Check out our interview with Cindy Pham, the author of "The Secret World of Briar Rose."
What was your inspiration behind your most recent book?
"The Secret World of Briar Rose" was inspired by a recurring thought I've had since childhood, which was that I wished I could sleep forever and never wake up. One day, I thought about the tale of Sleeping Beauty and wondered: What if she had wanted to sleep forever? What if this wasn't a curse, but respite from depression and grief? As someone who has slept for over 16 hours to avoid life, as well as turned to fiction for escapism, I became fascinated by the idea of a story that takes place inside the princess's dream world fueled by her imagination, where the characters would hide from the world rather than save it. Sleeping Beauty is often criticized for her passivity, and that lack of agency and identity was something I wanted to lean into, because those are often the qualities I have when struggling with my major depressive disorder. The inspiration behind this book is deeply personal, but the result has been deeply cathartic.
What does Reading Rainbow mean to you?
Reading Rainbow means having a variety of stories that reflect the LGBTQ+spectrum rather than one singular representation. This includes both grief and joy, the important and the mundane, the serious stories and the silly, indulgent ones too. I think each story serves its own purpose within that wider collective. When I changed my main characters into queer women, the decision was less about representation and more about adding layers to narrative themes. The dream world in "The Secret World of Briar Rose" is a place where you can fully be yourself, free of judgment, danger, and oppressive systems in the real world. This would be an ideal place for anyone, but there's a new layer of meaning when that story is told through the perspectives of queer women. Finding out I was queer after writing my book became a happy coincidence of accidental representation!
Why do you feel representation of a variety of people is so important when it comes to writing books?
There are all sorts of beautiful reasons why people want representation, but for me, it's less about feeling seen and more simply put as this: Stories are boring when everyone is the same. Exploring different identities and experiences makes a much more interesting story because it creates different implications, dynamics, insights, and even tension. For example, my main characters represent different facets of depression: Briar Rose is listless and passive, using imagination to avoid reality; Corin is self-destructive and angry, using cynicism to avoid the vulnerability of having hope. Briar Rose is also white and comes from royalty, while Corin is dark-skinned and comes from poverty. There's tension in scenes where Corin points out how Briar Rose is able to run away from her problems, while Corin is forced to live with the consequences of them. It's not an overt representation of race or class, but it mirrors our own reality while adding an interesting dynamic between the characters with how they are both trying to escape their lives in different ways.
Tell us a little more about the book and why you decided to write it.
"The Secret World of Briar Rose" is a queer reimagining of Sleeping Beauty that follows a cynical thief searching for her missing sister, who ran away to find the princess in hopes of a better life. They discover a hidden portal inside the princess's subconscious and stumble across a dreamworld, where their inner desires come to life while their pain is repressed in the dark corners of their mind. I wrote the story as an outlet to express my feelings with depression and suicidal ideation. I strongly believe in creating art to explore yourself and the world around you rather than creating something for the market. Capitalistic rules dictate so much of our lives that I want writing to be something that I choose to do in my free time and for my own enjoyment, not for others -- though of course, if people end up liking the book or finding meaning from it, that would be the cherry on top.
What can fans expect from your book?
I try to warn people in a candid way that this is a YA fantasy book that's depressing, ruminative, and nothing much happens besides gay girls being sad! This isn't an epic fantasy with complex world-building or magic systems, but a more inward-focused story about the characters' emotional journeys with fantasy as the backdrop. The characters are very queer, but there's barely any romance, because that's not what I'm focusing on. The protagonist is also unlikable because of her anger and self-destructive behavior. I'm doing a great job selling this book, aren't I? Haha, but all that aside, if you enjoy melancholic stories and flawed characters, you might like this book. Based on what early readers have told me, it seems people who have experienced depression and grief found that the book hits close to home for them. I appreciate people willing to open their hearts to go on that emotional rollercoaster with me.
