Five With Fisher - Gigi Griffis

Gigi Griffis is a sucker for little-known histories, unlikable female characters, and all things Europe. If she were in a horror movie, she’d be the sly old bog witch warning you to turn back—or maybe the fool who heard kittens in distress and went into the dark basement to get axe murdered. (RIP another dopey white girl.)

1. Tell me about a book that evoked strong emotion for you.

The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe made me feel sad and hopeful and very seen. It’s a romp of a thriller but with a perfect emotional core that’s about trauma enacted on you by the very people who should keep you safe.

2. Tell me something you edited out of your book that you really love. What darling did you kill that you’re saddest about?

If I may turn this question on its head a bit: I didn’t edit anything I loved out of this book (my editors tend to ask me to add, not subtract), but the mystery at the heart of the book is a darling I killed before.

I started plotting a mystery several years before writing this book and early feedback on the idea was very mixed. I loved the mystery, but the feedback had me second-guessing things. So I tucked it in a folder and moved onto another project.

When I decided to write a book set during the Satanic Panic, I knew the center of the book would be the disappearance of the preacher’s daughter. And I needed a mystery.

So into that old folder I went and found that old, tightly plotted mystery. I thought: perhaps this was just in the wrong book last time.

Turns out, I was right. The mystery slipped perfectly into the center of The Wicked Unseen, the same plot set against a different backdrop with different characters. A dead darling revived.

Which is precisely why I believe that in writing what is dead may never die.

3. Tell me about an inside joke that made it past edits to the printed page.

The whole book is an inside joke with myself!

You see, I am a chicken. Not just a chicken…the chickenest chicken that ever chickened. Jurassic Park gave me nightmares the first time I watched. I frequently have to yeet myself from horror books and movies because they are too much for me.

I am, in other words, the last person you’d expect to write a horror novel.

So when I sent my agent a strange manuscript I’d been working on, asked her what the heck genre it was, and got an email back exclaiming “horror!”, oh how I laugh-wept. The Wicked Unseen was the next book I wrote, and I leaned all the way in on horror, picking it apart at the seams, examining every trope and expectation. It was a joke on myself: If I was a horror writer now, I’d be the horrest horror writer that ever horrored.

4. Tell me about a research hole you fell into writing this book.

Research holes are my entire personality, so this book was full of them. I read about the history of the Ouija Board and the origins of Spiritualism. I went deep into bat biology for a side character. And for anything you want to know about mortuary science (including corpse farts) and cadaver dogs (including ordering placenta on the internet), I’m your girl.

5. Tell me about naming things. Characters! Books! What do you struggle with, and what do you love?

Naming things is all love for me—never a struggle. The Wicked Unseen’s title was in place before the book was even written. Just based on the themes of the book, I felt strongly that it was the right title. And then I planted the phrase elsewhere in the book to make it feel connective.

As for character names, in this book they were a blast because they tell us something about the character’s parents—who are important figures in the story. Audre’s parents were activists participating in feminist marches, so it makes sense that they named Audre after a feminist thinker they admired. Elle’s real name is Elisheba, an obscure Bible name chosen by a preacher. 

If you like what Gigi has to say, you will most certainly love THE WICKED UNSEEN! The scariest horror peels back the layers on real life, and this book is no exception.

Something wicked this way comes…

From the moment Audre arrives in rural Pennsylvania, it’s clear she won’t fit in. After all, her nose ring, horror movie obsession, and family’s Ouija board collection aren’t likely to endear her to a town convinced there’s a secret Satanic cult doing rituals in the nearby woods.

When the preacher’s daughter and Audre’s crush, Elle, goes missing on Halloween weekend, the town is quick to point fingers—in Audre’s direction. With the cops busy harassing her family for being nonbelievers and everyone else convinced demons are to blame, Audre realizes she might be the only person who can find her friend.

But the deeper Audre digs, the weirder it gets. Has Elle fallen victim to a Satanic ritual, or is the town’s obsession with the occult covering up something even more sinister?

“An absorbing mystery with strong characterization.” – Kirkus

“At times discomforting and chilling, and at others thrilling and empowering, The Wicked Unseen will be a popular addition to mystery and horror shelves.” – Booklist

“Griffis captures the reality of this 1980s and ’90s cultural moment with eerie resonance, and brisk pacing paired with clever mystery elements deliver.” – Publishers Weekly

 Get it on audiobook or paperback/ebook!