The Great Disillusionment of Nick and Jay, a reimagining of The Great Gatsby set in 1920s Harlem; and Night of Madness, a collaboration with the company behind Clown in a Cornfield. His work explores the ways young people fight to survive in hostile worlds. He lives in Atlanta with his dog and spends his free time baking ambitious desserts and scoping out true crime documentaries.
Douglass applied the Page 69 Test to Night of Madness with the following results:
From page 69:Follow Ryan Douglass on Instagram and Threads.DING! A message alert pulls me out of the script. Something my father seems to have written, which reads oddly similar to the actual movie that was made.This page does not accurately portray what the book is like, and I don't think a reader would have much idea what they're in for if they opened to this page alone. While it clues the reader into the social media theme running through the book, it's mostly an observation of a character who enters the game alongside Mara. Tanner does eventually become something of a love interest for her, but it is through the brutal conditions of their shared survival that they form that bond.
I have a notification from the website—Tanner Hoang has sent me a DM.
Tanner: Yo, was that scene in the woods staged?
I freeze for a second, thumbs hovering over the keyboard. You’d think we talked every day the way he just slid into my DMs, but I don’t know this guy at all.
I let the message linger and study his profile picture—an undershot, hair tousled, round sunglasses on, palm tree in the background, aloof expression. Himbo with a hot girlfriend. It’s like someone handed him the script for a “jock” role that was never meant for him, but he decided to play it straight rather than subvert it at all.
And that’s why Tanner’s never been interesting to me, beyond surface level. Pictures of him touch my algorithm along with other boys who post fitness progress in half-lit gyms or ride horses or pose with fish they caught—they orbit the same kind of performance: living life so loudly, they must be seeking validation. The algorithm feeds me his face occasionally like it knows I’m watching in a casual way, even when I’m pretending not to.
Mara is mostly not focused on guys throughout the story. She's focused on her own journey and on winning enough money to help her family. This scene paints a picture that feels more contemporary and character-driven than representative of what the book is ultimately about: unsettling horror.
At the same time, I think the page offers a precursor to something we learn about Mara's vulnerability. She likes to believe she doesn't need anyone's help to get through the world, partly because of the pressures she's faced as the eldest daughter. But even here, she admits that while she pretends she's not watching Tanner, part of her is watching.
As the book progresses, we see that vulnerability slowly peel back. So while page 69 isn't a particularly good advertisement for the horror that awaits the reader, it does offer a small piece of foreshadowing for Mara's emotional journey.
Q&A with Ryan Douglass.
--Marshal Zeringue
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