Swoontini Interview: GRETCHEN McNEIL

Hey Swoonies!! Welcome back! We are so excited to see you, and you all look ADORABLE. Wednesday suits you quite nicely. AND HEY, we have Gretchen McNeil here today *WILD SCREAMS* and ALSO? We’re giving away an ARC of TEN! WOOT WOOT! So all you need to do is hop on those comments below, leave your name and some love for Gretchen, and you’re entered to win! EASY.

Hi Gretchen! So excited to have you at Swoontini! We both got ARC’s of TEN at WonderCon because we are lucky hoors. And I (Lo) have to admit that there were a few sections where I literally had to close the book and put it down for awhile it scared me so bad. What are some of your favorite scary books & movies?
GM: So I’m a notorious wimp with scary movies.  Traditional horror scares the CRAP out of me!  I prefer things more on the suspense scale.   Hitchcock was a master –Birds, Strangers on a Train, North By Northwest – absolute edge-of-your seat film making.  I also love old Victorian ghost stories.  There’s nothing creepier than drafty old manor houses and ghosts on the Moor.  Sheridan Le Fanu, Algernon Blackwood, Wilkie Collins, Emily Bronte.  Deliciously gothic!
(Christina totally agrees. Rear Window is one of her all-time faves)

Possess by Gretchen McNeil

From the summary: Fifteen-year-old Bridget Liu just wants to be left alone: by her mom, by the cute son of a local police sergeant, and by the eerie voices she can suddenly and inexplicably hear. Unfortunately for Bridget, it turns out the voices are demons – and Bridget has the rare ability to banish them back to whatever hell they came from. 

Terrified to tell people about her new power, Bridget confides in a local priest who enlists her help in increasingly dangerous cases of demonic possession. But just as she is starting to come to terms with her new power, Bridget receives a startling message from one of the demons. Now Bridget must unlock the secret to the demons’ plan before someone close to her winds up dead – or worse, the human vessel of a demon king.

Christina:  So let me start out by saying that this book scared the hell out of me. But in a totally awesome creeptastic way.

**Warning: Spoilers and creepy giffage ahead.**

Bridget attends St. Michael’s, a Catholic school in San Francisco.  Since the gruesome death of her dad a year ago, she’s heard voices – demon voices – and has been learning how to send them back to wherever it is they came from.

This book had everything: creep factor, mystery, humor, and of course, a touch of romance. We’ll get back to the romance later because Matt Quinn = sweet adorable swoony boy.

Bridget is snarky and awesome (a bit sarcastic at times but very realistic for a 15-year-old), and a total badass in the making. Though she starts out harboring some resentment toward her new-found abilities, it was really fun watching her character evolve and kick some demon king ass.

Matt Quinn is just… sigh. He’s sweet and adorable and always watching out for Bridge and her entire family. I mean COME ON, he plays baseball with her little brother just to help him fit in. And of course, first kiss swoons:

When his lips touched hers, she was afraid to move. She’d never kissed a guy before and she was terrified that she’d do it wrong. But Matt’s lips were surprisingly soft, his touch light and calm. And when he finally broke away from her, he looked nervous, as if he’d been afraid he would break her.

Awwwwwwww.