1--What is the title of your latest release?
CLEVER LITTLE THING
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
It’s about a mother who must confront a sudden and terrifying change in her young daughter after the abrupt death of their babysitter. Think Ashley Audrain’s The Push meets Zoje Stage’s Baby Teeth.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
My book is partly about the anxiety of privilege, so I needed a wealthy suburb as the setting. I picked Muswell Hill, the north London suburb where I grew up, which has exponentially gentrified since my childhood. It feels like a new patisserie has appeared every time I go back. I could have set my book in an American suburb, but my ghost story needed the perpetual rain and winter darkness of the UK.
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
Yes, because Charlotte is great at observing people and analyzing social situations, and I love discussing what makes people tick. But since her anxiety is off the charts, she’d need a couple of margaritas in order to let loose.
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Stressed, devoted, determined.
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
Blanka, the babysitter, and her mother Irina are Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan, and I learned how important bread is to both these cultures. Lavash is traditionally draped over an Armenian bride’s shoulder on her wedding day. There are many great bread proverbs. I love the Azerbaijani one: “One’s own simple bread is better than someone else’s pilaf.”
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I believe in pounding out that messy first draft, and that it’s best not to edit or even reread until you write “The End.” But I have a lot of trouble sticking to that.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
It’s the depths of winter in the UK right now, so I’m going to say a simple tomato salad with really good olive oil and homegrown tomatoes. Maybe some of Irina’s addictively delicious bread on the side.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
I have an old-fashioned rolltop writing desk with various little drawers and compartments, some Victorian glass paperweights, and, because of the UK’s winter darkness, a SAD lamp that’s currently on full blast. My workspace is also the spare room, so sometimes I write on the bed wrapped up in a blanket. The safer I feel, the easier it is to put my heroine in danger.
10--Who is an author you admire?
So many, but contemporary favorites include Jessamine Chan, Angie Kim and Tracy Sierra.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
American poetry and fiction literally changed my life, since when I fell in love with it, I applied to grad school in the USA, met my American husband and moved to California for the next 20 years.
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.
It was a rainy Thursday autumn afternoon right after I picked up my kids from school, and I was in the middle of emptying their lunchboxes when my agent called with the offer from my publisher. I could not take it in. Afterwards, I still had to empty the lunchboxes, and I felt like “Did that really happen?” I spent the rest of the day texting and calling everyone I could think of to help me process the news.
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
Nothing holds my attention like a psychological thriller, and I adore a book that I can’t put down. Stories of danger and darkness are so relaxing.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
Thelma and Louise, a celebration of female friendship that shows how hard it is to escape from the patriarchy.
15--What is your favorite season?
Autumn! With its cozy blankets and hot drinks and retreat indoors, it’s the season for readers
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
First my husband brings me tea in bed. Then I have an icy dip with my swim buddy Catherine in the river Thames, near my house, followed by a session in a café writing. Finally, champagne and cake with my family.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
Until I Kill You is about Delia Balmer, the girlfriend of a serial killer who narrowly escaped death at his hands. Female victims are often idealized, but instead, Delia is a fierce and prickly magnificently individual.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Having lived in California for twenty years, I really miss California veggie food – the abundance of quality vegetables and the way you could just throw some quinoa and avocado and bits and pieces in a bowl and have a delicious salad.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
Cook, swim in cold rivers and lakes, walk the dog with my children,
20--What can readers expect from you next?
Another psychological thriller, set in northern California, about a mom who stalks the family of her daughter’s bully.
A taut, powerful mom-noir psychological thriller following a mother who must confront a sudden and terrifying change in her daughter after the abrupt death of their babysitter
Charlotte’s daughter Stella is sensitive and brilliant, perhaps even a genius, but a recent change in her behavior has alarmed her parents. Following the sudden death of Stella’s babysitter, Blanka, the once disruptive and anti-social child has become docile and agreeable. But what’s unsettling is that she has begun to mirror Blanka’s personality, from Blanka’s repetitive phrases to her accent, to fierce cravings for Armenian meat stew after being raised a vegetarian.
Charlotte is pregnant with her second child, and depleted and sick with the pregnancy. She is convinced that Blanka herself is somehow responsible for Stella’s transformation. But how could Blanka, dead, still be entwined in their lives? Has Blanka somehow possessed Stella? Has Stella become Blanka? As Charlotte becomes increasingly obsessed, she is sure that only she can save her daughter. . . even though it’s soon clear that her husband believes this is all in Charlotte’s head.
Helena Echlin’s singular, chilling voice holds light to the blurred lines of diagnosis in children and to the vital power of maternal instinct. Kaleidoscopic and tense, pulse-pounding and genuinely creepy, and infused with shades of the supernatural, Clever Little Thing is an ode to motherhood and a nuanced critique of the caretaking industry, a page-turner that will haunt readers long after its epic, surprising finale.
Paranormal | Thriller Domestic [Pamela Dorman Books, On Sale: January 14, 2025, Hardcover / e-Book , ISBN: 9780593656075 / eISBN: 9780593656082]
Helena Echlin has written for numerous publications on both sides of the Atlantic, including The Guardian and The Times. She taught at Stanford University for eight years and has recently returned to the UK, where she now teaches fiction writing for Oxford University’s Department of Continuing Education. She lives in Oxfordshire with her husband and two children.
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