In this Q&A series, SLJ poses five questions and a request for a book recommendation to a debut YA author. Adina King shares about The House No One Sees in this latest installment.

1. Congrats on your YA debut! How would you describe your book to readers?
Thank you! The House No One Sees is a contemporary YA with surrealist elements written in alternating prose and verse. It is the story of Penelope Ross, a girl who must walk through her past to save her present. Forced to confront her mother’s opioid addiction to mend her fractured story, Penny wanders between present and past—prose and verse—unsure if her childhood home is guiding her out or leading her further into its memory maze. I picture House like a Matryoshka doll—you know, one those carved Russian dolls that nest one inside the other. There is light outside, but there is also a light inside, and as Penny walks through herself to find herself, she isn’t sure she has the courage to free this light. The idea for this book started with rage but ended with love. It is not an easy read, but it is a necessary read.

2. What drew you to YA to tell this story?
There is nothing like the YA genre. It’s gritty, honest to a fault, and that makes it necessary. Because this is the world in which teens live. This is why books are so important. Books open doors to difficult conversations and show us we aren’t alone. Maybe this is one of the reasons so many books are being banned from middle school and high school libraries. They portray realities that often feel too real to discuss. Imagine how that makes young people feel. Penelope Ross would not have made it to the end of this book without someone fighting to provide her with an equitable and inclusive education. This is why I chose the YA genre.

3. What, if anything, surprised you while writing it?
The fact that I had to marathon write Penny’s story in order to protect my own mental health. This meant I could only work when I had time to sprint from exposition to conclusion. It was difficult to walk in Penny’s shoes. In Maine, about 40 percent of young people report having lived with an adult struggling with alcohol or drugs. That’s eight out of twenty of my students. Really, picture that. How many young people like Penelope are sitting in your classroom—in your library? It was this overwhelm that surprised me. It was intense, though not completely unexpected. 

4. Tell us more about the characters. Which character do you most identify with and why?
The house, though I guess I didn’t identify as much as connect with it. Houses are shelter. Houses are memories. Houses can be places to hide. When the house spoke, I knew its voice; and when the house came to life, it was both familiar and strange. Because of this, the parallel between the structure of the house and Penny’s emotional arc made me walk through some of my own parallels—a journey that further connected me to both Penelope and the house.

5. What do you hope readers will take away from this book?
Books have been compared to many things, but for me they are like houses. A good book has attics and basements, maybe some cobwebs. A good book has closets and cupboards, and maybe a yard that pisses off the neighbors. But the best book is one in which you find a space that feels like yours. I hope my readers take what they need and leave behind what they don’t. There are many ways to feel like a house no one sees, but there is always light. It’s okay to walk through yourself to find yourself. It’s okay if it’s messy. Keep going. Be the light.

The Rec: Finally, we love YA and recommendations—what’s your favorite YA book you've read recently?
I’ve been revisiting books that give me hope. I know it is does not technically fit the YA genre, but I just re-read The House of the Cerulean Sea, a book with characters who always fill my cup. The joy, the hope, the love—TJ Klune’s book is everything our world needs right now. Many of my teen students also love this book. I think it may be one of those special reads that has outgrown its genre label.