YA Horror/Thriller Spooktacular Day 12 - Get Even + Giveaway

For the interview today I have another YA horror/thriller veteran.  Her books, although not as well known as they could (should) be, are big for the people that have read her work before (my particular favorite is Ten).  She even put together her own street teams that have been talked about in Publisher's Weekly!  Please welcome Gretchen McNeil to the blog!

Peace, Love, Teen Fiction:  You just published a brand new book so would you be so kind as to describe it in no more than 10 words?  

Gretchen McNeil:  The Breakfast Club with a body count.

PLTF:   I’m pretty sure someone has died in every one of your books, and this one is no different.  How do you decide how the characters are going to die? 

GM:  Usually I know going into the story who will live and who will die.  It's plot driven, for the most part.  Though there was a character in GET EVEN that was supposed to die, but I had much fun writing him that I spared his life. 

PLTF:  What’s the bloodiest death you’ve written?  

GM:  There's a death in TEN (I won't say who – spoilers!) that involved a crossbow arrow through the neck.  Gore everywhere as the victim drowns in her own blood.

PLTF:  If you had to join a secret society which one would you join?  

GM:  The Illuminati.  I want to know their secrets!!!

PLTF:  What’s next?  

GM:  GET DIRTY, the sequel to GET EVEN is out in June.  Then I've got a couple of projects knocking around – a really creepy horror novel with cannibalism, a historical melodrama, and a humorous contemporary.

Lightning round
1.     On a scale of 1 to 10 how scary is your book? 5
2.     If you were a character in your book would you survive? Probably not.
3.     Favorite scary movie? The Exorcist
4.     Favorite Halloween candy? Mini Kit Kats
5.     What were you last year for Halloween or what do you plan on being this year? I was Zombie Little Orphan Annie.  This year, I think my husband and I are going as Dr. Bricker and Charo, from The Love Boat.

This or that
1.     Pretty Little Liars or The Breakfast Club? I'm a child of the 80's, so The Breakfast Club.
2.     Bully or bullied?  Bullied.
3.     Anonymous or take credit?  Take credit
4.     Get mad or get even? Both?
5.     Tricks or Treats? Treats.

Bree, Olivia, Kitty, and Margot have nothing in common—at least that’s what they’d like the students and administrators of their elite private school to think. The girls have different goals, different friends, and different lives, but they share one very big secret: They’re all members of Don’t Get Mad, a secret society that anonymously takes revenge on the school’s bullies, mean girls, and tyrannical teachers.

When their latest target ends up dead with a blood-soaked “DGM” card in his hands, the girls realize that they’re not as anonymous as they thought—and that someone now wants revenge on them. Soon the clues are piling up, the police are closing in . . . and everyone has something to lose.

The sequel to Get Even comes out (with a matching cover) June 16, 2015!

Find Get Even on

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

Gretchen McNeil is an opera singer, writer and clown. Her YA horror POSSESS about a teen exorcist debuted with Balzer + Bray for HarperCollins in 2011. Her follow up TEN – YA horror/suspense about ten teens trapped on a remote island with a serial killer – was a 2013 YALSA Top Ten Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, aRomantic Times Top Pick, a Booklist Top Ten Horror Fiction for Youth, and was nominated for "Best Young Adult Contemporary Novel of 2012" byRomantic Times.  Gretchen's 2013 release is 3:59, a sci-fi doppelganger horror about two girls who are the same girl in parallel dimensions who decide to switch places. 

In 2014, Gretchen debuts her first series,Don't Get Mad (pitched as "John Hughes with a body count") about four very different girls who form a secret society where they get revenge on bullies and mean girls at their elite prep school.  TheDon't Get Mad series begins Fall 2014 with GET EVEN, followed by the sequel GET DIRTY in 2015, also with Balzer + Bray.  Gretchen also contributed an essay to the Dear Teen Me anthology from Zest Books.

Gretchen is a former coloratura soprano, the voice of Mary on G4's Code Monkeys and she sings with the LA-based circus troupe Cirque Berzerk. Gretchen blogs with The Enchanted Inkpot and is a founding member of the vlog group theYARebels. She is repped by Ginger Clark of Curtis Brown, Ltd.

Find Gretchen on

Goodreads | Twitter | Facebook | Her Website

Gretchen has donated some swag (the exact contents of which I'm not sure, although she says she has bookplates, postcards, and bookmarks, and maybe some buttons) to give away to one lucky winner.  The giveaway will be INTERNATIONAL and will run for two weeks.  Enter via the rafflecopter below and be sure to give Gretchen a big thanks for everything!

a Rafflecopter giveaway