Horror writer Kalynn Bayron, the bestselling author of Cinderella Is Dead, riffs on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in her YA novel Make Me a Monster. Seventeen-year-old Meka is no stranger to death: as a licensed mortician’s assistant, she helps her parents prepare the corpses that pass through their funeral home. But when her boyfriend Noah suddenly dies, she’s forced to reckon with mortality in a new way. Her grieving process is complicated by the mysterious appearance of ominous portents, including flocking ravens—and the shocking revelation that Noah has come back to life. Bayron spoke with PW about challenging herself through her writing, staying in community with young people, and approaching horror as a reflection of society.

What elements of Frankenstein can readers expect to find in Make Me a Monster and how did you put your own spin on them?

If you love gothic horror and gothic fiction, Mary Shelley’s work is a staple. Frankenstein’s themes of who has access to power and who is worthy of creating life are so compelling. I go back and reread it a couple times a year.

I like to think of Make Me a Monster as a continuation of Frankenstein. I wanted all the nods to gothic literature in there, but I wanted to use a modern contemporary setting, with Meka as a young woman living in a funeral home who’s dealing with death on a daily basis—so much so that she has almost become desensitized by it. When her world is shaken up, she has to deal with those same themes of death: how do we feel about it, and how do we deal with the ritual surrounding losing someone we love?

How did you approach researching and crafting the mortuary aspect of Meka’s life?

Though Make Me a Monster is a horror romance, I wanted to be respectful of the people who are working in that profession. It’s such a heavy responsibility to bear. My interpretation of Meka’s job is a fictionalized account, but I still think it stresses the importance of this work for families, and that this work is more for us than for the dead. It’s for the living, so that we can process and reckon with something as scary as death. I saw a lot of things throughout my research that cannot be unseen, but I think it was worth it to be able to make it feel authentic, to make it feel like it was at least partially based in the real practices that people who work in funeral homes have to deal with on a daily basis.

Many of your books employ classic fairy tale and gothic horror elements. What drew you to these genres and how did you cultivate your love for them growing up?

I read everything that I could get my hands on when I was younger, and that included novels from authors that I maybe should have waited to read, like Stephen King.

I love film as well. I watched a lot of creature features and black-and-white films, like the older versions of Nosferatu and The Wolf Man. I think I was drawn to them because they’re always, in one way or another, about what it means to be a marginalized person, or any person on the outskirts of society. I’ve always been fascinated by how you can turn scary stories into a reflection of what’s currently going on in our world. There’s something really fascinating about taking a well-known story and then, by shifting the lens just a little bit, you can have something completely different. A great example of that is Wicked and The Wizard of Oz, which are the same stories but when told from someone else’s point of view, it changes everything.

I return to that concept again and again in my work [Cinderella Is Dead, the Poison Heart series, My Dear Henry], not only because it can be really interesting, but because it’s just fun to write.

Your next middle grade novel, Olive Oakes and the Haunted Carousel, publishes in April 2026. How do you approach writing scary stories for younger readers?

I do a lot of school visits so I’m in community with young people all the time. I think it’s really important to listen to what they’re asking for and what they want. Everywhere I go, kids are asking for scary stories. Kids are still reading Goosebumps. But even so, we’re facing a literacy crisis in our communities right now, and younger readers need new books that are better targeted toward them, but that still have these scary elements they like.

With the Vanquishers series, I tried to make sure that I wasn’t talking down to my audience. Younger readers don’t want to be catered to as if they don’t understand more complex topics, because they absolutely do. It’s just about the delivery. One thing I always strive for in my middle grade is a lasting feeling of hope. No matter what I’m writing, even if it’s a scary story, there are still moments of humor and strong family relationships. I really like to focus on those good things.

People sometimes assume that writing for younger people is easy and it’s not. It’s challenging to strike the right chord. Kids want to feel that kind of authenticity. I always try to approach my stories with the respect for my young readers that they deserve.

I’m trying my hand at picture books now and it’s difficult. But I love pushing myself and rising to meet those challenges.

Make Me a Monster by Kalynn Bayron. Bloomsbury, $19.99 Sept. 30 ISBN 978-1-5476-1586-5