St. Martin's Literary Fiction asked Bryn Greenwood:

Some early readers have said they’ve found it hard to get past the controversial subject matter of the book and Kellen and Wavy’s relationship. Did you know going into it that you would be writing on such a divisive topic? If so, what were the challenges of that?

Bryn Greenwood When I started, I had no idea I was about to write a "controversial" book. I typically start writing with a scene that pops into my mind, and I spend the next 100k-200k words trying to figure how it all fits together and what it all means. I never know where my stories are going until they get there. The first scene I wrote was Wavy and Kellen meeting at the edge of that meadow beside a wrecked motorcycle. I had no clue what their relationship would be, but it was pretty obvious to me that they needed each other. Kellen was injured, Wavy was hungry, and they were both terribly lonely. I felt sure that it had been weeks, if not months, since anyone had looked at either of them and acknowledged their humanity.

After that first scene, I worked backwards to figure out who Wavy was, who Kellen was. Once that was sorted, the rest of the story unfolded pretty quickly. I don't think I understood where the story was going until the night Kellen crawled up to Wavy's bedroom to bring her a present on his own birthday. Then I realized this was going to get a lot messier. I didn't allow myself to think about it too much, because if I had I might have backed down. What I did do was thoroughly investigate Kellen's motivations, because once I knew what Wavy had been through, I couldn't see myself writing a story about anyone doing something worse to her.

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