Melissa Grey’s The Girl at Midnight follows Echo, a girl from an ancient race of people who live under the streets of New York – and have the ability to teleport. We spoke with Grey about her awesome female protagonist, her life in NYC, and what we can expect next from Echo.
Sam Maggs (TMS): Your protagonist, Echo, lives in the New York Public Library. How did your life in New York shape the book?
Melissa Grey: The story travels to quite a number of locales — Kyoto, London, the Black Forest, just to name a few — but New York is the heart of the story because it’s Echo’s home (and mine). The character is, in a way, a reflection of the city that raised her, just as I wouldn’t be me had I not grown up here. It’s messy and chaotic and dangerous and vibrant, and Echo is all of those things. I grew up in the East Village and went to high school on the Upper East Side and through it all, I spent a lot of time seeking refuge in museums and libraries. When I was writing a teenaged girl who needed to find a place where she felt safe and at home, those are the places I sent her. The city is a great place to get lost if you don’t want to be found, but it’s also a really amazing place to find yourself, like Echo does throughout the course of the book.
TMS: How important was it for you to create a powerful female character like Echo?
Grey: I think it’s critically important that we broaden our definitions of strength and power when it comes to female characters. Being powerful isn’t always about being the strongest or the bravest or the scariest. Sometimes power comes from a quieter place; Echo survived a great deal of hardship as a kid when she was hungry and homeless and those experiences are what inform her strength.
I wanted Echo to be someone who could resonate with readers even when she wasn’t being entirely likable. She grew up in a hostile home and ran away to save herself, an act that takes an extraordinary amount of courage, especially for a child. Living with abuse can make a person feel absolutely powerless so, for me, showing Echo at this critical adolescent stage when she’s discovering what kind of person she wants to be and what kind of power she possesses was so important. At the start of the book, she’s still dealing with feeling like she doesn’t belong and that she doesn’t have a proper family, but as she faces the fantastical challenges in front of her, she learns that having lived a hard life has made her strong, even when she’s feeling scared or vulnerable. Her humanity, I think, is what makes her powerful. She tries to run from it, but it’s those raw human emotions that give her the strength to keep going, even when it seems like all is lost.
TMS: Are you similar to Echo in any ways?
Grey: Oh, for sure. Echo can abrasive and she’s a little rough around the edges, qualities I freely admit to sharing. She uses sarcasm and quips as defense mechanisms and I’m definitely guilty of that.
My childhood wasn’t exactly rainbows and roses. I’ve always wanted to write the story of a girl who leaves a home like the one I grew up in and has an incredible adventure with far off places, daring sword fights, magical spells, and a prince in disguise (to quote Belle from Beauty and the Beast). I remember feeling scared and alone as a kid and as I was writing Echo’s story, I kept returning to what kind of person that scared and lonely child would want to be. In a way, she’s an aspirational character for me. She’s the person I wish I could have been.
TMS: If you could use Shadow Dust to teleport, what would you do with it?
Grey: What wouldn’t I do? Where wouldn’t I go? I’d love to visit the hidden parts of the pyramids of Giza that no one gets to see, or the palaces at Versailles at night when not a single soul is around. I’d travel to all the prettiest libraries in the world after hours, like the Admont Abbey Library in Austria or the Strahov Monastery Library in Prague. I would wander, leisurely, through the Neues Museum in Berlin and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. I’d spend the night on the island of Miyajima, hanging out with deer, and then hop on over to Tashirojima to see the cats that have completely taken over that island. I have a very extensive (and expensive) bucket list and shadow dust would really help tick off some of those items.
TMS: Can we expect to see any more of Echo?
Grey: You bet. The Girl at Midnight is the first installment of a trilogy, so we get to hang out with Echo for at least two more books (books two and three are set to come out in 2016 and 2017 respectively). I’m working on the third one right now and I can’t even think about bidding her farewell. I love her and her friends – Ivy and Dorian and Caius and Rowan and Jasper — too much!
The Girl at Midnight is available now.
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