Photo by Gabrianna Dacko
Zoje Stage is the author of the new novel Dear Hanna. It's a sequel to her novel Baby Teeth. She lives in Pittsburgh.
Q: What inspired you to write a sequel to Baby Teeth, and why did you decide to have your character Hanna be 24 years old in this new book?
A: People have been asking me for a sequel to Baby Teeth since it was first published in 2018. I had real reservations about revisiting the story, concerned that a follow-up might be derivative and a disappointment to readers.
But then during the pandemic, home alone watching true crime documentaries, I started thinking about who Hanna might be as an adult, and that possibility started to really excite me: Has there ever been a sequel where the "bad seed" was all grown up?
Q: The writer Nat Cassidy said of the book, "Stage never skimps on the humanity of her characters; impossibly, you'll feel for Hanna almost as much as you'll dread whatever she's capable of doing next." What do you think of that description?
A: I LOVE this description, as this is exactly what I try to do with my characters and my writing. I want even the most disturbed or vile characters to have a depth that reveals them as being complex humans, relatable on some level.
Q: How would you describe the dynamic between Hanna and her husband and stepdaughter?
A: Hanna admits that she may not be in love with her husband—her original attraction to him was the purpose he could serve in her life—but she does have a genuine, mutually beneficial relationship with him, and he is a stabilizing presence in her life. With her stepdaughter, Hanna's love for her runs on the obsessive side, not completely unlike how she once felt about her father.
Q: Without giving anything away, did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: Yes, in a general way I knew how it would end, though the fine details came together the deeper I got into writing the book. I don't work from an outline, but I definitely like to have decided on some key moments in a novel before I start writing—including the approximate end of the story.
Q: What are you working on now? Will Hanna be back at some point?
A: At the moment I'm writing a horror novella (I'm superstitious, so I can't say too much about it). I would not rule out checking back in with Hanna sometime in the future…Eventually I may want to know what the next chapter of her life looks like.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I intentionally wrote this book in such a way that readers don't need to be familiar with Baby Teeth to enjoy Dear Hanna. I hope that readers who haven't read Baby Teeth are intrigued by this portrayal of a sociopath trying, in her own misguided way, to live like everyone else.
And for those who have read Baby Teeth, I hope they see how 7-year-old Hanna became this more mature, less reckless 24-year-old.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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