"A Wicked Thing"

Rhiannon Thomas is an English Lit grad from Princeton University. She currently lives in York, England, in the shadow of a 13th century Gothic cathedral. When she isn’t lost in YA fantasy, she writes about feminism and the media on her blog, Feminist Fiction.

Thomas applied the Page 69 Test to A Wicked Thing, her debut novel, and reported the following:

On page 69 of A Wicked Thing, Aurora has snuck out of the castle and is meeting a boy called Tristan for the first time.

I wasn't expecting this page to be that representative of the book, but the first paragraph is actually perfect.

Here were people, treating her like she was normal, like she had no fate and no duty and no trauma around her. Someone to talk to, not protect or manipulate. It was, she thought, a first in her life. She wanted to dwell in it longer, in this freedom, where she could breathe and talk and listen and not hide everything behind expectations.

It really captures Aurora's central struggle in the book. Everyone around her has already decided who she is and what she must do, and she feels unable to push against that. She wants "freedom," but she doesn't really know what that means or what it will entail for her.

Visit Rhiannon Thomas's website.

--Marshal Zeringue