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In novelist Tessa Gratton’s world, magic exists, teenagers confront hard choices, and blood is the tie that binds everything together. Gratton’s stories twist familiar Kansas and Missouri settings to create magical, sometimes dark, worlds that challenge her teenage heroes to take a stand in the fight between good and evil as they test their fledgling independence. Along the way, they learn every choice has a price. “I was very concerned with there being consequences to everything, good things and bad things, because that is what teenagers are having to learn and in very dramatic ways when they’re in high school,” says Gratton, 31, author of 2011’s Blood Magic and The Blood Keeper, released at the end of August. Needs and Questions Gratton, always an avid reader, grew up telling stories, thinking about stories and, later, writing stories. When her family moved to Japan in her eighth-grade year, reading and a newfound interest in storytelling through theater became the twin supports that helped her through the dramatic changes of her teen years. “I’ve never loved books and needed books as much as I did when I was a teenager. They were my lifeline when I moved to Japan, the way they helped me think about people besides myself and think about how people lived their lives,” she says. “I love being able to write stories for people who are going through that and need them as much as I did.” Yet when she began to craft her novels, Gratton didn’t immediately gravitate toward telling stories for young adults. She needed a push from her critique partner, Maggie Stiefvater, who saw Gratton’s potential as a YA (young adult genre) author before Gratton did. “To me, the immediacy of her plotting and the character themes she likes to tackle seemed really suited to YA,” Stiefvater says. “I remember I had a novel due in 90 days, and she was looking to start a new project. I said something along the lines of, ‘My deadline’s now your deadline. Go!’”
