Hello my bookish friends. Today I planned a brand new feature but today’s blog tour interview takes priority. Don’t worry though it will be posted on Wednesday.
Today I’m excited to be part of Furious Thing blog tour with FFBC I was part of the bookstagram tour last year and this book I feel needs to be heard! Please bare in mind this book needs to be read in the right mindset too. If you don’t trust my word, trust Holly Bourne. My stop is an interview with Jenny. I haven’t read any of her other books so this was a really interesting Q&A I wanted to do. So before I heard to that, here is a little bit more about the book.
Furious Thing by Jenny Downham Published by David Fickling Books on January 7, 2020
Genres: Contemporary
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From the critically acclaimed author of Before I Die comes a remarkably affecting story of a girl who burns with anger for reasons she can't understand, and the power and risk that comes with making noise. Fans of E. Lockhart, Jennifer Niven, and Gayle Foreman will find their own fury in this exceptional novel for our times.
Lexi's angry. And it's getting worse.
If only she could stop losing her temper and behave herself, her stepfather would accept her, her mom would love her like she used to, and her stepbrother would declare his crushing desire to spend the rest of his life with her. She wants these things so badly, she's determined to swallow her anger and make her family proud.But pushing fury down doesn't make it disappear. Instead, it simmers below the surface waiting to erupt . . . And there'll be fireworks when it does.
From the bestselling and award-winning author of Before I Die, You Against Me, and Unbecoming comes a remarkably affecting story that explores the myriad of ways a girl's sense of self can be whittled away, and what might happen when she fights back.
Interview with Jenny Downham
What first inspired you to write Furious Thing?
I knew very little about the book when I started writing it. I had a few ideas, but they were abstract, theoretical, as if I knew the tone of the piece, but nothing else. I use free writing techniques when I start a new project. This is a bit like improvising in theatre – throwing words down and not planning anything in advance. Most of it goes in the bin, but the strongest voices keep returning.
A golden family came first, then a 15-year-old girl, Lexi, who was ‘different’ from this family. She says, ‘I’m an ogre compared to the rest of them.’ Then her anger unveiled itself and I realised someone in her life was using abusive behaviour to dominate her and that a main theme of the book would be controlling and coercive behaviour.
I was excited to write about a teenager who trusts her own instincts about what is right and wrong and who uses anger as an appropriate response to injustice. It was also a challenge to write a book that contains a lot of love, light and laughter, despite the difficult subject matter.
What did you want readers to take away from reading from Furious Thing? Was there a specific message you wanted to convey?
When I’m sitting inside the story writing it, I don’t think about messages, I just get drawn to interesting characters and dramatic situations. My job is to ensure the characters are emotionally truthful and then I find that they lift off the page and begin to tell their stories themselves.
I hope the book encourages more girls to find their voices. Studies have shown that being angry makes women feel powerless. We feel it will damage relationships and get us nowhere. Women and girls finding allies and feeling they have a right to share their stories is hugely important. I hope, after reading the book, that more girls feel they can make a noise!
Are any of characters based on real people?
The answer is yes and no. Because of the way I work (like an actor might research a character they are going to play on stage), I bring a whole lot of stuff to a character and throw it all in the mix. So, using Lexi’s mum, Georgia, as an example: I know several women who had a child very young, also some who felt massively alone when they moved to a new city knowing no one. I read extensively about controlling and coercive behaviour and how people get hooked into abusive relationships. I talked to survivors of abuse about how it can whittle your sense of self and eventually Georgia’s voice began to appear. I threw in some physical detail – she doesn’t work, she’s lost weight, she’s desperate for the security being married might bring, she’s lost contact with friends, she’s enormously attracted to John, yet treads eggshells around him, etc, etc. I use what I know and make the rest up.
Furious Thing is an emotional battle, I do feel I have to take moment to recover. What was your emotional writing journey like?
I have to keep my emotional distance, otherwise there’s a danger the writing becomes indulgent. It’s important that I can step into each character’s shoes and find their motivations. This means that even though I might love Lexi and want her to triumph, I also have to understand the people who stand in her way and why they act the way they do.
Lexi is definitely my favorite character though. I loved writing her because she’s so impulsive – not academic or popular, wildly rude, badly behaved and always in trouble. Writing from the point of view of someone who doesn’t consider outcomes before they act is enormously freeing. She might not be as academic as her siblings, but she’s emotionally eloquent. She was constantly getting into trouble for creating chaos and I had to get her out of it. I loved that about her.
Out of all of the books you’ve written which has been the most rewarding?
That’s like asking who my favourite child is! The simple answer is that they’ve all been massively rewarding but have each had their unique challenges. Before I Die is written in the present tense, so Tess had to narrate her own death. You Against Me has a male protagonist (I’d never written as a man before) and looks at a particularly horrible crime through the eyes of two people who say they want the truth but aren’t prepared to face it. Unbecoming is a mystery set across decades and the person who holds the secrets has dementia. Furious Thing has a protagonist who is being abused but has no idea that’s what’s happening to her and when she does begin to see it, she hasn’t got words to express it and anyway, no one believes her. Facing these writing challenges keeps each story fresh for me. And makes each book rewarding.
What’s your journey been to like to being a published writer?
My first published book, Before I Die, was very successful and I feel blessed every day for that. But I had written many other pieces before that, including a full-length novel. I was unpublished for years and struggled to ‘own’ my right to write. I didn’t have a space of my own to work in and had to justify paying for childcare in order to get time to write. I entered lots of competitions and submitted work to agents and publishers and received many rejections. So – it was a tough journey at times. But most writers have stories like this. Rarely does anyone have an easy ride. It takes courage to say, ‘I am a writer,’ when you’re unpublished. Yet if you write every day – that’s exactly what you are. If you’re in this category – keep breathing, keep faith and keep writing!
What’s in store for 2020 and your writing journey?
I’ve started something new, but it’s very early days. All I have are a couple of voices and I have no idea where they’ll take me. I don’t like knowing in advance. I never plan. I like surprises. I’m quite disciplined and sit at my desk every day and just write. Most of it gets binned, but I find I return again and again to the things that preoccupy me and eventually I begin to see what the book might be about. This new story has a family, a ghost and a stretch of fifty years. Who knows where that will take me…?
Fun Question: If you were on a desert island, what 3 items would you take?
Paper, a never-ending pen, a poetry anthology. The latter because it’d be like having hundreds of friends with me who each have a unique way of viewing the world. Very useful if you’re stranded in difficult conditions.
Thank you so much Jenny for coming on my blog.
About Jenny Downham
Jenny Downham is a critically acclaimed, international bestseller. Her debut novel, Before I Die, was shortlisted for numerous awards in the UK, including the Guardian Award and the Lancashire Children’s Book of the Year, was nominated for the Carnegie Medal and the Booktrust Teenage Prize, and won the Branford Boase Award. Before I Die was turned into a movie called Now is Good starring Dakota Fanning in 2012. Her most recent novel, Unbecoming, garnered four starred reviews and was an Entertainment Weekly Must List pick. Jenny lives in London with her two sons.
