A speed-dating event becomes a blood bath in the debut author’s horror rom-com hybrid, How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates.
Why the genre mash-up?
From the start, I set myself a challenge to see if I could combine these two genres that I love but that, on the surface, seem like they wouldn’t go together. It was actually surprisingly easy to do, because I came at it from the perspective of narrative structure. One of the things that people talk about with both horror and rom-coms—and I think a complaint that people sometimes have—is that they’re quite prescriptive and formulaic. But that made it easier to put them together, see how they could merge, and create something that pays homage to the genres but also pokes fun at them at the same time.
The story plays out over a single night in a labyrinthine club. How did you approach the setting?
I was thinking about these large mega-clubs that can fit so many people, and if you’ve had a few too many drinks, you’ll find it very difficult to find your way out, because there’s only one entrance and one exit. I imagined the setting as a maze with all of these hidey-holes. But it was really something where I was like, it’s going to be Editing Shailee’s problem to figure out if it actually works. Writing Shailee is just going to go for it. Then when my publisher came onboard, they were like, Look, we think you need a map. So then I had to actually make it make sense.
It’s also a great way to make sure the characters don’t have phones to call for help.
Exactly. One of my editors said that horror was ruined by phones and Uber and Wi-Fi. You need to take away those things so that the characters don’t have that out. So having the event space’s rules include that we’re logging off, we’re going to be present, we’re going to actually connect with people in real life—that all works in the killer’s favor.
The relationship between protagonist Jamie and her best friend, Laurie, is almost as central to the plot as the romance.
Around the time I was coming up with the idea for the novel, one of my best friends moved to another country. She was actually the woman who got me into horror movies in my 20s as well. So I think that was definitely playing in my subconscious and it came through in the characters. One of my complaints with horror movies and traditional rom-coms is the way friendships fall by the wayside. You see it in ’90s rom-coms and a lot of slasher films, where these female friendships just get completely forgotten. One of them will be killed and then you’ll never hear of it again. But if I was in that situation with my best friend, we would be holding onto each other. There would be no separation.
