Processing Fear Through Fiction, a guest post by Stacy Stokes

The idea for The Darkness Rises first came to me about a decade ago. I was cleaning my apartment when, out of nowhere, a sentence popped into my head—I was seven the first time I saw the darkness. Years later, that line would become the first sentence of chapter two, but it began as the catalyst for Whitney’s story.

I knew that I wanted to write a story about a girl who saw death before it happened in the form of a rippling black cloud, warning of danger, and that she used her gift to save people. I also knew that it would be a thriller—that someone wanted revenge because the girl saved the wrong person. But beyond that, I didn’t know how the story would take shape. So I started writing to see what would happen next.

Around the same time, the media was filled with news about gun violence. There had been yet another school shooting, and surrounding that tragic event was news of other shootings around the country. It struck me one day as I was listening to a podcast and the subject of gun control came up—I was becoming numb. Somehow, I realized, gun violence—and more specifically, mass shootings and shootings taking place at schools—had become normal to me. How can the shooting of innocent people all over the country feel normal, let alone shootings involving children? It was a horrible, horrible thought. One that wouldn’t stop haunting me.

In many ways, Whitney’s guilt in The Darkness Rises mirrors my own at having let myself become hardened to the violence around me. And her fear became a mirror of my own once I let myself process what my daughter might face in the classroom. Without realizing it, reality had crept into my story. Just like that first line of text had popped into my head, unbidden, there was the thing I didn’t want to face written in my own words, on the pages of my manuscript. My story had unintentionally become an outlet for me to process my worst fears.

This is the beauty of stories—they allow us to stand back and explore the darkest, scariest parts of the world without letting it overwhelm us. And the addition of magical elements is like a barbed wire fence— you can see, hear and observe what’s happening, but at a safe distance, which allows us an added layer of protection as we poke and prod the thing in front of us, trying to understand it. If something tragic happens in a world where a girl can see magical, dark clouds hovering over people’s heads, it can’t be real, can it? And yet, by writing The Darkness Rises, I found myself processing a very real situation with very real implications.

In hindsight, I did the same thing with my debut novel, Remember Me Gone. On the surface, it’s a story about a girl and her family who run a memory-taking business in a small Texas town filled with secrets. Dig a layer deeper, and you might say it’s a story about a girl processing the loss of her mother and the impact that memories have on the grieving process. But peel the onion all the way down to its core? Then you might see a story that helped the writer process the fears of loss and grief that come with watching parents get older.

As a kid, I remember reading the book Tuck Everlasting and the profound effect it had on my understanding of mortality. Death was a terrifying concept, and I would often lay awake at night worried that something terrible would happen to me or my family members. Yet here was a book that posed the question—if you could live forever, would you? The answer surprised me. And while it didn’t completely quell my fears, it did help me examine a complex concept from a new angle.

Everyone—children, teens and even adults—need safe outlets to explore their emotions, fears and unspoken curiosities. Whether you’re writing a book or reading a book, stories can be that safe harbor.

The day I heard the news about yet another school shooting, I could have protected myself from the emotions threatening to spill out. Numbness is easy. But instead, I wrote. And through writing, I was able to keep myself from becoming numb to the world around me while not letting myself drown in the very real fears I was experiencing. It is my deepest hope that readers don’t close their eyes either, but instead write or read a story that helps them process and explore.

Meet the author

Stacy Stokes is a lifelong lover of stories, former improv comedy geek, and marketing professional. Her debut novel Remember Me Gone was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and ALA Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers nominee. She graduated with a BBA from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business. She currently lives with her family in the Bay Area. To learn more please visit her at www.stacystokes.com and follow her on Instagram at @stacyastokes

About The Darkness Rises

A gripping speculative thriller perfect for fans of Lauren Oliver and Ginny Myers Sain, about one girl with the power to see death before it happens—and the terrible consequences she faces when saving someone goes wrong.

SOMEONE WANTS REVENGE…

Whitney knows what death looks like. Since she was seven, she’s seen it hover over strangers’ heads in dark, rippling clouds. Sometimes she can save people from the darkness. Sometimes she can’t. But she’s never questioned if she should try. Until the unthinkable happens—and a person she saves becomes the perpetrator of a horrific school shooting.

Now Whitney will do anything to escape the memory of last year’s tragedy and the guilt that gnaws at her for her role in it. Even if that means quitting dance—the thing she loves most—and hiding her ability from her family and friends. But most importantly, no one can know what really happened last year.

Then Whitney finds an ominous message in her locker and realizes someone knows her secret. As the threats pile up, one thing becomes clear—someone wants payback for what she did. And if she’s going to survive the year, she must track down whoever is after her before it’s too late.

ISBN-13: 9780593327692
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date: 04/09/2024
Age Range: 14 – 17 Years

Filed under: Guest Post