextricably tied to the book for me).
“Mama Who Bore Me” from the Spring Awakening soundtrack: I think this entire show has a lot of themes that mirror those in Minnow Bly. This song opens the show and it features one of the main characters, Wendla, (played by Lea Michelle in the original Broadway run), lamenting how little her mother has prepared her for the world, and the shame and uncertainty that accompanies being left in the dark like that. Minnow could really be singing this song to her mother.
“Bad Blood” by Taylor Swift: This song reminds me of Angel. She’s Minnow’s cellmate in juvie, a wry and vengeful teenage criminal with the guts (and stupidity) to fight back against anyone who crosses her.
The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly
Publisher: Dial/Penguin
Release Date: June 9th 2015
Genre: Young Adult, Retelling, Contemporary, Fantasy, Fairy Tale, Thriller
Blurb:
With a harrowing poetic voice, this contemporary page-turner is perfect for fans of Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak, Julie Berry's All The Truth That's in Me, and the works of Ellen Hopkins.
The Kevinian cult has taken everything from seventeen-year-old Minnow: twelve years of her life, her family, her ability to trust.
And when she rebelled, they took away her hands, too.
Now their Prophet has been murdered and their camp set aflame, and it's clear that Minnow knows something—but she's not talking. As she languishes in juvenile detention, she struggles to un-learn everything she has been taught to believe, adjusting to a life behind bars and recounting the events that led up to her incarceration. But when an FBI detective approaches her about making a deal, Minnow sees she can have the freedom she always dreamed of—if she’s willing to part with the terrible secrets of her past.
The Sacred Lies of Minnow By is a hard-hitting and hopeful story about the dangers of blind faith—and the power of having faith in oneself.
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Stephanie Oakes is a teacher and YA author from Washington State. Her debut novel, THE SACRED LIES OF MINNOW BLY (Dial/Penguin, June 9, 2015), about a girl who escapes from a religious commune only to find herself at the center of a murder investigation, is based on the Grimm fairy tale, "The Handless Maiden."
THE ARSONIST, her second YA mystery through Dial/Penguin, is scheduled for publication in fall 2016.
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