Local Gods, the newest release from Melinda Salisbury, just came out in the UK & US this past month, and it’s an eerie, utterly compelling and deliciously dark YA folk horror perfect for the start of spooky season. In it, Sylvie finds a strange creature called Illican – a local god – living in the forest, and learns that she is the one who will decide the fate of the small town that shunned her for her father’s crimes. Melinda told me lots of behind-the-scenes stuff about the book in my latest newsletter (catch up HERE if you missed it) and as a bonus, I asked her 5 Random Questions…
5 Random Questions
1. What will you be reading this summer?
I’m mostly reading books by and about the artist and writer Leonora Carrington and I am having the best time doing so.
2. Have you ever had a supernatural encounter? What happened?
I’ve had a few. Something knocking from inside a walk-in wardrobe when I was a kid is probably the worst one. It’s pretty much that – I was in bed and I was woken up by something tapping from the inside of a walk-in wardrobe. No one could have been inside, it was around three in the morning and it kept knocking and knocking until I said ‘Go away’. Then it did.
3. What’s one talent you have that not many people know about?
I can sing.
4. You’re lost in the forest. Which of your skills is most likely to help you survive?
I’m really good at walking. Eventually I’d just walk right on out of there. I know this because it has happened to me multiple times in multiple countries. Not the USA though. Maybe that would be the time I didn’t walk right out.
5. What are your top 3 movies of all time?
La Chimera. Picnic at Hanging Rock. Jaws.
About Melinda Salisbury
Melinda Salisbury is the four-time Carnegie nominated and bestselling author of multiple teen and young adult novels, including the Sin Eater’s Daughter series, Hold Back the Tide, and Her Dark Wings, a Guardian Children’s Book of the Year 2022 and a Reading Agency Book of the Year 2022 pick. She also writes teen tech thrillers and horror for Barrington Stoke.
Melinda is a 2026 RLF Fellow and works as a writing mentor and development editor, and volunteers at a local independent cinema on the East Sussex Coast.
You can buy Local Gods online here, sign up for Melinda’s newsletter here, and follow her on Instagram here. For anything else, check out her website.
If you missed my newsletter interview with Melinda about Local Gods, check it out here.
Also remember to sign up for my newsletter which I send out every month – the next one will be hitting inboxes on Friday 4th September. Subscribe so you don’t miss it 🙂
Kat Ellis Writes 