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Zoë Marriott

Goodreads Author

Born

in The United Kingdom

Website

http://www.zoemarriott.com/

Twitter

ZMarriott

Genre

Young Adult, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Children's Books

Influences

Tamora Pierce, Robin McKinley, Terry Pratchett, Ursula Le Guin, Garth ...more

Member Since

January 2009

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Zoë has known that she wanted to be a writer since she read 'The Magic Faraway Tree' by Enid Blyton at age eight. She's never changed her mind in all the years since then.

She completed her first manuscript - a truly embarrassing romance novel - at age sixteen, and kept on writing books and submitting them until she had collected rejections from nearly very publisher in the UK and two in Australia. She eventually got her first publishing contract when she was twenty-two - but had to wait until she was twenty-four to see that book published (The Swan Kingdom). Her books have been longlisted for the Branford Boase Award, shortlisted for the Leeds Book Award and the Lancashire Book of the Year, and have won a Junior Library Guild Selection, a U ...more

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Popular Answered Questions

I have just finished reading Shadows on the Moon. This book has captured my heart. It had me on an emotional roller coaster. It made me cry, laugh, fall in love, and even through pillows across the room in excitement and anger. My question is if you are or will be writing a sequel?

Zoë Marriott

This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)[I'm so glad that you enjoyed the book - thank you very much for letting me know. But the answer to your question is: Nope. At least, not right now.

Although I do have a very strong idea of what happens to Suzume, Otieno, and Akira, after they leave Tsuki no Hikari no Kuni and travel to Athazie, that strong idea does not include any events interesting enough to write a book about.

Basically, in my own head (and of course, you are free to have an entirely different version of this, and ignore everything I've written here) they get to Athazie after a long sea journey and have a slightly awkward adjustment period for a little while. Suzume struggles with the feeling that she does not deserve happiness. She is not sure how to build a new identity that she actually wants to live with. But eventually, with everyone's love and support, she settles down. A large part of her own healing process is based in learning to heal other people like her - people who have been traumatised and left with scars on their minds and hearts - using her musical gift. She and Otieno stay together and eventually have children whom they love dearly and who fill their lives with laughter and a bit of craziness. Akira, in the meantime, becomes very famous because of her amazing dancing talent. She travels all over the country, performing to worshipful crowds. After a few years, she and Otieno's father admit that they have fallen in love. They, too, are very happy.

After reading that, you might be thinking - hey, that sounds pretty awesome to me. I'd read that. Why can't you write that?

Because it's a happy ending - not a story. The events I've described there wouldn't generate enough excitement to fill even fifty pages. There's no conflict. Nothing changes significantly. No one needs anything which they do not get. A book in which the only events are everyone quietly being happy and having peaceful, contented lives might sound soothing but in reality it would be the b-word. Yes, that b-word. BORING.

In order for me to actually write a book about Suzume and Otieno and Akira's lives in Athazie, I would need to have a revelation about what happens to them in their future. I'd need to wake up one day and realise that there was going to be a terrible plague, or a war, or that one of them was going to die and leave the others bereft. And you know what? I don't wanna! I don't want to take a wrecking ball to their contentment. I want these guys to fade happily into the sunset. I've already put them through enough, don't you think? They deserve to retire.

Having said all that, I have written a couple of short stories featuring the characters from Shadows on the Moon. One is basically a very short epilogue showing a slice of life in Athazie and you can read it here: http://www.ink-slingers.co.uk/post/71... There's also a short story in this anthology: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... about Akira's early life and her famous dance at the Shadow Ball that won the prince's heart. And finally, I love the setting so much that I'm currently working on another fairytale retelling set in the Moonlit Lands, which hopefully will be published in the next couple of years. (hide spoiler)]

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I adore your book The Swan Kingdom, Alexandra is an awesome character and I loved the plot twists, the romance and especially your writing! But do you have anymore plans to write books based on hidden and not very popular fairy tales?

Zoë Marriott Thank you so much! It's been over a decade now since I wrote The Swan Kingdom, and to hear that people still read it, and still like it, is humbling a…moreThank you so much! It's been over a decade now since I wrote The Swan Kingdom, and to hear that people still read it, and still like it, is humbling and uplifting.

Growing up The Wild Swans was always my favourite fairytale. I had a gorgeously illustrated picture book of the story which was (and is) one of my most treasured possessions, and when I started borrowing books of myths and folklore from the library, variations on the tale (a sister toiling to save brothers from a terrible, beastly or birdly enchantment) would crop up very often. So it never really occurred to me that it was considered a lesser fairytale, or that people wouldn't know it. I always wanted to explore it further and write my own version, and I was grateful that as far as I was aware no one famous had gotten there first, but that was all.

It was only when The Swan Kingdom was published, and I saw some readers praise it for retelling an 'unknown' fairytale, and different readers assume that I had plagiarised the work of another author (whose book was also based on that fairytale) that I realised how few people had grown up with this story as I did.

Since then, I've written two more fairytale retellings - Shadows on the Moon, which is based on Cinderella, and another one (yet to be published) based on Beauty and the Beast. Obviously, both of these stories have been made into Disney movies, which means everyone thinks they know what the 'original' version is, or should be. There's a certain flexibility in retelling a story which is very well known. You can feel free to make all kinds of changes to the plot and subvert the characters or invert certain parts and know that people will understand exactly the way you're bouncing new ideas off the old ones. But at the same time, there will also often be people who think you've ruined the best parts - even if those things were literally only added into the Disney version ten years ago.

The truth is that even extremely well-known fairytales are not nearly as well known as you might think. Most of us imagine, say, Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Beauty and the Beast as a single story, a fixed thing with certain characters and plot points which are inviolable. But these usually bear at most a passing resemblance to the spoken versions of folklore which were originally transcribed by people like Anderson and Grimm. There are a million variations on every story, and the further you go back in time the darker and scarier many tales of this kind are. So when I choose to explore any fairytale, I'm most likely retelling a hidden, not very popular version of it - and I'm also remaking it anew, making it into something that no one else has ever seen before.

Having said all that, I have next to me now a copy of The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales by Franz Xaver Von Schonwerth, which is a treasure trove of tales that were basically lost to time until very recently. And I am still a fan of Celtic and Greek and Japanese mythology. So it's entirely possible that in the future I'll stumble across an obscure fairytale that will inspire me to explore it. I just don't know it yet.

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Combine Editions
Zoë Marriott’s books

Average rating: 3.81 · 15,505 ratings · 2,015 reviews · 15 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Swan Kingdom 3.76 avg rating — 4,830 ratings — published 2007 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Shadows on the Moon (The Moonlit Lands, #1) 3.87 avg rating — 4,285 ratings — published 2011 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Daughter of the Flames (Ruan, #1) 3.75 avg rating — 2,303 ratings — published 2008 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Night Itself (The Name of the Blade, #1) 3.66 avg rating — 1,226 ratings — published 2013 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	FrostFire (Ruan, #2) 4.03 avg rating — 861 ratings — published 2012 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Hand, the Eye and the Heart 3.81 avg rating — 738 ratings — published 2019 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Barefoot on the Wind (The Moonlit Lands, #2) 3.90 avg rating — 656 ratings — published 2016 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Darkness Hidden (The Name of the Blade, #2) 3.90 avg rating — 282 ratings — published 2014 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Frail Human Heart (The Name of the Blade, #3) 3.99 avg rating — 166 ratings — published 2015 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Book of Snow & Silence 4.33 avg rating — 45 ratings — published 2020 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Zoë Marriott's Blog

'Re-Imagining Beauty' & 'From Here to Eternity'

Hello, Dear Readers - welcome or welcome back to An Eddying Flight.

Today I bring you some delightful linkity. Firstly, my debut scholarly article is now live in the inaugural volume of Leaf Journal, and it's free to read and download if you should wish to do so! It's titled 'Re-Imaginging Beauty' and is my analysis of various iterations of Beauty & the Beast (including one I wrote and published my

Series by Zoë Marriott

The Moonlit Lands (2 books)
by

Zoë Marriott (Goodreads Author)

3.88 avg rating — 4,941 ratings

Ruan (2 books)
by

Zoë Marriott (Goodreads Author)

3.82 avg rating — 3,163 ratings

The Name of the Blade (3 books)
by

Zoë Marriott (Goodreads Author)

3.73 avg rating — 1,675 ratings

Zoë is Currently Reading

Zoë Marriott is currently reading

Regeneration (Regeneration, #1)

by Pat Barker

bookshelves: currently-reading

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May 02, 2023 12:16PM

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Zoë Marriott rated a book it was amazing Mrs Hart’s Marriage Bureau by Sheena Wilkinson (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
May 25, 2023 02:11AM · 1 like · like
Zoë Marriott rated a book really liked it Black Rabbit Hall by Eve Chase	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
May 08, 2023 12:11AM · 1 like · like
Zoë Marriott rated a book really liked it Elektra by Jennifer Saint (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
May 06, 2023 12:38PM · 2 likes · like
Zoë Marriott has read Giving Up the Ghost : A Memoir by Hilary Mantel	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Don't feel it's fair to rate this one. An undeniably brilliant piece of work, but deeply distressing to read, saturated with suffering and despair. ...more
May 06, 2023 12:35PM · like · see review
Zoë Marriott rated a book really liked it Elektra by Jennifer Saint (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
May 06, 2023 11:30AM · 2 likes · like
Zoë Marriott wants to read Gwen and Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
May 05, 2023 10:38AM · 2 likes · like
Zoë Marriott is on page 23 of 256 of Regeneration Regeneration (Regeneration, #1) by Pat Barker progress:	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Zoë Marriott is currently reading Regeneration (Regeneration, #1) by Pat Barker	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Zoë Marriott has read The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Zoë Marriott rated a book really liked it Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I liked this! It has a playfulness that lifts it up above other mythological retellings which have a tendency to be very earnest. I'll seek out more of the author's work. HOWEVER. If Circe by Madeline Miller didn't get the Women's Fiction Prize then ...more
May 02, 2023 07:19AM · 3 likes · like · see review

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Quotes by Zoë Marriott (?)

“People trust their eyes above all else - but most people see what they wish to see, or what they believe they should see; not what is really there”
― Zoë Marriott, Shadows on the Moon

tags: deception, inspirational, lies, truth

215 likes

“To ugly ducklings everywhere,
Don't worry about those fluffy yellow morons:
They'll never get to be swans”
― Zoë Marriott, The Swan Kingdom

tags: clever, cool, cute, funny, humor-inspirational, humorous, inspirational, self-image, sweet

134 likes

“I truly believe that if you have more friends than books, you have too many friends. Or not enough books. Probably both.”
― Zoë Marriott

tags: books, friendship, twitter-quotes

50 likes

See all Zoë Marriott's quotes »

Topics Mentioning This Author

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Challenge: 50 Books: Michelle the Nerdy's 50 in 2010	2	19	Jan 17, 2010 04:39PM
Paranormal Romanc...: February 2010 Reading Challenge	1132	1347	Apr 01, 2010 11:15AM
Challenge: 50 Books: Mara's 50 for 2010	53	132	Jan 04, 2011 10:31PM
SOS: Serious Over...: JULY 2011: New Releases	13	59	Jul 01, 2011 07:00PM
YA Book Council: * Notepad for Future Books	63	442	Feb 23, 2012 12:24AM
You'll love this ...: What have you just bought? (CLOSED)	1027	363	Sep 20, 2012 09:39AM

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Zoë’s Quotes

“I want to sleep, I want dreams to pull me from this world and make me forget. To stop the memories from swirling around me. To put an end to this ache that consumes me.”
― Carrie Ryan, The Forest of Hands and Teeth

441 likes

“Great heroes need great sorrows and burdens, or half their greatness goes unnoticed. It is all part of the fairy tale.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

tags: heroes, inspirational

2826 likes

“People trust their eyes above all else - but most people see what they wish to see, or what they believe they should see; not what is really there”
― Zoë Marriott, Shadows on the Moon

tags: deception, inspirational, lies, truth

215 likes

“No one knows me. Not anymore”
― Zoë Marriott

tags: identity

11 likes

“It's as if people -- normal people -- are made of silver. Shiny to start with, but tarnished by time, by ill-treatment. Luca... Luca is gold. Nothing in the world could ever make him shine less brightly.”
― Zoë Marriott, FrostFire

tags: frostfire, gold, inspirational, love, romance

6 likes

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