Books

We Talk With ‘Breaker’ Author, Kat Ellis

Books are amazing. They give insight to new worlds. Some are worlds that we are used to and some are worlds that we aren’t. Now, I will admit – that books about serial killers, ghosts, and anything scary – well, they freak me out. But we are always intrigued about books authors, and everything that they write.

That’s why we jumped at the chance to interview the author of Breaker, Kat Ellis.

Her book has been receiving praise.

“Packed full of suspense, red herrings, and creepy taxidermy, this is an intriguing murder mystery and a
compelling look at the ties that bind.” –Booklist

“A standout thriller with a splash of romance.”—School Library Journal

“Spine-chilling and splendidly gory, with a genre-perfect stormy night denouement: the power cut, the phones
out, the corpses revealed by lightning.” –Kirkus

Here is our exclusive interview –

Q: What is your favorite thriller and/or the one that inspired you to write your own and tell us why?

A: I read The Killing Woods by Lucy Christopher a while back, and that book really stayed with me. It’s about Emily, whose father is accused of murdering a girl in the woods. Emily believes her father is innocent, and starts to uncover some very dark and disturbing things about the night the girl was killed, and the other people who might have wanted to hurt her.

In retrospect, I definitely think this book influenced how I thought about Breaker and the characters while I was writing – how trauma affects people differently, and can make them act in unexpected ways. Breaker also mirrors the format of The Killing Woods as it is written from two perspectives, and I felt that added a few interesting twists to the story.

Q: What scares you? And do your own fears creep into your writing?

A: I almost drowned when I was a child, which might have been why Sky, the main character from my debut novel Blackfin Sky, drowned in the story. (That’s not a spoiler, btw – Sky recovers remarkably well, as did I!)
I’m not especially fond of heights, either, so I can’t explain why I made Naomi and Kyle walk across rooftops in Breaker. Sadism? Probably.

Q: What inspired this plot? Do you know what had you thinking about Kyle?

A: The first seed of it came to me when I was watching a documentary about serial killers. The spouse of one of the victims was talking about his wife’s murder, and I started thinking about all the people affected by that one brutal act of violence – the people connected to the victim, like Naomi is to her mom; but also the friends and family of the killer, like Kyle. How would those connections affect them moving forward? And would surviving one trauma make it harder to deal with another, or make you better able to survive all over again? I thought these were interesting questions, and Breaker sprang from them.

Q: What’s next for you? Can you give Fangirlish readers a sneak peek?

A: I have another book coming out this September: a sci-fi thriller called Purge. It tells the story of Mason, who has a habit of getting into trouble in his strict, cult-like community. Falling for Eden – a girl with a wicked streak to match his own – makes following the rules a hundred times harder. When Eden is caught with contraband, she’s forced into a virtual reality programme to purge her bad behaviour. But Mason has seen what happens to people who go in. He knows Eden will never be the same, and he’ll lose her forever unless he follows her into the programme – where he will have no memory of himself, or how to escape.