Kate Alice Marshall | A Ghost Known as the Drowning Girl

1--What is the title of your latest release?

THE NARROW

2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?

Reeling from a traumatic summer, Eden White returns to her beloved boarding school to discover her tuition hasn’t been paid—and she’ll only be able to stay if she becomes the live-in companion to Delphine Fournier, a girl who must live in careful isolation, as even a drop of untreated water might be deadly to her, and who has a mysterious connection to the ghost known as the Drowning Girl.

3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?

I’ve always loved stories of boarding schools, particularly the haunted kind. The basics of Atwood School were obvious enough, but when it came to haunting it, I wanted a ghost tied inextricably to the physical place. The Narrow was inspired by a real place—the Bolton Strid, a very similar body of water on the other side of the ocean. The deceptive calm of both the Strid and the Narrow, a calm which hides seemingly endless, deadly depths, was the perfect metaphor for a haunted place and a haunted life, and once I had threaded those waters through the grounds of Atwood, I had my setting.

4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?

I think that if I was Eden’s age, we would probably get along pretty well. Bits of me often slip into my characters, and so she and I share several of the same interests, and I would have been an absolutely devoted reader and cheerleader for Grave Belles, which is, after all, the kind of awesome project I wish I had created at her age. But it must be said that for a good chunk of the book she’s not exactly great company, between her emotional struggles, the secrets she keeps, and her growing obsession with a certain damp ghost.

5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?

Devoted, wounded, secretive.

6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?

The main thing I learned was how to talk about my own experiences grappling with mental health and the sense of isolation that can come with it. Eden has just escaped a very frightening situation, and instead of asking for help or dealing with it, she’s trying to just shove it in a dark corner and get back to “real life” at school. But much like the Narrow itself, while things might look placid on the surface, the truth is deadly. I drew a lot on my own background—Eden and I don’t share particulars as far as backstory, for which I’m fortunate, but I’ve struggled with depression quite a bit in my life, and it felt like having a conversation with my teenage self and coming to understand some things I’ve never been able to articulate before.

7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?

I generally edit as I draft. I can get carried away with doing too much editing, but generally I work best if I stop at a few points, usually after the first third, the midpoint, and right before writing the climax, and do a revision pass. These are usually the places where I have learned more about the book, and realized layers that need to be added and elements that need to be adjusted. The revision before the climax is the biggest one, because I’m doing the work of lining up all the necessary pieces to create that ending that draws so many threads together in a way that resonates. It might take longer to reach “the end” but it saves me a lot of time overall, since I don’t end up writing a bunch of material going down a wrong path that I have to scrap later.

8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?

These days, anything that isn’t chicken nuggets! With two picky kids most of our meals are made to be a) quick and b) simple, but every once in a while, I love to spend a couple hours in the kitchen and put together something like arepas with a properly decadent, simmer-it-for-two-hours shredded beef filling, or butter chicken with parathas, or for vegetarian nights a leek-based cassoulet with biscuits. Basically, I find that if I take the time to make some kind of quick bread on the side, I feel decadent.

9--Describe your writing space/office!

When I wrote the Narrow, I was wedged into the corner of our bedroom, but these days I have my own office, which I share with our two large golden retrievers, which means it’s constantly coated in tufts of blond fur. My favorite feature is my convertible standing desk, which I use occasionally to stand, but which also allows me to set the desk height to exactly the right spot for optimum ergonomics. This is of course a terribly unromantic thing to rhapsodize about as an artist, but it has absolutely saved my health while writing full-time.

10--Who is an author you admire?

Andrew Joseph White is sickeningly talented and only at the beginning of his sure-to-be-amazing career. He writes the most visceral and at the same time heart-felt prose, and wields language with a deadly combination of precision and passion. I deeply admire him for his ability and willingness to dive guts-deep into the hard, messy, frightening, and awful parts of life and identity, particularly queer, trans, and autistic experiences.

11--Is there a book that changed your life?

Many, in incremental ways, though I’m sure that’s true of all authors. There isn’t really a singular book that has been a catalyst in my life, but close to it might be Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House (you might notice references to it in Rules for Vanishing and Our Last Echoes). I actually loathed the book the first time I read it. I’d read it for a book discussion, and over the course of the discussion completely changed my mind about it, and when I went back, I loved it. The process of picking it apart taught me a great deal about writing, reading, and how to devise a haunting. Plus, it has one of the most iconic opening paragraphs in all of horror, which I have memorized to this day.

12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.

The Narrow is the second book in a contract, which means there wasn’t so much a call as an email—I sent my editor a list of suggestions for my next book, she shared it around with her team, and we decided on the one that seemed strongest. It’s a process that lacks in drama but is really quite fun—spinning together three or four potential ideas is one of my favorite things. It feels a bit like getting to glimpse into the multiverse of possible futures, and for a moment all those books exist before you collapse into the certainty of a single project. Which isn’t to say that those other books will never get written, but I tend to find once I’ve moved past them, I’m eager for fresh inventions.

13--What’s your favorite genre to read?

I read pretty widely, and I love to wander from genre to genre. Right now, I’m on a bit of a biography and memoir kick. I’m less interested in biographies that are interesting because of exciting or unusual things happening and much more interested in the ones that delve into the personality and psychology of the subject, especially anyone with particularly fraught relationships. I’ve also been reading a fair bit of romance lately, which has always been one of my favorite genres to just curl up with at the end of the day.

14--What’s your favorite movie?

Hot Fuzz. Which actually makes a very brief appearance in The Narrow because I just love that movie beyond all reason. I have no real justification or explanation, it’s just my happy place.

15--What is your favorite season?

These days, I love the spring and summer because I get to get out in my garden and curse at vegetables for not growing properly. This year for various reasons I decided not to do anything at all in the garden, and I’m really missing it as the summer marches along. I have grand plans for next year to make up for it.

16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?

I’m not big on birthdays. I’ll usually order some Indian food and watch a movie with my spouse, or we’ll ship the kids off to Grandma’s house and pretend we’re going to go out and then just stay home and play board games.

17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?

I recently finished MR Carey’s Rampart trilogy, which starts with The Book of Koli, and absolutely loved it. I am really not a series reader, and it takes a lot to keep me reading and even more to leave me satisfied, but I was completely hooked. The world is fascinating, the language has a captivating rhythm and music to it that I never tired of, and it does a beautiful job of imagining an apocalypse and crafting a story that is about individual people striving to build community and make change within it—they’re not going to save the whole world, but they’re going to fight for their corner of it. I’m often bored by apocalypses that start from the assumption that humanity’s base nature is one of cruelty and selfishness, or ones that swing too far the other way. Carey weaves a story that includes cruelty and compassion and has room for both communities eager to welcome a stranger and cannibal cults. It’s a neat trick and he pulls it off magnificently.

18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?

I like a lot of different cuisines, but when it comes to comfort food, a good tex mex flavor palate is my go-to. I have a tradition known as the “victory burrito” that is my reward for good news and generally involves a burrito the size of my head.

19--What do you do when you have free time?

I play a lot of cooperative board games with my spouse. Right now, we’re working our way through the beast that is Frosthaven and the escape room style puzzles of the Curious Correspondence Club. Other favorites include Spirit Island and the Arkham Horror LCG, which takes up an impressive amount of our walk-in closet.

20--What can readers expect from you next?

I’ve got a lot on the horizon! Also in August, my next spooky book for younger readers is coming out. Extra Normal is my love letter to the X-files by way of The Conjuring, featuring Charlie, whose siblings are a werewolf, a ghost, and a telekinetic, and whose parents leave for vacation the same day as evil neighbors move in across the street. Coming in January, my next thriller for adults, No One Can Know, releases. This one is about a trio of sisters whose parents were murdered in their childhood home, and who have never told anyone what happened that night, until the middle sister moves back home and starts asking questions.

THE NARROW by Kate Alice Marshall

A ghost haunting her boarding school uncovers a teen girl's best kept secrets in the Queen of Scream's deliciously terrifying new novel.

Everyone has heard the story of the Narrow. The river that runs behind the Atwood School is only a few feet across and seemingly placid, but beneath the surface, the waters are deep and vicious. It’s said that no one who has fallen in has ever survived.

Eden White knows that isn’t true. Six years ago, she saw Delphine Fournier fall into the Narrow—and live.

Delphine now lives in careful isolation, sealed off from the world. Even a single drop of unpurified water could be deadly to her, and no one but Eden has any idea why. Eden has never told anyone what she saw or spoken to Delphine since, but now, unable to cover her tuition, she has to make a deal: her expenses will be paid in return for serving as a live-in companion to Delphine.

Eden finds herself drawn to the strange and mysterious girl, and the two of them begin to unravel each other’s secrets. Then Eden discovers what happened to the last girl who lived with Delphine: she was found half-drowned on dry land. Suddenly Eden is waking up to wet footprints tracking to the end of her bed, the sound of rain on the windows when the skies are clear, and a ghostly silhouette in her doorway. Something is haunting Delphine—and now it’s coming for Eden, too.

Young Adult Fantasy | LGBTQ Paranormal [Viking Books for Young Readers, On Sale: August 1, 2023, e-Book, ISBN: 9780593405147 / ]

Buy THE NARROW: Kindle | BN.com | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon DE | Amazon FR

About Kate Alice Marshall

Kate Alice Marshall started writing before she could hold a pen properly, and never stopped. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with a chaotic menagerie of pets and family members, and ventures out in the summer to kayak and camp along Puget Sound. She is the author of the young adult novels I Am Still Alive, Rules for Vanishing, and Our Last Echoes, as well as the middle grade novels Thirteens and Brackenbeast.