Hi Benjamin,
– Thank you for joining us here at YALC. We would love you to introduce yourself?
Hey! I’m Benjamin Dean, but you can call me Ben. I’m a bestselling, full-time author with a background in celebrity journalism/interviewing which basically just means I don’t know how to mind my own business, and I live for a good bit of gossip. If you’ve read any of my books, you’ll be able to tell…
– Can you give our readers an overview of your newest YA novel Bury Your Friends?
Sure! Bury Your Friends is a nepo baby slasher/thriller which starts with two boys going missing from a party and only one of them coming back with no memory of what happened. That character is our ~unreliable narrator~ Noah who, a few weeks later, is trying to forget what happened while enjoying a country retreat with his rich and privileged friends. But things take a turn when the friends receive a phone call from a masked serial killer hiding in the grounds demanding that one person is evicted from the house every hour or someone inside the house will die. And THIS is why you should never answer calls from unknown numbers!
– And, if you had to do it in just 5 words or less, what would they be?
I think nepo baby slasher covers it perfectly!
– Who is your favourite character to write and why?
Hmm I think it has to be Baby. She’s the character who means well but is so clueless and wrapped up in her own bubble that her allyship is often very misplaced. Writing some of her scenes – the dumbwaiter, restorations instead of reparations, I come out of the closet as an ally – made me cry with laughter while writing and gave the story some lightness to balance the dark, creepy moments.
– Did you have to do much research before writing Bury Your Friends, any shows or movies to help with the thriller aspect?
I did so much research on floor plans and smart houses? Which sounds so silly but the concept of ‘one friend must be evicted from the house every hour’ turned out to be really difficult to logically nail. My editor kept asking questions like, ‘Why wouldn’t they all just run outside together and take their chances against one killer’ which was absolutely fair. Floor plans and looking at country houses for sale on Right Move REALLY helped to figure out how I could lock the characters inside and stop them from managing to escape. Movie-wise, I’ve always been a huge fan of Scream, so that ended up being a huge inspiration for the meta ‘how do you survive a slasher’ vibes, as were movies like Ready or Not and Bodies Bodies Bodies.
– What do you enjoy about writing thrillers?
I lover ratcheting up the tension and making readers feel like they need to turn on a light or lock the doors. I think we all love scaring ourselves for some reason and so writing those scenes and figuring out plot twists to take the reader on a ride is so much fun. Although I do sometimes scare myself when I’m writing late at night haha!
– How many times in the writing process did your choice of killer change? Or did you know from day one?
I think it only changed once. At the beginning of my writing process when I’m fleshing out characters, I go through them all and give them a motive for being the killer to see which one I think works best and has the most exciting options for a reveal later on. I thought I knew who I wanted the killer to be way before I started writing, but as I got further into the draft, another character started jumping out at me and I couldn’t resist making the pivot. The motive was just so unhinged, and I absolutely loved writing those final scenes!
– What made you want to set the book in about ‘privileged’ lifes of the spoilt rich kids?
I think it had a lot to do with setting actually! I’d been away for a country retreat with some friends in a big house when the idea was born and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I knew I wanted it to be set in a country manor, so naturally I needed rich characters. But when the idea of making them nepo babies who have never really had to work for anything in their life and just expect everything to be handed to them came into my head, I knew that was the missing piece.
– Where do you write?
I write at my desk! I reeeeeeally want to be that kind of glamorous writer that works in a café but I just end up focusing on the conversations going on around me instead of actually doing anything productive. I’ve eavesdropped on a lot of breakups in my time!
– What made you want to get into writing? Was there a specific book you read which inspired you?
I always say the book that made me want to be an author was Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman. It was the first time I ever remember realising that books were written by actual people, and someone like me could write them. I’ve always loved inventing stories in my head, so I’m grateful I get to call that a job now!
– What is your favourite genre to read?
I tend to lean a little towards fantasy actually. Something about a good book with magic and high stakes really pulls me in, especially if it’s gay! But of course, I also love to read a good thriller, and I’m a fan of queer litfic too.
– Have you read anything brilliant recently?
A book I read a few months ago that I keep thinking about is Songlight by Moira Buffini. I absolutely ADORED it and I’m so excited for the second book in the trilogy.
– Where can our readers find you on social media?
You can find me @notagainben, although I’m only using TikTok and Instagram at the moment!
– Finally can you give us your favourite quote from a novel (it can be yours!)?
One that sprung to mind is: ‘This action will have no echo. It means we won’t repeat the same mistakes, that we won’t continue to do harm.’ It’s from Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo – the Six of Crows duology is one of my all-time favourites!