Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!
I am delighted to bring to you an author Q&A featuring my favourite new Thriller novelist J.S. Monroe! He’s published by the lovely Indie Publisher from the UK Head of Zeus – of whom, gave me a happy surprise bit of #bookmail last year when I realised I was receiving “Forget My Name” by post! The novel came with a postcard and a keychain – what awaited inside was a curiously spun Thriller which at times I felt might be too shocking to finish and which ended up being one of my favourite new discovers of 2019!
I have a rather short-list of Thriller novelists I enjoy reading – Mr Monroe has joined their ranks because he gives you a wicked good chilling read *but!* in a style & rhythm you can handle without feeling *pushed!* too far afield from your general zone of comfort for these kinds of suspenseful driven plots! He knows how to take you to the brink of where a Psychological Thriller can go & then happily bring you back – through a cunningly brilliant plotting, a character centric story-line and leaves you with just enough breath you haven’t withheld to turn the very last pages to see how it all concludes! This is what I love seeking out in Thrillers and I am thankful to say Head of Zeus has happily published an author I can truly embrace and appreciate reading!
It was a pleasure of joy when I received the news I could host his new release whilst it was on a blog tour this January, 2020! The audiobook and print releases are forthcoming – my regional library has his audiobooks and I cannot wait to submit a purchase request for this novel!! Eek. I honestly haven’t been this itchy to read a Thriller in a long, long time!
However, as a tie-in to the conversation I am about to share – have you noticed how the topic of Dopplegangers is catching on in media & other outlets? There is even a cleverly spun documentary about how TikTok users are taking their celebrity-look-alike status to a new stratosphere whilst at the same time there is a group of individuals who are scouring the internet (using I believe it was reverse photo searches) to find out if people who approach them to do this kind of deep dive search have a potential ‘twin’ somewhere out in the world.
All of which brings me to the topic of the hour! Mr Monroe’s next Thriller discusses the topic of auto-identifers and the unique modern twist on realising the old saying “You remind me of…” has new meaning in a world where there really ‘are people who can look, talk and utitlise your mannerisms’ in a way which can trick others into believing they are actually ‘you’. A bit of a reverse of the plot in the Cyper / Techno Thriller film I always loved “The Net” (starring Sandra Bullock) – where she was the victim of mistaken identity but wasn’t the exact match to the other person – they just erased her files and inserted new ones. So, similar but different!
Except before we dive straight into what I asked and what he revealled – let me refer back to why I heart reading Thrillers as a genre and what it is about Mr Monroe’s signature style which held me anchoured to his pages!
Why I love Thrillers & “Forget My Name”:
Contemporary Thrillers are ones I love to find new voices in fiction as it is a niche of literature I am most curious about reading. Even if this particular niche of Lit has the tendency to push me outside my zones of comfort as a reader!
Thrillers are tricky. Perspective is everything. If your not looking at it the right way, you’ll going to find yourself seeing it through altered eyes and therefore altering how the story is meant to be interpreted. The key is to hold on tight and let the story unfold one trepiderious page turn after another!
Mr Monroe has a unique style of how he begins to taunt you a bit with the suspenseful arc of his novel whilst he gives you just enough to chew on to re-contemplate everything you’ve just read! He pulls you through the narrative as if you only have the information the characters have themselves – meaning, the reader is blind to both the truth of the situation and the set of circumstances that led-in to this story. He even switches it up a bit by having you re-think what you think about when it comes to the foundations of the Psychological Suspense genre itself – for a girl who cut her teeth on Hitchcock and classical horror films which were the founding origins of this genre in motion pictures, I must credit Monroe with a seemingly benign yet altogether sinister approach which leaves you rooted in the pages of his novel!
Even when you realise you are more confused than ever about what actually is going on – Monroe has this way of giving you a wicked good read where you feel motivated to turn the pages! Such as the moment when Tony’s wife Laura has felt she can’t deal with the situation anymore involving the mysterious stranger, she takes off for an unexpected holiday; to be with her parents and take some downtime. Meanwhile, Tony doesn’t waste time to re-enter into Jemma’s life – to insist she is re-invited to stay with him and almost pretend as nothing was kicked up between them. And, that is the moment where I questioned everything all over again! Why was he so insistent? What changed his mind and how does this all lead back into the lost identity of Jemma? As you can see Monroe wants you to think about this plot… but are you ready for when he starts to twist it to where you might not wish to turn the next page? Ah, but that is the question isn’t it! How far can you read before you instinctively are unsure if you want to know the conclusion?
Mr Monroe keeps you on the edge of the book – you want to read this in one sitting but if you find yourself unable to do that like I had myself – take your time with the story. You’ll appreciate it more because this is one riddler of a puzzle to sort through! It has different sides of a mirror if you think about it – how the image in the mirror is reflected depends greatly on your point of view and the perspective of the clues, facts and events which lead you to see what you perceive but is that the way in which Monroe wants you to see it? That’s the question truly.
Sorting out Monroe’s layered psychological Thriller is what keeps you turning the pages and questioning the maddening plot straight through to the very last chapter where you’ll run out of questions and be left with a #SpookyReads kind of a Thriller resting on your shelf. It is only then where you can replay the novel back round – re-seeing what you missed the first go-round and understanding Monroe’s style as you re-think everything over again!
-quoted from my review for Forget My Name
Did I grab your eye and attention?
Sound like the kind of thrilling read you’re seeking?
Be sure to brew your favourite cuppa and enjoy this delightful convo we shared!
The Other You
by J.S. Monroe
Kate used to be good at recognising people. So good, she worked for the police, identifying criminals in crowds of thousands. But six months ago, a devastating car accident led to a brain injury. Now the woman who never forgot a face can barely recognise herself in the mirror.
At least she has Rob. Young, rich, handsome and successful, Rob runs a tech company on the idyllic Cornish coast. Kate met him just after her accident, and he nursed her back to health. When she's with him, in his luxury modernist house, the nightmares of the accident fade, and she feels safe and loved.
Until, one day, she looks at Rob anew. And knows, with absolute certainty, that the man before her has been replaced by an impostor.
Is Rob who he says he is? Or is it all in Kate's damaged mind?
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 978-1789541670
Also by this author: Forget My Name
Published by Head of Zeus
on 6th February, 2020
Published By: Head of Zeus (@HoZ_Books)
The stories by J.S. Monroe I’ve been intrigued by:
Forget My Name (see also Review)
Available Formats: Hardcover and Ebook
Converse via: #TheOtherYou, #Contemporary #Thriller
Your latest novel The Other You relies on recent technological studies about facial recognition and the elite people who can auto-remember the faces they see on a regular basis. What first sparked your interest in this branch of science and how did you want to bring the science into the novel without it feeling too heady for lay readers?
Monroe responds: You’re absolutely right – there’s no bigger turn off for readers than feeling alienated by an author who likes to wear his research on his sleeve. These things require a light touch and I hope that I’ve got it right in The Other You. I am not a scientist – far from it! – and I figured that if I started to get lost when I was researching and writing about facial recognition, then the reader would to.
The current accepted narrative is that Artificial Intelligence marginalises humans and will eventually make us redundant. Super recognisers – people who have almost preternatural ability to remember human faces – seem to be the exception, achieving feats of recall that no facial recognition software can currently match. I got interested in them after reading an article in The New Yorker.
I’ve had a book to read for awhile now entitled “The Robot in the Next Cubicle” – it exemplifies what you’re talking about here – about how AI tech is going to be our demise and/or we are simply going to have to keep adapting ‘ourselves’ in order to remain relevant; an interesting chapter on technological progress – as its known as the 4th Industrial Revolution. Ever since I booked this interview and even a bit before it – I have been seeing this topic discussed, dissected, analogised and documented – your novel is very well timed! Whereas in regards to the super-recognisers – this is an emerging new field and one I am on the fringes of understanding better.
The more high tech our world becomes the less connection we see with our concept of humanity and the ways in which we are individually unique – what do you feel is the major downfall of too much reliance on tech and not enough emphasis on de-plugging from the hive?
Monroe responds: The rise of facial recognition software, particularly in countries such as China, has the potential to be very dehumanising, although the human face poses reassuringly difficult challenges for machine learning. Software in security cameras at airports, say, rely on metrics – the distance between the eyes, the angle of the mouth etc. But there is something else going on with the human face. It can’t just be seen in terms of measurements. When we see someone we know, we think, ‘That person reminds me of my mother, or maybe someone I was at school with.’ There is a semantic aspect to our response to the human face – we imbue it with meaning and significance beyond its mere physical features.
The ability of super recognisers to remember, for example, someone that they might have only seen for a split second at a bus stop, five years ago, is giving scientists pause for thought. The human brain, comprising 100 billion neurons, is still the most complex object in the universe, something worth remembering the next time another person is pulled in by the police because they’ve been mistakenly identified by faulty facial recognition software.
This is one thread of interest I have seen moving from tv to film – how software has its shortcomings and how uniquely enough those metrics you’re mentioning are always at the forefront of what is technically wrong or missing from identification within a Suspense or Thriller story on screen. Another reason I miss seeing new episodes of CSI: Cyber!
The complexities of the human mind are ongoing and what I love about this plot you’ve now devised and are releasing this New Year is how curiously little we understand of how we are able to do what we inherently can achieve without a plausible explanation because those talents become innate and automatic.
There are also shortcomings of the robots they continue to promote on talk shows and tech meet-ups – they cannot re-adapt to their environments and they can only interpret one-dimensionally as so far they rely on their humans to input what they understand and the knowledge limits within their programs – the curious bit there is what happens when their self-evolving? I haven’t yet understood why we want to erase ourselves through technology and why tech is now more keenly important to advance than our own humanity? Very odd.
I’ve heard one filmmaker who is infamous for thrillers focuses his stories on his fears – if you were asked what motivates and inspires you to write thrillers, how would you respond? And, what thrills you the most as a writer as you set about the layers you tuck inside them to keep the reader on the edge of their toes?
Monroe responds: My agent told me early on in my writing career that I must bear one thing in mind above all else: jeopardy. I always try to write books that I want to read, so inevitably the stories that put my characters in danger are based on my own fears.
In my last book, Forget My Name, a woman turns up in a village not dissimilar to my own in Wiltshire, unable to remember her own name. She’s lost all her ID too. Imagine that! Terrifying. In The Other You, a woman waits for her boyfriend to join her at the weekend in Cornwall. When he turns up, she’s convinced that it’s not him. He looks like the man she loves, talks like him, but when she fixes him in the eye, she knows, just knows, that someone has taken his place. That would be upset me greatly, I think. In terms of what gives me the greatest thrill, it’s the satisfaction of pulling all the different threads together at the end. I know how my books start, and I know how they must finish – the bit in the middle is the exciting/scary part. The twists and turns.
An author once said that they like to imagine their readers a couple of pages behind them as they type the first draft. I like that thought, the sense of propulsion through a story. It’s the thrill of the chase – I hope to lead my characters, and the readers, a merry, terrifying dance.
I *knew!* it. I knew you had to be writing stories rooted in fearful and plausible scenarios as that is how “Forget My Name” came across to me! I cannot wait to see those twists in the plot when “The Other You” becomes available in a format I can enjoy reading whilst at the same time I loved learning the writing advice you were given. Because it correctly explains why I felt that tucking in of heightened awareness in your story – almost as if I were in a timed race and I wasn’t sure if I would get to the end before the clock expired! A merry dance indeed!
There is a connecting thread of interest in each of your thrillers – the concept of memory, cognitive science and the artful way in which a writer can re-tweak a thrilling suspense novel rooted in the traumatic loss of themselves or someone close to them. What first intrigued you to carry forward this connection and how inspiring has it been to watch it develop through your novels?
Monroe responds: I come back to the human brain and what an extraordinary thing it is. Sadly, I have lost several people very close to me and I’m intrigued by how we cope, how we re-route our lives, much like the brains re-routes its neural pathways after suffering traumatic damage.
I wrote about bereavement hallucinations in my first J.S. Monroe novel, Find Me, and amnesia, following a horrific incident, was at the heart of Forget My Name. So there is a common thread there, one that I pick up in The Other You, which explores the relationship between identity, the human face and memory.
I, too, am curious about Neuroscience and Cognitive Science – moreso since my father survived his bilateral moderate stroke three years ago November. (something I blogged about recently) There is a lot to the brain we still do not fully understand – for me, as an observer and as part of my Dad’s care team (with my Mum) is that strokes are like earthquakes of the mind – you never truly know what has happened at the initial trauma of the stroke itself nor of what is going to be an after effect years down the pike. Its a difficult wait and see discovery and having said that – it is also curious how a brain post-stroke heals, rewires itself and begins anew trying to ‘reboot’ itself post-stroke. Ergo, I definitely know where your coming from!
This might also explain my keen interest in your novels,… their not just chillingly brilliant, their also intellectually museful in how they carry out their themes and their hypothesis’s!
What uplifts your spirit when you are not researching or writing your stories?
Monroe responds: Playing tennis – even when I’m playing badly, which is most of the time, I still enjoy it. I love walking and running in the Wiltshire countryside too – my wife takes beautiful pictures of the local Savernake Forest, where we walk a lot. And I enjoy our children’s burgeoning lives and careers. Cornwall is also a constant source of joy and wonder – Portscatho on the south coast is a regular haunt. Some might recognise it in The Other You…
The natural environs and family are two of the best ways to find downtime and are pursuits we both share with equal appreciation. Thank you for giving me such a wonderful heartfelt conversation about your stories, what motivates you to tell them and how you have tapped into the curious topics of fearful delight which gives us, as readers, an edgy Contemporary Thriller to wrap our readerly minds round and wick off the hours rooted to our seats and the pages of the novels curiously ruminating about what we shall find at their conclusions! Thanks for giving us something to talk about and to consider long after we’ve put your books down! May you have a wonderful New Year this 2020!
Follow this Thrilling Blog Tour:
Visit the book bloggers who share my day on the blog tour:
Books of All Kinds | Linda’s Book Bag | Musings of Another Writer
NOTE: Similar to blog tours wherein I feature book reviews, book spotlights (with or without extracts), book announcements (or Cover Reveals) – I may elect to feature an author, editor, narrator, publisher or other creative person connected to the book, audiobook, Indie film project or otherwise creative publishing medium being featured wherein the supplemental content on my blog is never compensated monetarily nor am I ever obligated to feature this kind of content. I provide (98.5%) of all questions and guest topics regularly featured on Jorie Loves A Story. I receive direct responses back to those enquiries by publicists, literary agents, authors, blog tour companies, etc of whom I am working with to bring these supplemental features and showcases to my blog. I am naturally curious about the ‘behind-the-scenes’ of stories and the writers who pen them: I have a heap of joy bringing this content to my readers. Whenever there is a conflict of connection I do disclose those connections per post and disclose the connection as it applies.
{SOURCES: Book covers for “Forget My Name” and “The Other You”, book synopsis, author photograph of J.S. Monroe, author biography and the blog tour banners were all provided by Head of Zeus and used with permission. Post dividers badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: Conversations with the Bookish and the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2020.
I’m a social reader | I tweet my reading life
.@JSThrillers I've been eagerly awaiting this #blogtour via @HoZ_Books to reveal my Q&A with the author JS Monroe!?We discuss the Science behind the book (ie. Super Recognisers, #AI, #facialrecognition tech) & how to write a chiller of a #Thriller! https://t.co/j3SxvH9t7U
— Jorie, the Joyful Tweeter ?? (@joriestory) January 9, 2020
.@joriestory Happily featuring one of my favourite #newtomeauthors of 2019 J.S. Monroe via #JLASblog!?LOVE his instincts for #amwriting #Thrillers and giving an edge of my seat kind of #mustread! Read what inspired his new book #TheOtherYou @BibliophileRT https://t.co/j3SxvH9t7U
— Jorie, the Joyful Tweeter ?? (@joriestory) January 9, 2020
Comments via Twitter:
Thanks very much, Jorie. Your interest and support is much appreciated. So glad you like the new one!
— J.S.Monroe (@JSThrillers) January 9, 2020
Fascinating interview with thriller writer J.S. Monroe, covering the science and inspiration behind his new book The Other You, which sounds utterly gripping! https://t.co/W0PHHO0YPV via @joriestory
— Clare Chase (@ClareChase_) January 10, 2020
A New Year’s Interview | in conversation with J.S. Monroe, the Thriller novelist who gave her a wicked good chilling read and has become her #mustread author of 2020! https://t.co/xEM3kS9Rv0 via @joriestory
— Lisa | WayTooFantasy ??? (@waytoofantasy) January 11, 2020
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