New Book Spotlight

We Who Hunt Alexanders

A mini-interview with Jason Sanford

Tell us about your new book?

We Who Hunt Alexanders is a dark fantasy / cozy horror about a young neurodiverse monster named Amelia fighting to both survive and understand herself. Like her mother, Amelia is a ripper, a monster who feeds on violent people who have so thoroughly forsaken love that they’ve burned away their souls. The only emotion most rippers feel is anger. But Amelia is different from her fellow rippers and also feels happiness, sadness, fear, love and every other emotion. To Amelia’s mother, that marks her as dangerously different.

Driven from their home by religious zealots, Amelia and her mother fight to survive in a 19th century city where violent men rule and kill anyone who opposes them. To stay alive, Amelia must not only learn to hunt in an increasingly dangerous city but also discover if her differences from her fellow rippers makes her weak, as her mother believes, or if she can instead be a new kind of monster that the world has never seen before.

What aspect of the book was the most fun to write?

The interactions between Amelia and another ripper named Ziee. Rippers are very dangerous monsters who sometimes kill each other if one of them is seen as weak. Since Amelia is very different from her fellow rippers, Ziee initially sees her as weak and someone who might have to be eliminated. But when that doesn’t work out as Ziee planned, a frosty relationship forms between the two monsters. I loved writing the retorts, insults and snippy exchanges between the two rippers as they reluctantly grow closer.

If there is one emotion or theme that you would hope that the reader connects with, what would that be?

Hope. In many ways this is the most timely book I’ve ever written, with a lot of the current problems in the United States refocused through the lens of life in a 19th century gothic city. For example, Amelia and her fellow rippers deal with religious zealots not only hunting them down but also engaging in book burnings. They also face off against the rich, corrupt and powerful who use the threat of violence to force others to submit to their will.

But despite all this, We Who Hunt Alexanders shows how community, family and friendships not only help people survive in dangerous times but also help us keep hope alive. As I sign copies of this novella for people, I’ve continually added the inscription “Keep fighting and keep hope alive” to the book. Because hope is needed now more than ever.