I recently had the opportunity to chat with Alexandra Bracken, author of The Darkest Minds trilogy, Passenger, and its’ sequel Wayfarer. I loved Passenger last year so I was really looking forward to Wayfarer. I’m glad to say that it does not disappoint! This duology is thrilling, romantic, and supenseful. (Warning: the rest of this post may contain spoilers to Passenger and/or Wayfarer)
One of my favorite additions to the story in Wayfarer are the new characters we meet, from those only hinted at in Passenger to an important historical figure. So I asked Ms. Bracken one of my favorite questions:
If you could have dinner with any character from the series, who would it be and why?
My first instinct was to say Rose, but I think that would be the most depressing one-sided conversation. If anything, she’ll just sit there and stare at me.
I almost hate to say this, but I think it would be Julian because Julian would be the one that would tell you all the good stories that he’s not supposed to tell you. I think he’s the one who collects experiences and collects stories so he would be a ton of fun, especially if you get a drink in him. He seems like the life of the party.
I would love to sit down and have dinner with Etta, too. Etta, in some ways, is probably the most like me out of any character just in terms of how we go after things and how we’re very goal-driven. I made her a New Yorker, because I was living in New York at the time, and I’m one of those weirdos that loves New Yorkers, but never really liked living in New York City as a whole.
I just love that New Yorkers are so resilient, and she needed to be resilient to be able to take things in stride. New Yorkers see something odd happening on the street, and they’re just, like, okay, and keep going to the subway. So probably either Julian or Etta.
She also told us about some of the differences she found between writing The Darkest Minds trilogy and the Passenger duology:
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Well, writing a duology is really bizarre, I will say. Your brain naturally wants to write in a trilogy, it’s just the three-arc structure. It flows a little bit more naturally, whereas you sort of have to fit two books into one book for the second book of a duology. So it was first different from a planning point of view.
And second, with The Darkest Minds, the reason I wanted to write that book was specifically for the characters. I had a really strong sense of who the characters were, even before I figured out the world and the plot. And, it was the opposite for Passenger and Wayfarer, where I understood their world. I sort of knew the basic outline of the story, but I had to really take the time to meet the characters and figure out who they were and what they wanted.
About the book:
I’ve been orphaned by my time.
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The timeline has changed.
My future is gone.
Etta Spencer didn’t know she was a traveler until the day she emerged both miles and years from her home. Now, robbed of the powerful object that was her only hope of saving her mother, Etta finds herself stranded once more, cut off from Nicholas—the eighteenth century privateer she loves—and her natural time.
When Etta inadvertently stumbles into the heart of the Thorns, the renegade travelers who stole the astrolabe from her, she vows to finish what she started and destroy the astrolabe once and for all. Instead, she’s blindsided by a bombshell revelation from their leader, Henry Hemlock: he is her father. Suddenly questioning everything she’s been fighting for, Etta must choose a path, one that could transform her future.
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Still devastated by Etta’s disappearance, Nicholas has enlisted the unlikely help of Sophia Ironwood and a cheeky mercenary-for-hire to track both her and the missing astrolabe down. But as the tremors of change to the timeline grow stronger and the stakes for recovering the astrolabe mount, they discover an ancient power far more frightening than the rival travelers currently locked in a battle for control. . . a power that threatens to eradicate the timeline altogether.
From colonial Nassau to New York City, San Francisco to Roman Carthage, imperial Russia to the Vatican catacombs, New York Times #1 best-selling author Alexandra Bracken charts a gorgeously detailed, thrilling course through time in this stunning conclusion to the Passenger series.
About the author:
Alexandra Bracken is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Passenger series and The Darkest Minds series. Born and raised in Arizona, she moved East to study history and English at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. After working in publishing for several years, Alex now writes full-time and can be found hard at work on her next novel in a charming little apartment that’s perpetually overflowing with books.
Want to learn more Alexandra Bracken and her books? You can find more here:
Find out more on UnrequiredReading
Visit the author at her Website
@alexbracken on Twitter and Instagram
Does this sound like your kind of book? Wayfarer is in stores now! Thank you to Alexandra Bracken, Disney Hyperion, and Big Honcho Media for facilitating this interview.
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