In this Q&A series, SLJ poses five questions and a request for a book recommendation to a debut YA author. Trisha Tobias shares about Honeysuckle and Bone in this latest installment.

1. Congrats on your YA debut! How would you describe your book to readers?
Honeysuckle and Bone is a young adult horror-thriller set in a luxurious Jamaican estate where 18-year-old Carina arrives hoping for a fresh start after troubles back in New York. But when strange things begin happening at the house, she’s forced to confront whether the past she tried to bury has followed her from the United States all the way to Jamaica in the form of a duppy (or ghost).

2. What drew you to YA to tell this story?
I’ve always loved YA for a couple of reasons. First, it’s a category that allows for so much raw emotion. Second, it highlights that time in life when many of us were or are sorting out who we are and living in the in-between. We feel ourselves growing into someone other than we’ve been, but we’re not entirely sure who we are starting to become. YA gives us permission to explore that tension, and that tension is integral to Carina’s story. Everything she thinks, feels, and does in the present is shaped by her troubled past and her uncertain future.

3. What, if anything, surprised you while writing it?
How healing the writing process was. It allowed me to process a lot: grief about my father’s passing, my identity as someone with Jamaican heritage, and my creative perfectionism. Nothing is healed, of course. Not totally. But writing Honeysuckle and Bone cracked me open in more ways than I expected, and I’m grateful for that.

4. Tell us more about the characters. Which character do you most identify with and why?
All of the characters in Honeysuckle and Bone have a public face and a private one. Carina isn’t the only one with secrets, which is what makes her so intriguing as a character. She’s observant, calculating, and—frankly—difficult to get to know. But none of these traits are the full story. They’re adaptive behaviors meant to protect herself and, in her mind, protect others from her. She’s positive her secrets are so much worse than everyone else’s. If only that were true! (In my opinion, of course.)

I probably relate to Carina the most. There’s a push-pull between wanting to be known in a real way by others and wanting to hide. I see that in myself, too, even though our circumstances are different.

5. What do you hope readers will take away from this book?
That every person is more than their biggest mistake. Shame thrives in silence, and at its heart, this book is about learning to move forward without letting shame run the show. I hope readers walk away with a deeper sense of compassion—for themselves and for others. And maybe a healthy fear of honeysuckle.

The Rec: Finally, we love YA and recommendations—what’s your favorite YA book you've read recently?
I’ve recently started I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me by Jamison Shea, and the voice and ambition alone have been giving me life. It’s beautiful and brutal at the same time.