Enter Martin Wilson and his sophomore novelWe Now Return to Regular Life.
Here, 14-year-old Sam has just returned home after being abducted three years prior.
A boy [Shawn Hornbeck] was abducted, I think he was gone about five years.
Credit: Dial Books
And then when they got to the apartment, they found the boy whod been gone for five years.
He had a bike, he had a girlfriend.
So I just found the story very, like, crazy and compelling and fascinating.
And, you know, they vary.
Some ended [up] okay, and some ended up having drug addictions.
He did abduct a child, after all.I think its not great to just view people as monsters.
Thats letting him off too easy.
Why did they do this?
Why did they become the way they were?
I think seeing them as human beings is one way to kind of hopefully prevent this from happening again.
You dont know if thats possible.
I think everyone has a different psychological makeup, and who knows why Rusty did what he did.
I just very much didnt want him to be a one-dimensional psycho monster.
Cause I just dont think there are many people like that.
Even the people who do horrible things, theyre human beings in the end.
[Rusty] was going to kill Sam, and Sam convinced him to let him live.
And then he just kept him, and its interesting that he didnt attempt to kill him again.
But my one thought about that scene is that, Rusty at that point was in love with Sam.
And I will love him, and thats why Ill let him live.
You know, Im not writing Rustys story, but, I think he had these feelings for Sam.
And its tragic for people to have misplaced affection like that.
It was easier that way.
And her mother was quite the opposite.
I think in some ways, they handle it like all these stories.
… Everyone wants it to be this triumph.
He had every chance.
Maybe he just liked playing video games all day.
Is this too…mature?
But like I said, there are so many great YA books that dont flinch away from that stuff.
So I knew I could do it, and I did like the perspective of being a young person.
But, here, its just happening to them right now.
And I like that immediacy.
The engagement with readers is just so great.
There are so many passionate young adult readers that they reach out to you.
I kinda wanna leave it.
But never say never.
It wasnt exactly worldly, I wouldnt say, but there was a lot going on.
There was diversity in my school.
So I kinda wanna show this jot down of [the] South that people might not see.
