Debut author Katie Bernet puts a modern murder mystery spin on Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women in her new YA novel Beth Is Dead, the first release in a two-book deal with new S&S imprint Sarah Barley Books. On New Year’s Day in Concord, Mass., shortly after their father abandons the family to focus on his writing, high school senior Jo and her 15-year-old sister Amy discover their 17-year-old sister, Beth, dead in the snow a stone’s throw away from their friend Laurie’s house. Though suspicions about Laurie’s potential involvement abound, the sisters dive headfirst into an investigation, during which they dig up unseemly secrets, all while navigating romantic tension and interpersonal drama. Bernet spoke with PW about her connection to Alcott’s novel, drawing from her own sibling relationships to craft character dynamics, and reintroducing the March sisters through a contemporary lens.
Why did you decide to recast Little Women as a thriller?
When I think back to my first experience with Little Women, I remember being in first grade and having a sleepover at my best friend’s house. Her older sister was watching the 1994 version of Little Women, and she was bawling in front of the TV. When I asked her what was going on, she said, “Beth just died.” So before I ever actually read the book, I knew that Beth was going to die. I think that experience planted a seed that ultimately led to me coming up with this idea: I wanted to start this book with Beth’s murder because that’s kind of exactly the experience I had when encountering the story for the first time.
What inspired you to set Beth Is Dead in the present day?
I knew from the get-go that I wanted to modernize the characters, partly because I wanted to write a story that took place in contemporary times, no matter what it was going to be, but also because, once I settled on reimagining Little Women, I thought it’d be really fun to think about who these characters would be in modern times. How would their struggles change? In the original novel, a lot of the tension comes from the expectations and limitations that were placed on women during the mid-1800s. But with society changing over time, it was interesting to consider how Jo’s struggles would be different in a world that’s come to accept and support what she wants from life.
How did you maintain suspense and intrigue throughout the murder investigation while balancing the sisters’ alternating POVs, including Beth’s in flashbacks?
It was a lot of trial and error. I actually started the entire process by making a spreadsheet with the two different timelines and the four different perspectives, which I used to parse out where I wanted each piece of information to be revealed. There were certain scenes or chapters that I initially wrote from one perspective before realizing it should be happening from a different perspective entirely. It was a lot of me playing around with the characters and deciding who had the most relevant connection to a certain theme or event that I wanted to explore.
In the Entertainment Weekly cover reveal for Beth Is Dead, you mention being the oldest of three sisters. How did your own relationships shape the way you developed the sisters’ dynamics?
My sisters and I are really, really close. I think the biggest thing that came from our sisterhood is the experience of unconditional love. When I finally read Little Women in high school, I immediately fell in love with the March sisters’ relationship, and I think it’s that notion of unconditional love that allows them to turn on each other in one moment and support one another in the next.
Of course, I wanted to put the girls through their trials, I wanted there to be conflict, I wanted it to feel as if their relationships were being threatened and tested and stretched. But at the end of the day, they still have this feeling that they’re never actually going to break apart. That dynamic comes straight from my own relationship with my sisters. Even when we argue, we never doubt that we’re going to love each other tomorrow.
How has your experience publishing your debut children’s book been so far?
It’s been amazing. It’s also been so overwhelming in the absolute best way. Beth Is Dead was the sixth manuscript I finished, so it’s taken me about 10–11 years of writing different stories before it finally worked out. And it worked out in a big way. I’m really grateful to my agent, Sara Crowe, for helping me navigate the auction situation for this book. She’s such a pro, and she knew exactly what to say every step of the way. And my editor, Sarah Barley, was actually somebody I had submitted work to in the past. She had come close to buying another book of mine, and while she had to decline for certain reasons, I already trusted and respected her. When we got together to talk about Beth Is Dead, we clicked immediately. Her vision for the book matched my own; she really understood what I wanted to do.
What do you hope readers take away from Beth Is Dead?
I’m hoping it becomes one of those books that keeps you up at night because you just have to know what happens. I think that’s often the most fun reading experience, when you can’t put a book down because you have so many questions.
I also want to make people reconsider the personalities of the March sisters. I think readers, over time, have sort of stereotyped them: you’ve got Jo, who’s the brave one, Meg, who’s the pretty one, and Amy, who’s kind of the brat. I want to remind people that these girls are layered and multifaceted characters in the original book, which is something that I myself only rediscovered as I was writing.
Can you tell us about your next book with Sarah Barley?
I’m working on another YA mystery thriller retelling of a literary classic, one of my absolute favorites that I read again and again as a kid. But I’m going to be a little secretive about it for now.
Beth Is Dead by Katie Bernet. S&S/Barley, $19.99 Jan. 6 ISBN 978-1-6659-8869-8
