Bree Despain’s Letter to Librarians

In THE KILLING RULES, Bree Despain writes a romantic female rage thriller that is Dexter meets Bring it On meets Scream Queens—the perfect spooky read for the Halloween season. In her letter to librarians, she shares how libraries introduced her to scary books that helped her confront her own anxieties and fears, eventually leading to her writing her own story.

THE KILLING RULES is on shelves now!

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Dear Librarians—

I was the kind of anxious kid who practically grew up in libraries. Whether at school or my local county library branch, I often sought refuge from the scary outside world in a place surrounded by books and friendly librarians. One of my strongest childhood memories was learning how to use the brand-new, green-screened computers at the Whitmore Library to search for an author or topic and find the corresponding book. I remember standing in front of the computer terminal, typing in an author’s name, and thinking to myself, “I want to do something important enough someday that another kid somewhere will be able to type my name into a library computer and find a book.”

Little did I know at the time that the important thing I would do is write scary books for anxious kids like the one I used to be. Some people might think writing scary books for teens is anything but important; however, I believe scary stories are a vital tool for helping kids develop a healthy relationship with anxiety and fear.

THE KILLING RULES is a thriller with horror elements about Harper, a killer cheerleader, who confronts a lot of scary things and difficult emotions, like dealing with misogyny, harassment, and terrible men getting away with terrible things. The book is both a fun romp and an exploration of the hard topics teens (especially teen girls) have to deal with in their everyday lives. There are monsters in this book—of both the mythical and human variety—that both Harper and the reader can face together.

Kids live in a scary world. They witness or hear about scary things every single day. They deal with difficult emotions that can be big and terrifying on the daily. And sadly, a lot of adults try to deny or downplay those fears and emotions, thinking that ignoring scary things will make them simply not exist for our kids. Unfortunately, that just leaves kids and teenagers feeling alone with their fears. Scary books, like my novel THE KILLING RULES, help teenagers have a safe place to learn how to process fear, anxiety, and difficult emotions. Teens can read at their own pace, close the book if they need to, and come back to the story when they’re ready. Readers can witness how the characters deal with scariness and process emotions and learn how to model this in their own lives. Books help us open up conversations about hard things, and I am eternally grateful to librarians for providing this service. And, let’s not forget, scary books can be just plain fun, and we need a lot more of that in this world!

I will always be grateful to the librarians who introduced me to thriller, horror, and murder mystery books that helped me learn how to process and confront my own anxieties and fears about the world. I hope you will consider introducing THE KILLING RULES to the anxious kids in your library.

Thank you for the amazing work you do,

Bree Despain
Author of THE KILLING RULES