Blog Tour: Janet Ruth Young Interview

Stopping by today is Janet Ruth Young, the author of the upcoming release, The Babysitter Murders! Read on to find out about her research, publishing process, the places she'd like to travel to, and more!

1. Your debut novel was about depression, and your upcoming release is about OCD. Have either of these serious issues impacted you personally (whether yourself, a family member, or a friend)? Did you have to research anything about depression and OCD before writing each book?

I’ve had both obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression, and people close to me have had both illnesses as well. But in general my books are one-third personal experience, one-third research, and one-third pure imagination. I also mingle the experience, research, and imagined people/events in such a way that my own experience is only fleetingly recognizable to anyone who knows me.

For The Opposite of Music, I interviewed a person who had been depressed, and I read several books about alternative treatments for depression. I also researched specific topics such as electroconvulsive therapy and how it affects the brain. Some of the articles that my character Billy Morrison reads when trying to decide how to help his father are items that I found and reprinted. Others are articles that I created to present a particular point of view for Billy to evaluate.

The Babysitter Murders required even more research. To portray what goes on in the mind of someone with OCD, I supplemented my experience with three excellent books: Getting Control and The Imp of the Mind, both by Lee Baer, and Your Mental Health by Allen Frances and Michael B. First. I also corresponded extensively with an OCD researcher/clinician, Kimberly A. Glazier of Yeshiva University, who reviewed Dani’s thoughts and behavior for accuracy and also told me what kind of treatment Dani would receive. The exercises that Dr. Mandel puts Dani through in Boston, however wild they might seem to the reader, are real. Kim devoted a lot of time into this manuscript for no compensation, because she believed in the project. I was really fortunate to work with her.

The Opposite of Music received praise for accurately portraying how depression affects family members, and many schools and libraries ordered the book for bibliotherapy. I hope the same thing happens with Babysitter.

2. Did your writing process change at all from your first book to your second?

The process was similar both times. I started with a synopsis---a list of the all the events I knew I would include---and then I wrote a little bit every day, not necessarily in sequence. (In order to keep the momentum going I write any scene that I feel I know enough about, regardless of where it appears in the book, then I go back and fill in all the holes.) I also did a LOT of revising for both books. I’ve worked with three editors over the seven years I’ve been with Atheneum, and each editor’s proddings and suggestions added something wonderful to the development of a complete story.

3. What was your publishing process like?

Editors expressed interest in The Opposite of Music as soon as I finished writing it---in fact before that, because I received a prize from PEN New England for an early fragment of the manuscript. One editor loved it and held onto it for a year before sending it back to me. I wasn’t angry though; I was flattered, and that was the second hint that I had something special to publish. Caitlyn Dlouhy of Atheneum signed me shortly after that. Right around the time Opposite of Music came out, Atheneum signed me for two more books. So I didn’t have to shop those around---they were under contract before I even wrote them.

4. What were you like as a teenager?

I looked very much like the conventional popular kids but thought, spoke, and acted differently. The high school I was in was culturally anti-intellectual, and I was smart, analytical, outspoken, and feminist. So people didn’t know what to make of me, and after a while they decided to just ignore me. There’s more about my teen years on my website (http://janetruthyoung.com/biography.html).

5. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?

New Orleans, Nova Scotia, Amsterdam, and Scandinavia. I’ve done a lot of traveling but those are among the places I’ve missed.

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Thanks so much, Janet, for stopping by! The Babysitter Murders was an impressive and complex novel and I highly recommend it.

Review: The Babysitter Murders by Janet Ruth Young

The Babysitter Murders by Janet Ruth Young

Everyone has weird thoughts sometimes. But for seventeen-year-old Dani Solomon, strange thoughts have taken over her life. She loves Alex, the little boy she babysits, more than anything. But one day, she has a vision of murdering him that's so gruesome, she can't get it out of her mind. In fact, Dani's convinced that she really will kill Alex. She confesses the thoughts to keep him safe, setting off a media frenzy that makes "Dani Death" the target of an extremist vigilante group.

Through the help of an uncoventional psychiatrist, Dani begins to heal her broken mind. But will it be too late? The people of her community want justice . . . and Dani's learning that some thoughts are better left unsaid.

Review:

The Babysitter Murders was a complex and intriguing look at OCD and the damage it can cause. Dani’s form of OCD was one I hadn’t heard of before and I’m ashamed to say I always think of obsessively washing your hands or checking locks as OCD, when there are even more serious forms of the illness. This was an impressive novel and it opened my eyes to something I knew little to nothing about.

Seventeen year old Dani is haunted by horrifying images and thoughts and she can’t get them out of her head. The most serious of which is she keeps seeing herself killing Alex, the little boy she babysits. And even though Dani adores Alex and would never want to hurt him, she starts to worry that she may actually kill him. The thoughts and visions are soon taking over and Dani is getting more and more worried, so she does the only thing she can think of to keep Alex safe. She confesses that she has been having these thoughts about killing him. Suddenly Dani is the target of extreme haters and groups who think she is a danger to the children of America and needs to be arrested. Dani’s life will never be the same and she is about to face a hard road; both to recovery and convincing the rest of the world that she really isn’t a bad person.

Dani was a character I liked because she was just so…normal. Except of course for the terrifying thoughts that were haunting her and that she couldn’t escape from. I felt for her because the illness she was dealing with must have been so difficult and she handled it in what she felt was the best way possible. Dani never realized how people would react and that once the truth got out, no one would look at her the same way again. Dani honestly was a sweet and caring teenager and she just had a lot to deal with. She did handle it in the best way she could and luckily she had her mom on her side, as well as a great psychiatrist, and the rest of the secondary characters come in to play big time as the story progresses.

This was a very complex and unique story and I was drawn into Dani’s story and rooting for her throughout. She stayed strong and learned a lot about herself and those around her in the process. There were some interesting sub-plots in the story that added to the overall premise and some twists that kept everything moving.

Overall, The Babysitter Murders was a highly original and complex novel that showed how OCD can impact anyone. Dani was a great main character and I only wanted the best for her. Reading about her struggles, confession, and fight to recover was an intense ride and I applaud Ms. Young for tackling such a unique and under-written about subject (particularly in YA). This story may not be for everyone, but I definitely recommend giving it a try. You will certainly take something away from it!

Overall: 4 out of 5 stars

July 26, 2011/Atheneum/304 Pages/Young Adult

Source: Author (ARC)