Kathryn imagines a real-life Sleeping Beauty
Books Sidlesham-based author Kathryn Evans offers a darklytwisted thriller plunging a pre-tech girl into a futuristic world with her new book, Beauty Sleep, published by Usborne.
Aimed at the young-adult market and older adults too, it comes with an important message about our social media age – “as well as being a really good read, I hope!”
Laura can’t remember who she is. But the rest of the world knows. Because Laura is famous – a dying girl who was frozen until she could be cured.
As Kathryn says, she is a real-life Sleeping Beauty.
But what happens when you wake up one day and the world has moved on 40 years?
Could you build a new life while solving the mystery of what happened to the old one?
Kathryn is the awardwinning author of More of
Me, nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal and winner of the Edinburgh International Book Festival First Book Award. Beauty Sleep is her second book.
“This book is taking a look at how young people deal with social media pressures.
“It looks at it through the filter of a girl that was frozen in 1986 and wakes up ten years ahead of now in the near future.
“I wanted to explore how far things might go in a certain direction, things like tracking our children and keeping control of what is going on. But it also touches on issues like homelessness – all through this pre-tech girl in a post-tech future.
“The premise of the book is that young people have the power to step away from all these social media pressures. I do a lot of schools visits, and I say to the students ‘You are teenagers. You are hard wired to rebel. Rebel against this!’ I say to them ‘What really matters is your friendships – your family and your chosen family.’
“And the message is being received so enthusiastically. I have been on tour for three weeks with this book, and it has been incredible. It makes me quite tearful. The response from young people has been a huge ‘Yes!’
“This is just one book in a sea of books, but if it makes a tiny difference to just one young person, then I am halfdoing what I wanted to do.
“I think the pressures of social media can be very traumatic for some young people. If you are vulnerable, it can be a really frightening place to be.
“For most kids, it is fine and exciting, but you still get a trickle of constant pressure to look a certain way, and that has a low-lying effect on you.
“I love social media. I am on social media, and it can be very powerful. But you need to be careful about who you follow. You need to follow people that make you feel better about yourself rather than someone that makes you feel worse.”
If you are responding to a stream of messages about weight loss and teeth whitening, then you need to be looking elsewhere.
“I think ultimately the message is just to be aware and realise what is not real.
“Images are Photoshopped. And you have these images in your face all the time, and it can be really difficult to extract what is real.
People don’t take enough responsibility for what they represent to young people who can be quite vulnerable.
“But young people are canny.
“They are much cannier than we give them credit for. I think they can actually drive this themselves.
“But I am just wanting to shine a light on it all.”