Three Strikes

The Darkness – ‘Kasha has answered the advert for The Tribe. Now she sits writing alone in the darkness of the jungle. Is she the only one left? Then she spots a red light blinking at her from the darkness.’

“A raw tale, reminiscent of Black Mirror, with compelling characters stranded in a stark landscape, all bound together in gritty, gripping writing.”

– Joanna Nadin
“The Darkness is such a beautiful story – mysterious, exciting, deeply emotional and with a rare spiritual depth. It stays in the mind like a prayer.”

– Melvin Burgess
“YA as it should be – dangerous, dark and daring. I loved it.”

– CJ Skuse

Synopsis

Three Strikes is a collection of three dark novellas from three star YA authors. In The Darkness by Lucy Christopher, Kasha has answered the advert for The Tribe. Now she sits writing alone in the darkness of the jungle. Is she the only one left? Then she spots a red light blinking at her from the darkness. Cat s eyes? A camera?

Three Dark Tales

This was a lovely project to be involved with. Here my novella, THE DARKNESS, is part of a collection of three darker themed YA novellas, together with authors Kat Ellis and Rhian Ivory. It’s quite long for a novella at about 32, 000 words. I even toyed with the idea of making it a whole novel by itself.

The Best Story I’ve Written!?

I really love my story in this collection. In some ways, I think it’s the best story I’ve written! I wrote this version of it very fast, over the course of one hot summer month. But that doesn’t mean this story was easy to write!

I actually started it almost a decade before while on a trip to Cross River National Park in Nigeria. I wanted to write about a reality show going wrong; I wanted to talk about the dynamics of troubled teenagers dealing with this. I also wanted to explore another story: a teenage girl’s grief, confusion and guilt over the death of her mother. I wanted to do all this with the backdrop of the most amazing natural environment – the rainforest of Nigeria.

I think I sat on this story for so long because I didn’t know how to tell it; I also didn’t feel like I knew this environment well enough for the story I originally wanted to write. When I found the trip journal device, together with Kasha’s voice, the story suddenly was released in a torrent of words and emotions.