The University of Arizona Press

Juan Martinez rides the horror winds into spring with another top ten list and revealing interviews.

First on the east coast, The New York Public Library just put Extended Stay, by Juan Martinez, on its list of “10 New Horror Novels That Are Scarier than Scream VI.” NYPL’s Carrie McBride writes, “Whether you’re a Scream completist and already took in the most recent film of the franchise and are looking to keep the frights going, or you’re always looking for the adrenaline rush of a scary, disturbing tale, these ten novels, all published in the last few months, are sure to give you chills and thrills.”

Staying in the city for a moment, Vol 1 Brooklyn’s Tobias Carroll interviewed Martinez about his novel. The author revealed his writing process, changing plots, moving scenes around, and how living in Las Vegas inspired him: “I’m pretty sure we all have some version of Vegas in our heads. That’s all to say, I don’t think I was drawn to Vegas as a setting or a subject, but I couldn’t quite write about anything else after I stopped living there. I wanted to write a little about the weird mix of opportunity and exploitation that’s there if you work the service industry — how you really can make a whole life there, or start up a new one.”

Martinez also liked that his interviewer figured out Extended Stay‘s connection to his previous book, Best Worst American, will you be able to work it out?

In Lit Reactor’s “Exposing Power as Ridiculous: A Conversation between Juan Martinez and Eden Robins,” the Chicago authors find common ground between funny and scary fiction. Asked if writing horror is cathartic, Martinez replied: “Writing a genuinely horrific moment—one that comes out of nowhere and is sick and gross and out there—all of that is super clinical and detached for me. I’m not scaring myself. I’m just trying to set up stuff to scare a reader who shares a lot of my own readerly interests but is (1) imaginary, (2) not me, but (3) also may be a lot like me.” Find out what else he said about resistance and rebellion, navigating trauma in a life that is fundamentally uncontrolled, and what he’s reading right now.