The Beast You Let In: A Guest Post by Dana Mele

Everyone in the rural town of Ashling knows the tale of Veronica Green, a teen who was murdered in the woods. But did a party trick bring her back to claim her revenge? The Beast You Let In is a fast-paced, suspenseful YA horror from the author of Summer’s Edge and People Like Us.

There is no one Hazel trusts less than her self-centered twin, Beth. So when Beth abandons her at a party she didn’t want to attend in the first place, Hazel decides not to let it ruin her night. She throws herself into flirting and telling ghost stories over a Ouija board. Hazel might not be the popular twin, but she is going to have fun if it kills her.

 

Many of my books are inspired by places or experiences from my own life that had a profound impact on me and never really left.

In The Beast You Let In, queer twins Beth and Hazel wrestle with the fact that as they are growing up, they have begun to realize that their conservative small town does not necessarily have the same love for them that they have for it. They handle it in different ways: Hazel is not ready to accept this as readily, which is very fair, because it’s extremely overwhelming. Beth is confronted with it head on in an unavoidable way and has no choice, and it drives them apart.

In a way, Beth and Hazel represent the dual sides of myself when I was a teen both wanting to love the place you come from and overlook the hurt being inflicted by those who should really be able to love thy neighbor with a lot more humanity, and the side that is starting to get fed up because fair is fair.

Unfortunately, when I was a teen, homophobia was almost more the rule than the exception, and more unfortunately, right now in many parts of this country empathy is eroding toward trans people. So a lot of what was true decades ago is reflected today.

I first became politically engaged at age 16, and it allowed me to feel like I had a voice. I also wrote a lot! Short stories, poems, letters to the editor. And for me, both reading and writing, whether fiction or nonfiction, has always been a way to push back against injustice where it finds us in real life. 

What I Love About Writing For Young Adult

I love writing for teens precisely because that is the age when I think a lot of people start to really look at the world and think about questions of fairness and goodness and where they fit into it, and how to make sense of it all. These are questions we never, ever stop asking.

Horror as a genre is filled with these questions and it helped me figure out how to answer some of them for myself, again, through reading and writing. For me, I find it helpful to read more, write more, always speak up, and stand up for anyone who’s getting punched down on, because even if they don’t come through for you, it sets an example, and you can only hope it will catch on.

The Beast You Let In is a book about finding your place, finding your voice, and figuring out what you believe in. I believe all people deserve to be treated with humanity. And I also want to believe in the old stories where people who persist in acting like monsters may eventually meet one. This is that kind of story.