"The Dead Ex"

Jane Corry is the author of The Dead Ex, her upcoming novel, published by Pamela Dorman Books. Her previous books, My Husband’s Wife and Blood Sisters, were international bestsellers.

Corry applied the Page 69 Test to The Dead Ex and reported the following:

I love this question. It really made me think about my plot in another light. Page 69 happens to be the beginning of Chapter 8. Scarlet has just arrived at a care home for children whose parents can’t look after them. She’s made some new friends. This paragraph, towards the bottom of the page, hopefully shows how Scarlet’s story is told in a child’s voice which is both innocent and knowing.

Being a good girl at home meant putting out the bins for mum and doing her homework. But Scarlet hadn’t done any homework since she’d come to Number 9 Green Avenue because her new friend Dawn hadn’t let her go to school. ‘It’s for your own good. Trust me,’ she’d said.

Like all my books, I write in different viewpoints. At some point in the plot (I won’t say when!), the reader realises how these different people are connected. I am naturally drawn to this technique because it allows me to use each point of view to cast a slightly different light on the rest of the cast.

I also like using a child or adolescent as an unreliable narrator. They might not realise they’re distorting the truth – if indeed they are - because imagination is a more acceptable characteristic of a young person. This allows me to build twists into the plot.

The irony is that when we are older, we are often told ‘not to let your imagination get the better of you’. I think we should be encouraged to use our imagination, whatever our age!

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The Page 69 Test: My Husband's Wife.

The Page 69 Test: Blood Sisters.

--Marshal Zeringue