Vanessa Len’s Monsters trilogy is a thrilling tale of monsters, heroes, and villains, and provides a unique and inspired insight into what it really means to be a monster, hero, and a villain. Drawing on the idea of representation, she captures a thrilling tale of the moral conflict a half human, half monster protagonist experiences, alongside a tale of a tender coming-of-age. She has written two books, Only a Monster, and Never a Hero, and is currently writing her third of the trilogy, which is yet to be named.
I had the honour of catching up with Vanessa for an interview during the Sydney Writer’s Festival, and she gracefully informed me on the writing process behind her captivating YA fantasy series. Having read her first novel (and finished the second by the time this is published), I was both elated and hugely grateful for the opportunity to speak with her. Vanessa Len is an international bestselling author, as her books have been translated into nine languages. Only a Monster won the 2022 Aurealis Award for Best Young Adult Novel.
Date- Saturday, May 25, 2024
Location- Carriageworks Media Room
Where did you first get inspiration for your story?
I was really inspired by movies that I used to love watching growing up like big blockbuster movies where I would be really into it and then I would just suddenly see the first Asian person shock on screen. Then the hero would start fighting them and I would be like oh no! So yeah, I was really inspired by that feeling when you’re watching a movie and you suddenly see yourself, and then you’re lying on the ground being beaten up by the hero. I kept thinking ‘what about those guys’ and I was like…wouldn’t it be interesting to write about a movie hero who’s really good and upright, but then you’re fighting against them, rather than for them…like what if the hero of the story is not the hero of your story.
So did you take inspiration for the hero being cast as the villain from the idea of representation?
I feel like the metaphor doesn’t really work that well cause she’s actually a monster…that was the seed of the idea but then after that the metaphor really breaks down cause she’s actually a monster.
I found that really fascinating, because I thought that the main character Joan wasn’t necessarily the actual monster and was the hero.
It was so like that, I really wanted to write a book where you can understand both sides of the story, where you’re like ‘well I don’t necessarily like everything everyone’s doing but I kinda get it, I get it.’
Were there any classic tales that influenced your narrative?
I don’t know about classic tales, but Buffy the Vampire Slayer…Doctor Who. I feel like not really thematically so much. At the beginning of the whole process, it was mainly just a giant list of my favourite things, like all of my favourite books and my favourite tv shows, and then I tried to make patterns. I thought about what I really like, cause I wanted to write a book out of stuff I like. I really like time travel. I guess I like the poignancy of time travel, where you might be meeting people just in the wrong time...things like that.
What inspired you to subvert the usual hero/villain trope… was this also the representation?
I think so, I had just so wanted to write a book about where you can understand various perspectives, you can understand this person, but then they might do something kind of awful, and then you think…well I understand the other person as well. I really wanted a fight where these two people, who in other circumstances might get along well, are placed in a situation where they’re set against each other. And you can empathise with both sides, but you also can’t see a way for them to be reconciled again.
I guess that understanding also helps with the fact that the characters have their labels but their actual character arcs are in reverse…
Yeh, it’s like he’s the hero, but is he? I wanted to raise that question, like Joan is given the tag of monster, but is she the monster in the book? Is he really the hero? I feel like in some ways they cross roles, and then they cross back, like at the end of the book, where she’s actually quite bad.
It’s a really fascinating idea, and I really loved it. How did you go about writing the different character dynamics between Aaron and Joan and Joan and Nick?
I don’t know which I prefer, but we did so much preparation beforehand… we did so much brainstorming about all these characters’ relationship dynamics, before I even started writing anything. I really wanted Aaron to represent Joan’s monster self, cause she’s half monster, half human, and then Nick to represent the human side of her. In the way that the book is about these people that are struggling to reconcile, it’s also focused on her own identity as something she needs to reconcile, and it’s represented in these two guys.
What was the most difficult challenge writing each book?
That’s a really good question. For the first book, because I had never written a book before, I found it quite hard. I was literally googling how do you write a book, what is a chapter, how do you make a character, and then I was like oh, you just have to write it. The hardest part was everything for the first book, learning everything about writing a novel. I’d never written anything that long before, I didn’t know how to write a big structure like that, so everything felt like a massive learning curve. And then the second one was much easier. I knew how to write a book; I didn’t have to google how to write a book.
I would say the biggest challenge of the second book was having to write it in lockdown in Melbourne, so it was really hard… I didn’t realise how much external inspiration I got from meeting people and hanging out with people. I was like wow, I didn’t realise how much I was inspired just by having a chat with a friend in person.
Why did you choose the story to be a YA fantasy instead of a regular fantasy?
Good question, I feel like part of it was that I wanted to write this book with really high emotions. I wanted to have a story where, everything is happening for her [Joan] for the first time, she’s having her first love, her first loss, and I wanted these emotions to feel really raw and new to her. It’s harder to do that in an adult novel, in a YA novel all the characters are like that, and ready to experience the world.
Did you write the first book with the intention of having grief as a prominent theme?
Yeah, well, my mother had died not that long before I started thinking about wanting to write a novel, and it just came out a little bit. I wasn’t really doing it on purpose, but I thought oh, this really is a lot about losing people, and even Joan lost her own mother when she was a baby. Only after I finished it I realised it’s really coming out, the grief of it.
What do you hope young readers take away most from the trilogy?
I mean I didn’t write it to have a moral message or anything, but if there was one, I would say having empathy for both sides, and trying to see both sides of an issue when it comes to something like a monster and a hero. I guess consuming news, who gets to be the hero in the news, who’s being treated like an antagonist or a monster, and why. I guess critical thinking about the media you consume, and whether that media is encouraging you to read somebody in a certain light, and if that’s really how you would see them normally.
What can fans look forward to most for the third book?
I’m really enjoying writing the third book, it’s hard to talk about without spoilers, but I will say that the romance finally blossoms.
What is your favourite genre to read and what is your favourite book in that genre?
My favourite genre is fantasy. I do like science fiction as well, but my favourite of all time is Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. I really like the way she writes fantasy, you feel like it’s real in her world and you get so immersed in it. I’m so inspired to write an immersive fantasy, to write a story that makes readers feel like they’re living there while reading it.
If you were to consider any other worlds that your book would have been set in, what would they be?
I really love a dystopia, without really super spoiling book three is I guess a little bit more dystopian.
In the meantime, I will impatiently await Vanessa’s unnamed third novel and reread her first two. I highly recommend Only a Monster and Never a Hero to avid fantasy readers, as they are compelling stories with engaging characters and masterful endings. If you would like to follow Vanessa Len, her Instagram is @vanessa.len_writes, and her Goodreads account can be found through her name, or the titles of her books.
