Sanjida Kay's Blog, page 2
March 23, 2022
My favourite children’s book
‘It’s such a moving, powerful story but it’s also beautifully written. It’s about kindness and compassion, about how what we’re like on the inside should matter so much more than what we’re like on the outside.’
I’ve been talking to the Royal Literary Fund about my favourite children’s book: ‘Wonder’ by RJ Palacio.
‘I love it so much that when my daughter’s gone to school I sneak ahead & read a little bit further…‘
I have to admit, I cried every morning when my daughter was reading it to me. I cried for little Augie, for all the children who believe they are different and are bullied and I cried for my childhood self and the bullying handed out to me at all ten schools I attended – bullying for being mixed race in Britain, for being other, for being different.
Luckily, being a novelist, I fictionalised my experiences and turned them into my first psychological thriller, ‘Bone by Bone‘, and still, to this day, donate a percentage of my royalties to anti-bullying charity, Kidscape.
My desert island book
I’d want to read it on a desert island because it would remind me of the power and passion of human emotions.’⠀
Talking about the book I’d take with me to a desert island with the Royal Literary Fund. Okay, no surprises, it’s my favourite book!⠀
Which book would you take and why? ⠀
The Perfect Crime is out now!
22 bestselling crime writers. 22 deadly destinations. One deliciously sinister collection
I’m delighted that ‘The Perfect Crime‘ is out now, published by Harper Collins. It’s a collection of 22 short crime fiction stories from writers of colour, and features authors Vaseem Khan, Oyinkan Braithwaite and Abir Mukerjkee amongst many others. The stories are set all around the world: Mexico, Lagos, the Caribbean…and mine is set in Manchester!
Called ‘The Beautiful Game’, it’s about a young woman who falls for a charismatic, wealthy young footballer with a large house on the edge of the moor near Manchester whose girlfriends seem to mysteriously disappear…
The inspiration was a fairy story, which I’d been wanting to re-imagine as a contemporary psychological thriller, so when I was asked to contribute to ‘The Perfect Crime’ it seemed like the perfect opportunity!
Let me know what you think…and if you can guess what the fairy tale is….
July 14, 2021
My favourite translated book – The Glass Bead Game
My favourite book in translation is ‘The Glass Bead Game’ by Herman Hesse. The Royal Literary Fund has made a short film on books in translation – head over to the RLF to see the full film and find out more about why I like the Hesse’s dystopia and what it’s about – as well as hearing from writers Leila Rasheed, Penny Black, Jonny Wright, Shelley Silas, Gabriel Gbadamosi and Dipo Agboluaje.
Sanjida O’Connell talking about her favourite book in translation: ‘The Glass Bead Game’ by Herman HesseWhat’s Your Favourite Book In Translation?
The Glass Bead Game
My favourite book in translation is ‘The Glass Bead Game’ by Herman Hesse. The Royal Literary Fund has made a short film on books in translation – head over to the RLF to see the full film and find out more about why I like the Hesse’s dystopia and what it’s about – as well as hearing from writers Leila Rasheed, Penny Black, Jonny Wright, Shelley Silas, Gabriel Gbadamosi and Dipo Agboluaje.
Sanjida O’Connell talking about her favourite book in translation: ‘The Glass Bead Game’ by Herman HesseWhat’s Your Favourite Book In Translation?
July 8, 2021
Sleeping Beauty – How Somerset inspired my thriller, One Year Later
‘The Pines is a rambling farmhouse that our parents, David and Eleanor, converted years ago, and although it no longer has the land it came with, it still has a huge garden. It sits on the lower slopes of the Mendips in Somerset, the woods behind, green fields gently falling away in front of it. On a good day – and 15 August, with its clear blue skies, was one of those days – you can see over the tops of the seaside towns of Clevedon and Weston-super-Mare and all the way across the Severn estuary to Wales.’
This is how Nick Flowers describes the house his family grew up in at the start of my psychological thriller, One Year Later. When I was writing this novel, we were living in Bristol, but we’d just bought a house and some land in a remote part of Somerset and our plan was to renovate our new home. We spent a fairy-tale summer camping in the empty house and trying to keep on top of the vegetation that threatened to engulf the place. Each weekend we would leave the roads behind and bump along a bridlepath, verges of cow parsley and pink campion brushing the sides of the car, the house itself hidden behind an overgrown hedge, a creeper like a briar from Sleeping Beauty, swallowing the porch and stealing through the windows. We’d forage for raspberries and red currants, cook on a one-ringed burner, burn coppiced hazel in a grand stone fireplace, and watch the sun sink behind the small-leaved lime.
In the garden there’s a small pond, which was choked with weed and water lilies, and the ruins of a tumble-down cottage. Both features inspired pivotal scenes in One Year Later. In my story, the youngest child in the Flowers family drowns in the garden pond the day before her second birthday. A year later, Nick, who is desperate to bring the family together so that they can heal, has a dark memory of nearly being killed in the same garden…
The rest of my article on how Somerset inspired my latest psychological novel – and my writing in general – is out now on the Royal Literary Fund’s website as a podcast; you can also hear my fellow RLF fellow and friend, Emylia Hall, who talks about the Cornish landscapes of her childhood that she rediscovered through her writing.
Sugar Island is available to pre-order
I’m delighted to announce that one of my novels is going to be republished! ‘Sugar island’ by Sanjida O’Connell is based on a true story and is set at the turn of the American Civil War, in the deep south.
It’s about a terrible secret a young woman’s husband has kept from her, her struggle for freedom and independence, and her fight to protect and emancipate her husband’s slaves. I love the new cover, designed by Wide Sky Studio. ‘Sugar Island’ was originally published by John Murray and will be available as an e-book from 19 July here.
The paperback will be out soon too! Here’s what it’s about:
Emily Harris, a glamorous young English actress, arrives in America in 1859. There she meets and falls in love with a charming southern gentleman, Charles Earl Brook. But shortly after they are married, Emily discovers that Charles has kept a terrible secret from her. The Brooks are slave-owners and Emily is forced to travel to the deep south where Charles keeps seven hundred men, women and children in abject poverty.‘I have worked every day through dew and damp, and sand and heat, and done good work; but oh, missis, me old and broken now, no tongue can tell how much I suffer.’As civil war breaks out, Emily’s world becomes increasingly dangerous and she realises that her growing friendship with the slaves could cost her everything she has ever loved.
July 1, 2021
June 23, 2021
Bone by Bone – Press
Sunday Express– one of ‘The best reads in 2016’
Bone by Bone is a ‘breakout debut’ and ‘a title you won’t want to miss’ Jake Kerridge in the Sunday Express
Told in alternate chapters from both mother and daughter’s viewpoint, this novel about the insidious nature of bullying escalates into a tale of violence, fear and suspense. Daily Mail
BONE BY BONE was born out of Kay’s musings about what would happen if a mother fought back against her child’s bullies. Jessica Driscoll THE BIG THRILL
INTERVIEWS‘I’m interested in the intensity of the relationship women have with their mothers and their daughters; the idea that you are always a daughter, and once you have a child, you will never stop being a mother…’
In conversation with thriller writer, Holly Seddon, author of Try not to Breathe. Off the Shelf Books
‘I’d probably call NASA…’ In conversation with Liz Loves Books
Q&A in Bristol Life
Q&A with Jackie Law at Never Imitate
You have set the book close to where you live, painting the nature reserve in particular as oozing menace. Do you feel safe in your neighbourhood?
Find out what frightens Sanjida…
REVIEWS‘Screamingly realistic…A debut novel which I can honesty say put me through the emotional wringer. Highly recommended.’
‘Haunting…topical…scary…Excellent.’ Steph’s Book Blog
‘Gripping? Hell yes….A fantastic debut.’
‘One of the most compelling books I’ve read in a long time…chillingly realistic…Sanjida Kay brings Bone by Bone to a satisfying conclusion, which she does with sensitivity and a great deal of compassion.’
‘Sanjida Kay’s Bone By Bone is one of the most powerfully written and compelling books that I’ve read in a long time. Billed as a psychological thriller, it certainly does thrill, it has a deep psychological pull, but it also delves deeply into the insidious and damaging world of the bully and the bullied…complex, chilling, a page-turner.’
Anne Cater on Random Things Through my Letter Box
The story as it unfolds is totally gripping and the sheer terror is palpable at every turn of the page…a tense twisting psychological thriller that creeps under your skin and stays there. Bone by Bone must be read with the lights switched on and ignore that knock on the door.
John Fisher on The Last Word-Book Review
5 stars
‘a gripping psychological-thriller storyline packed full of emotion and those moments where you think to yourself, ‘What would I do in this situation’. If I’m honest, I have no idea- and it made for really interesting, riveting reading,’ says Laura in her blog, Snazzy Books.
5 stars
‘a great thriller and a true page turner’ Aggie’s Books
Rosie Canning writes:
‘There is an underlying sense of unease throughout the novel…the narrative builds and builds to an unexpected climax…A disturbing psychological thriller, here is a writer who knows how to upset a readers equilibrium.’
Review by Books, Life and Everything:
‘A dark thriller…The climax of the story stretches the tension to breaking point. In all, I found this debut novel eminently readable, a real page turner in fact.’
Blabbering about Books says:
‘There was SO much tension in this book. From the very beginning there was a sense of unease weaving through the pages and as the plot progressed it intensified to the point where I was frightened..I couldn’t keep reading it in the dark.’
4 stars
On Never Imitate:
‘a skillfully written exploration of the insidious damage caused by bullying…The denouement is tense and terrifying…A tightly written thriller that gets to the heart of issues too many must face. An accomplished debut and a haunting read.’
5 stars
‘It is a long time since I read a full book in one day but this novel was impossible to put down.’
Book blogger, Over 40 and a mum to one, writes:
‘I was literally holding my breath towards the end of the book. Bone by Bone, builds and builds and the ending doesn’t disappoint.
I loved reading this book, can you tell? It’s very clever, there are aspects of it that really could happen to any of us.’
4 stars from Tracy Shepherd:
‘I found this a disturbing read, and could quite easily put myself in Laura’s shoes. Just how she reacts is a testament for her love for her daughter.’
Bibliophile Book Club says she couldn’t put Bone by Bone down. 4 stars
‘Bone By Bone is a stunning book. It is so tense and it just hooks you completely from the first page…Sanjida Kay has written a brilliant book. Wrought with tension from the beginning, the reader is pulled in from the first chapter and they are not let go until the very last page!’
Book blogger, The Book Magnet, gives Bone by Bone 5 stars
‘I was so impressed with this book; I don’t think I have ever experienced such a broad spectrum of emotions in one book…an emotional rollercoaster and an outstanding debut.’
Book blogger, Liz Barnsley, from Liz Loves Books says, Bone by Bone is ‘excellent – emotional, hard hitting and scary. ‘You will be glued to the pages. Highly recommended.’
4 stars
GUEST BLOGS
My Writing Room on Novelicious
Spotlight on author, Sanjida Kay, on Shaz’s Book Blog.
A Conversation with Sanjida Kay Greenacre Writers
Switching Genres on The Literary Sofa
Fairy tales in thrillers in Women Writers
Where’s the diversity in grip-lit? in Asian Writers
Author interview over at The Book Review Café
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‘I think if you want to write, you need to carve out the space to do it,’ she says. ‘It’s also about being a professional about it: showing up for yourself and saying ‘I’m going to set aside this much time to write’ rather than thinking you’ll wait until an idea strikes. I think it gets easier as you do it more because you’ve practiced, but it never gets easy or stops being a challenge.’
My Mother’s Secret – Press
Sunday Express– one of ‘The best reads in 2016’
Bone by Bone is a ‘breakout debut’ and ‘a title you won’t want to miss’ Jake Kerridge in the Sunday Express
Told in alternate chapters from both mother and daughter’s viewpoint, this novel about the insidious nature of bullying escalates into a tale of violence, fear and suspense. Daily Mail
BONE BY BONE was born out of Kay’s musings about what would happen if a mother fought back against her child’s bullies. Jessica Driscoll THE BIG THRILL
INTERVIEWS‘I’m interested in the intensity of the relationship women have with their mothers and their daughters; the idea that you are always a daughter, and once you have a child, you will never stop being a mother…’
In conversation with thriller writer, Holly Seddon, author of Try not to Breathe. Off the Shelf Books
‘I’d probably call NASA…’ In conversation with Liz Loves Books
Q&A in Bristol Life
Q&A with Jackie Law at Never Imitate
You have set the book close to where you live, painting the nature reserve in particular as oozing menace. Do you feel safe in your neighbourhood?
Find out what frightens Sanjida…
REVIEWS‘Screamingly realistic…A debut novel which I can honesty say put me through the emotional wringer. Highly recommended.’
‘Haunting…topical…scary…Excellent.’ Steph’s Book Blog
‘Gripping? Hell yes….A fantastic debut.’
‘One of the most compelling books I’ve read in a long time…chillingly realistic…Sanjida Kay brings Bone by Bone to a satisfying conclusion, which she does with sensitivity and a great deal of compassion.’
‘Sanjida Kay’s Bone By Bone is one of the most powerfully written and compelling books that I’ve read in a long time. Billed as a psychological thriller, it certainly does thrill, it has a deep psychological pull, but it also delves deeply into the insidious and damaging world of the bully and the bullied…complex, chilling, a page-turner.’
Anne Cater on Random Things Through my Letter Box
The story as it unfolds is totally gripping and the sheer terror is palpable at every turn of the page…a tense twisting psychological thriller that creeps under your skin and stays there. Bone by Bone must be read with the lights switched on and ignore that knock on the door.
John Fisher on The Last Word-Book Review
5 stars
‘a gripping psychological-thriller storyline packed full of emotion and those moments where you think to yourself, ‘What would I do in this situation’. If I’m honest, I have no idea- and it made for really interesting, riveting reading,’ says Laura in her blog, Snazzy Books.
5 stars
‘a great thriller and a true page turner’ Aggie’s Books
Rosie Canning writes:
‘There is an underlying sense of unease throughout the novel…the narrative builds and builds to an unexpected climax…A disturbing psychological thriller, here is a writer who knows how to upset a readers equilibrium.’
Review by Books, Life and Everything:
‘A dark thriller…The climax of the story stretches the tension to breaking point. In all, I found this debut novel eminently readable, a real page turner in fact.’
Blabbering about Books says:
‘There was SO much tension in this book. From the very beginning there was a sense of unease weaving through the pages and as the plot progressed it intensified to the point where I was frightened..I couldn’t keep reading it in the dark.’
4 stars
On Never Imitate:
‘a skillfully written exploration of the insidious damage caused by bullying…The denouement is tense and terrifying…A tightly written thriller that gets to the heart of issues too many must face. An accomplished debut and a haunting read.’
5 stars
‘It is a long time since I read a full book in one day but this novel was impossible to put down.’
Book blogger, Over 40 and a mum to one, writes:
‘I was literally holding my breath towards the end of the book. Bone by Bone, builds and builds and the ending doesn’t disappoint.
I loved reading this book, can you tell? It’s very clever, there are aspects of it that really could happen to any of us.’
4 stars from Tracy Shepherd:
‘I found this a disturbing read, and could quite easily put myself in Laura’s shoes. Just how she reacts is a testament for her love for her daughter.’
Bibliophile Book Club says she couldn’t put Bone by Bone down. 4 stars
‘Bone By Bone is a stunning book. It is so tense and it just hooks you completely from the first page…Sanjida Kay has written a brilliant book. Wrought with tension from the beginning, the reader is pulled in from the first chapter and they are not let go until the very last page!’
Book blogger, The Book Magnet, gives Bone by Bone 5 stars
‘I was so impressed with this book; I don’t think I have ever experienced such a broad spectrum of emotions in one book…an emotional rollercoaster and an outstanding debut.’
Book blogger, Liz Barnsley, from Liz Loves Books says, Bone by Bone is ‘excellent – emotional, hard hitting and scary. ‘You will be glued to the pages. Highly recommended.’
4 stars
GUEST BLOGS
My Writing Room on Novelicious
Spotlight on author, Sanjida Kay, on Shaz’s Book Blog.
A Conversation with Sanjida Kay Greenacre Writers
Switching Genres on The Literary Sofa
Fairy tales in thrillers in Women Writers
Where’s the diversity in grip-lit? in Asian Writers
Author interview over at The Book Review Café
