Adrienne Kress is a writer and an actress born and raised in Toronto, Canada. The daughter of two high school English teachers, she credits them for her love of both writing and performing. She is a graduate of the University of Toronto and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in the UK, with a degree in drama. She lives in Toronto with her husband Scott and cat Atticus.

Adrienne has authored 12 novels, including four books set in the Bendy and the Ink Machine video game universe (young adult, Scholastic, 2019-2023), her three-book The Explorers series (middle grade, Delacorte Random House, 2017-2019) and her two-book Alex and the Ironic Gentleman series (middle grade, Scholastic UK/Canada 2007-2008).

Some of her other books include Outcast (young adult, Diversion Books, 2013) and The Friday Society (young adult, Dial Penguin/Razorbill Canada, 2012). She has also published work in many anthologies and has several plays and screenplays to her name. And she has a middle-grade graphic novel due out 2025, Ghost Circus (Union Square and Co.), illustrated by Jade Zhang.

Look for her online at http://www.adriennekress.com/author/ and follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @AdrienneKress

Q: Tell us how your growing-up years influenced you to write humorous books as well as horror novels — several with male main characters?

A: I like to write about people, so I like to write about all kinds of people. I don’t think I see boys as particularly different from girls, and, in many ways, I think my goal with writing is to make people realize how much we actually have in common with each other as humans. Sometimes a story benefits from a male point of view and sometimes a female one. And one of my favorite things to do is have two leads, one who is a boy and one who is a girl.

Generally, in a novel, the story dictates who the main character is. For example, with Bendy and the Ink Machine: Dreams Come to Life, I wanted a male protagonist because the protagonist in the first video game is also male. I wanted to reference that somehow. But the rest of his personality really comes from his values and goals in life, his social status, his passions. He’s a poor kid who grew up in the 1940s in New York City’s Lower East Side. He loves creating art. He wants to support his family. He wants to do the right things, make the right choices, but he also wants to keep his head down and not get fired from his job. These qualities, while on the one hand very specific to the character, can also be relatable on a universal level to everyone of all genders.

Q: What kind of kids like the horror/thriller genre and why? (According to one source, “Men and boys prefer to watch, enjoy and seek out horror more than do women and girls.” — https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2019-66389-001#:~:text=The%20literature%20suggests%20that%20(1)%20low%20empathy%20and,increases%20children%E2%80%99s%20enjoyment%20of%20frightening%20television%20and%20film.)

A: I definitely do not think there is a gender divide when it comes to horror at all. Horror is arguably one of the most popular genres out there, so it definitely appeals to a massive population. I think everyone likes to feel safely scared. It’s like being on a rollercoaster or diving off a high diving board into the water. That rush of adrenaline is addictive! And when you know that you are safe, that you are not actually in any real danger, it’s thrilling. I also think you can approach some truly deep themes in horror because we are tapping into the darker parts of human nature. You can safely explore thoughts and actions that you definitely could not in reality. We can actually learn a lot about ourselves through consuming horror media. And it’s fun. So it’s no wonder that so many people love it!

Q: What authors have had the biggest influence on you? For instance, do I detect a whiff of Lemony Snicket?

A: I totally love Lemony Snicket! I would say Roald Dahl, most definitely, and Douglas Adams probably is my biggest influence. As you can tell, they all have absurdity in common, and I just love the absurd. After all, there’s nothing more absurd than life. It’s funny because I’d argue these are all my influences for my middle-grade absurdist adventures, but, when I think about it, I think my finding life so weird and strange is also why I’m drawn to the young-adult horror novels I write. The humor in those books is much less overt, and in some ways the books are more grounded in reality (which is kind of strange to say, considering that there are literal monsters in them). But the strangeness of life and the unpredictability of what happens next is definitely a huge theme in horror writing as well.

Q: I’ve read enough of your books to discern that you have a wicked sense of humor, a wild imagination, a passion for scary, and an ability to create chase scenes that would put most Hollywood movies to shame. Am I missing anything, and how did these get into your repertoire?

A: I’m not sure you’re missing anything. That’s a fabulous list! I suppose maybe the one thing I’d add might be my passion for dialogue. It’s my absolute favorite thing to write, and I think it must come from my playwriting background. And probably also my acting background.

As to how I came to develop all of the above, well, I’ve already talked about humor, about how I see the world as absurd. And that’s honestly where all the funny comes from. But I also think humor is such an important storytelling tool. Real life, even in the most serious of moments, is not all one thing. The jokes I’ve heard at funerals have been wonderful and truly needed. To tell a story and not have any humor in it at all is not an accurate reflection of the world around us.

As far as scary and action set pieces, I like thrilling things. I like page turners. I like a sense of forward momentum, whether it’s setting up creepy tension between two people talking or a fast-speed car chase. You can’t have a book that is nothing but those things, of course. You need the calm before and after the storm, but the peaks and valleys of story structure, the moment where you hold your breath and then the moment where you exhale, they are a wonderful kind of magic. So of course I love to write them.

Q: Does being an actress (including in the horror genre) positively impact your writing, or are they completely separate departments in your life?

A: I am an actress, yes! I have done many different genres, including horror. I actually started on the stage doing Shakespeare, and if there is anyone who understands gore and violence, it’s him. And I’d say it helps wonderfully with the writing. Being an actor means you have the cheat codes to really getting into the mind of every character you write very easily. I know exactly what my character would do in a moment and why, almost on an instinctive level. Of course, I trained to become an actor from the age of eleven, so even though it feels like instinct at this point, it was actually a lot of hard work for it to become so natural as it is for me now.

I also visualize things very clearly. I see characters in a space; I see their costumes, their props, the set. I always say I feel more like I’m directing when I’m writing than actually writing!

Q: You’ve written for kids in every age category, but perhaps you have a favorite age, and why write for kids rather than adults in the first place?

A: I love writing for all age categories; I cannot possibly choose a favorite! I love really leaning into the absurdist humor in middle grade, as well as the energy and hope that is present in such stories. And I love getting to go a little darker and really explore what it’s like to be an almost adult, the frustrations and fears that can come with that, in YA.

As for why write for kids rather than adults, I actually have written some adult books, though not had any published yet. I do have plays and screenplays that are meant for grownups as well. In general, I don’t really choose to write for a particular audience. I choose the story I want to tell and then that story dictates the age of the protagonists and readership.

-Pam Withers