I am so excited to be hosting a spot on blog tour for THE STEEP AND THORNY WAY by Cat Winters! I adore Cat and her books! I have Cat's book playlist to share with you today! And make sure to enter the awesome giveaway for a finished copy of the book!
Haven't heard of THE STEEP AND THORNY WAY? Check it out!
Title: THE STEEP AND THORNY WAY
Author: Cat Winters
Pub. Date: March 8, 2016
Publisher: Amulet Books
Format: Hardcover, eBook
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it: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads
A thrilling reimagining of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, The Steep and Thorny Way tells the story of a murder most foul and the mighty power of love and acceptance in a state gone terribly rotten.
1920s Oregon is not a welcoming place for Hanalee Denney, the daughter of a white woman and an African-American man. She has almost no rights by law, and the Ku Klux Klan breeds fear and hatred in even Hanalee’s oldest friendships. Plus, her father, Hank Denney, died a year ago, hit by a drunk-driving teenager. Now her father’s killer is out of jail and back in town, and he claims that Hanalee’s father wasn’t killed by the accident at all but, instead, was poisoned by the doctor who looked after him—who happens to be Hanalee’s new stepfather.
The only way for Hanalee to get the answers she needs is to ask Hank himself, a “haint” wandering the roads at night.
Now on to the playlist!
The Steep and Thorny Way Playlist
1.
“Where Did You Sleep Last Night,”
traditional American folk song, also known as “In the Pines” and “Black Girl,
recorded by various artists since 1926
This
was my number one go-to song whenever I wanted to get into the right mindset
for working on The Steep and Thorny Way.
I often listened to the 1940s Lead Belly recording of it,
which is a haunting, bluesy rendition that put me straightaway into the novel’s
setting: the backwoods of Oregon in 1923, where danger and heartbreak lurk
around dark corners. I also listened to Nirvana’s 1993 MTV Unplugged performance of the song,
in which Kurt Cobain screams the final verse with an extraordinary, primal
intensity. Those passionate cries inspired the creation of my protagonist, Hanalee’s,
pain and terror when dealing with the aftermath of her father’s murder. At one
point in the book, Hanalee even spends a night “in the pines, in the pines,” as
does the girl in the song.
2.
“Wade in the Water,” American
spiritual associated with the Underground Railroad, recorded by various artists
since 1923
Hanalee
is the daughter of a black man from Georgia and a white woman from Oregon. When
her father’s death leaves her as the only person of color in her rural community
of Elston, Oregon, she finds solace in remembrances of her dad sharing his
Southern heritage with her. She particularly takes comfort in a memory of her
father singing “Wade in the Water” while she fished by his side in one of the local
creeks. The Blind Boys of
Alabama‘s stirring recording of the spiritual is the version I most often
listened to when writing the book—and the legendary gospel group itself is an
inspiring story straight out of the South.
3.
“Son of a Preacher Man,” Dusty Springfield
The Steep and Thorny Way is loosely based upon Hamlet. In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet
originally believes that a snake killed his father but soon learns that his stepfather
murdered him. In The Steep and Thorny Way,
Hanalee initially believes that Joe Adder, the teenage son of a local preacher,
killed her father while driving drunk. She later suspects that her stepfather was
the real killer.
Whenever
I wrote about Hanalee referring to Joe as that “preacher’s boy,” Dusty
Springfield’s 1968 “Son of a Preacher Man” invariably popped into my head, so I
started listening to the song while working on the novel. Aretha Franklin belted
out her own gospel-inspired rendition in 1970, and her sister, Erma Franklin, covered it
(fabulously) a year earlier, in 1969.
4.
“Modern Jesus,” Portugal. The Man
The
church in Elston is the center of the town’s social life, but both Hanalee and
Joe find themselves at odds with the congregation, despite their religious
upbringings. Moreover the Ku Klux Klan—a powerful force in Oregon in the early
1920s—has taken over other local churches and turned houses of worship into
establishments of fear. Whenever the 2013 rock song “Modern Jesus” came on the
radio as I was writing the book, I thought of Hanalee and Joe and how they’re
force to learn how to have faith in themselves when their old ways of life
abandon them.
5.
“You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away,”
The Beatles
This
one’s for a hidden relationship in the novel. That’s all I’ll say about that.
6.
“I Don’t Know How to Love Him,” Yvonne Elliman, Jesus Christ Superstar
I’m
a lifelong fan of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s rock operas, and I remember watching
the movie adaptation of his 1970 hit, Jesus
Christ Superstar, on TV from a very young age. This particular song from
the production makes me think of Hanalee’s confusion over how she’s supposed to
feel about Joe. The novel opens with her heading into the woods to kill him
after he’s been let out of prison early for good behavior, and, gradually, the
two of them grow to depend on each other for safety and comfort as they
struggle to figure out the true cause of Hanalee’s father’s death.
7.
“The Cave,” Mumford and Sons
Hope
is a necessary ingredient in all of my YA novels. I throw my characters into
some of the most horrifying moments in American history, and they must be able
to find their own inner strength and leave their protective “caves” of sorts in
order to survive a world that’s failing them. Not only does “The Cave” have a
folksy banjo sound that helped inspire my book’s setting, but when Marcus Mumford
swears that he’ll hold onto hope, especially in the song’s passionate ending, I
believe that anyone, including
Hanalee, can do the same.
About Cat:
Cat Winters’s critically acclaimed debut novel, In the
Shadow of Blackbirds, was named a 2014 Morris Award Finalist, a 2014 Best
Fiction for Young Adults pick, a 2013 Bram Stoker Award Nominee, and a School
Library Journal Best Book of 2013. Her upcoming novels include The
Cure for Dreaming (Amulet Books/Oct. 2014) and The Uninvited (William
Morrow/2015), and she’s a contributor to the 2015 YA horror anthology Slasher
Girls & Monster Boys. She lives in Portland, Oregon. Visit her
online at www.catwinters.com.
Photo by Tara Kelly
Find Cat Online:
Giveaway
Details:
5 winners will receive a finished copy of THE STEEP AND THORNY
WAY, US Only.
Tour Schedule:
Week One:
2/29/2016- Adventures of a Book Junkie- Interview
3/1/2016- The Forest of
Words and Pages- Review
3/2/2016- Two Chicks on Books- Guest
Post
3/3/2016- A Dream Within A
Dream- Review
3/4/2016- Stories & Sweeties- Excerpt
Week Two:
3/7/2016- Jessabella Reads- Review
3/8/2016- Bookish Lifestyle- Guest
Post
3/9/2016- Katie's Book Blog- Review
3/10/2016- The Fox's Hideaway- Interview
3/11/2016- MEREADALOT- Review
