meg grehan – Cinders Magazine

Write what you need – An interview with Meg Grehan

Last issue we had the pleasure of reviewing Meg Grehan’s gorgeous verse novel, The Space Between. This month editor Méabh McDonnell was delighted to talk to Meg about her writing inspiration, mental health and poetry.

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1.What was the inspiration for The Space Between?

It wasn’t inspiration so much as desperation, to be honest! When I started writing The Space Between I was an absolute mess. I couldn’t go two days without a panic attack, I was afraid of everything, I couldn’t bring myself to leave my house and I needed to do something. I read a lot which helped at first but I could never find exactly what I needed in the books I read so I decided to write what I needed instead. It was inspired by the tough things I was going through but also the good things. I’m lucky to have had someone who was there for me every step of the way, my girlfriend came home every evening and listened to every rambling thought I had. She constantly reminded me that I had to help myself but that she would hold my hand while I figured out how. I wanted to write about how while people aren’t medicine, there’s power in letting people in and she inspired that in a million little ways.

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Book Review Corner: The Space Between by Meg Grehan

First published in Cinders volume issue three

Spoken word novels are a new trend in YA literature. We saw it with last year’s highly successful One by Sarah Crossan and Meg Grehan’s The Space Between uses the same format. And it uses it so very well. 33972290

Once you are a few pages into The Space Between it’s difficult to imagine the book being written in anything but verse – it’s the absolutely perfect format to tell Beth’s story.

The Space Between is a beautiful examination of how mental health disorders can pin someone inside their own mind and then how through small but significant battles they can work their way out and live with them.

Beth is not okay. She has made a decision to remain within her house for a year. She is falling in on herself and only going further down when she meets Mouse. Mouse is friendly and kind and fluffy and warm.

Continue reading Book Review Corner: The Space Between by Meg Grehan

Recommended reads: Laini Taylor, Sarah J. Maas and Meg Grehan

First published in Volume One Issue Three

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

Strange the Dreamer is pure magic. that’s no surprise because it’s written by Laini Taylor, who writes only beautiful things. Her Daughter of Smoke and Bone series is a thing of pure beauty and her Dreamdark series are the badass fairytales that you wish your twelve year old self had. Strange the Dreamer is no different. She invents a completely new world for this series full of gods and lost cities and magic and dreams. I’m not going to tell you anything else but that Lazlo Strange is a librarian with a singular dream – to find the lost city of Weep. I guarantee if you read it you will.

Continue reading Recommended reads: Laini Taylor, Sarah J. Maas and Meg Grehan