Spread the Word’s Emily Ajgan interviews debut novelist Ella King about her novel Bad Fruit, a literary thriller about a dark, unravelling relationship between mother and daughter.

In this story, Lily and her stunningly disfunctional family live through through a London summer full of drama, insecurities, and betrayals, and we learn how her volatile mother affects the entire family and slowly unravels them. We follow Lily trying to cope with all the traumas that connect the different members of her family, parents and siblings alike. Sarah May describes Bad Fruit as ‘a beautiful collision of mothers and daughters, human darkness and human kindness.’ What is it about the mother-daughter relationship that fascinates you as a writer? As disturbing as the content of this novel was, Kings writing is an aesthetic masterpiece - a sensory feast!! Never have I read a book so dark, while so vividly colourful! The way King uses colour and food to create atmosphere and setting is downright genius. Ella King is certainly one to watch out for!Ella King won the Blue Pencil Agency pitch prize in 2019 with the first 500 words of her debut novel 'Bad Fruit', an accolade which I am pleased to say is supported by the absolute quality of the entire novel. The ability to launch a story in such a powerful way is just one of the reasons why King's novel is a stunning masterclass in writing a deeply affecting psychological thriller. Having finished this book several days ago, I find myself haunted and moved by the dark events King presents, the representation of intergenerational trauma and the power of memory both skilled and engrossing for the reader. So here I am again, standing at the fridge door, my tongue clinging to the roof of my mouth. Blood orange juice, three days off. I try it, gag and spit it down the plughole. Perfect.

In her interview, Ella talks to us about her writing journey, the influences and life experiences that shaped it, and shares the inspiration behind her anticipated debut novel, published in August 2022 by HarperFiction. Now Maggie is an adult, she wants to find out what really happened – if her old certainty stemmed from her struggles with her mental health, or if something more sinister was going on in Blairmore. Maggie is told by one grizzled local, Charlie, that the island of Kilmeray is a “thin place”, where “the distance between this world and other worlds is shortest, the walls thinnest”, and Johnstone plays cat and mouse with the reader’s perception of reality and the supernatural. Deliciously creepy and unsettling. Ella: 17 year-old British-Singaporean Lily knows exactly how to manage her volatile mother, May. She arranges her mother’s teddies. She wears pink. She pours her a glass of perfectly spoilt orange juice. But as May spirals out of control, Lily starts to uncover her mother’s disturbing childhood in Singapore, and the shattering secrets at the heart of her own.Just graduated from high school and waiting to start college at Oxford, Lily lives under the scrutiny of her volatile Singaporean mother, May, and is unable to find kinship with her elusive British father, Charlie. When May suspects that Charlie is having an affair, there’s only one thing that calms May down: a glass of perfectly spoiled orange juice served by Lily, who must always taste it first to make sure it's just right. The synopsis explains: “Dark, reading group fiction at its best, Bad Fruit is an explosive portrayal of generational trauma. It tells the story of 17-year-old Lily Clarke who knows exactly how to calm Mama when she’s in a rage; she arranges her teddy bears, lays out her best lingerie and pours her a glass of perfect, spoilt orange juice. But when memories of her mother’s childhood in Singapore start to surface, Lily unravels the harrowing history casting shadows on her family, and the shattering secret threatening to unleash a darkness in Lily herself.” IF YOU HAVE A DIFFICULT RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR MOTHER OR FATHER OR BOTH, CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED. If you don't have the coping mechanisms to deal with being #triggered by family abuse, don't self-harm by forcing yourself to read this. Mental health >>>>>> Beautiful, disturbing, impossible to put down. Bad Fruit heralds a seriously impressive new talent in Ella King’ CHRIS WHITAKER