I’m so excited to be a part of the book tour for The Wicked Unseen that is hosted by TBR and Beyond Tours. I was really excited to also be able to interview the author for this book!
INTERVIEW
How would you describe The Wicked Unseen in one sentence?
When the preacher’s daughter (ahem…the hottest, nicest girl in Audre’s new school) disappears, the town thinks it’s a secret satanic cult in the woods…but evil isn’t always what it seems.
Can you introduce us to the main character(s) of The Wicked Unseen?
Audre is a Brooklyn girl dropped into middle-of-nowhere Pennsylvania, in a town that believes there are satanists lurking in the woods. She’s queer, a little punk rock, and takes no bullshit. She’s also the only person who seems to want to find Elle when she goes missing on Halloween weekend.
Elle is our missing girl. Preacher’s daughter. Secret doubter. Sweet, uncertain, and trying hard to hang onto the things she believes in.
David is the only other person in town who can help Audre solve the mystery. A future journalist (he hopes), he’s armed with sharp reasoning skills, the best jokes of anyone in town, and opinions strong enough to rival Audre’s.
Do you know from the beginning how your books will end or do you let your characters decide their journey?
Kind of both! I get to know the characters while I’m plotting the book. All the big decisions are made before I start writing, but I already know who the characters are and how they’d react to things, so they really are deciding their journey – just before the actual words-on-paper part starts.
Do you have a favorite scene, moment, or quote from the book?
Most of my favorites would require spoilers, but I chortle every time I re-read my joke about Audre going into the creepy basement: “Damn, am I the dimwitted white girl who goes bouncing into the basement to investigate the mysterious noise with no weapons, just boobs?”
What is something readers will find in The Wicked Unseen that they may not realize based on the
synopsis?
Disability rep! Audre deals with panic attacks and trauma-related anxiety (things I also deal with in my real life). Her dad is also disabled.
What’s something you hope readers will take away from The Wicked Unseen?
The real horror is the things we’ve normalized. It’s not the monster under the bed; it’s the monster that we’ve learned to accept.
What are three books you would recommend if someone enjoyed The Wicked Unseen?
If you love badass, angry teen girls getting shit done, I adored Bad Witch Burning by Jessica Lewis. For queer girl protagonists, authentic trauma rep, and monsters hiding in plain sight, Tess Sharpe’s The Girls I’ve Been is incredible. And I haven’t read it yet, but I am chomping at the bit to get my hands on There’s No Way I’d Die First by Lisa Springer, which sounds like a romp through horror tropes (out in September).
ABOUT THE BOOK
TITLE: The Wicked Unseen
AUTHOR: Gigi Griffis
GENRE: Horror/Mystery Young Adult
RELEASE DATE: June 20, 2023
Synopsis:
The new girl in town is having trouble fitting into a community that believes there’s a secret Satanic cult conducting rituals in the woods. When her crush goes missing, she starts to wonder if the town’s obsession with evil isn’t covering up something far worse. Perfect for fans of Fear Street!
To say sixteen-year-old Audre doesn’t fit in would be the understatement of the century. She’s a city kid who’s found herself in a rural town. The only girl at school who’d rather kiss a girl than a boy. Not to mention that the whole town believes there’s a secret Satanic cult conducting rituals in the nearby woods–and Audre is a born skeptic.
When the preacher’s daughter and Audre’s secret crush, Elle, goes missing on Halloween weekend, the town is quick to point fingers–in Audre’s direction. While they harass Audre’s family for being newcomers and nonbelievers, Audre realizes she might be the only person here who can find her friend.
The deeper she goes, though, the weirder it gets. What happened to Elle–and is the evil this town is hiding really what Audre thinks it is?
Content Warning: satanic cult, racism, sexism, police brutality and mistreatment, abuse from religious officials
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gigi Griffis is the author of the creepy YA horror The Wicked Unseen (coming summer 2023!), We Are The Beasts (2024), and The Empress (as seen on Netflix), among other things.
She’s a sucker for little-known histories, “unlikable” female characters, and all things Europe. After almost ten years of semi-nomadic life, she now lives in Portugal with an opinionated Yorkie-mix named Luna and a fancy blender that cost more than her couch.
Stuck in Fiction 