Some authors like to put their own spins on classic novels. Others like writing sequels to those iconic stories.
But with Don’t Sleep With The Dead (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), author Nghi Vo is having her martini and drinking it too by writing a sequel to her 2021 novel The Chosen And The Beautiful, which was her reworking of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic 1925 novel The Great Gatsby.
In the following email interview, Vo discusses what inspired and influenced this noir historical fantasy novella, as well as how it connects to Chosen.
For people who didn’t read The Chosen And The Beautiful, what is that novel about, what kind of a world is it set in, and what is the relation / connection between it and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby?
The Chosen And The Beautiful is The Great Gatsby if Jordan Baker was the main character. Also Vietnamese-American. Also a paper magician. And if the twenties were full of real magic and deals with the devils. And if when Jay Gatsby sold his soul, there was a proper contract with witnesses and everything. And if Nick Carraway was in love with just about everyone he could be in love with and also made of paper.
And then what is Don’t Sleep With The Dead, when does it take place in relation to The Chosen And The Beautiful, as is there any connection to The Great Gatsby save for via The Chosen?
Besides being pretty good advice, Don’t Sleep With The Dead is a novella that catches up with Nick Carraway some nineteen years after the end of The Chosen And The Beautiful. The twenties are over, the thirties are over, and the world, still magical, is roaring toward the second war to end all wars. Nick’s older, more cynical, maybe a bit wiser, maybe not, and is still struggling with the idea of being a side character in his own life or maybe the narrator of someone else’s.
And then Jay Gatsby comes back.
When in relation to writing The Chosen And The Beautiful did you come up with the idea for Don’t Sleep With The Dead, and what gave you the idea for this novella’s plot?
I think Chosen had been out for a few months when I got the idea for Don’t Sleep. I actually came up with this one title first, which I almost never do. The phrase “don’t sleep with the dead” occurred to me, and then I thought, “oh, this is about what happens to Nick when Gatsby returns.” And that was about it. I had to figure out what exactly happens, but that was the core.
The Chosen And The Beautiful was a historical fantasy story. Is Don’t Sleep With The Dead one as well?
Don’t Sleep is definitely a historical fantasy, but it also has some noir elements going on as well. After all, it’s a protagonist wandering a cold and hostile city searching for something that remains just beyond his sight. Where Chosen is very much a summer story, Don’t Sleep, set in that restless week between Christmas and New Year, is very much a winter story, and noirs in my head are very chilly narratives indeed.
So, aside from F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby, are there any writers or stories that had a big influence on Don’t Sleep With The Dead, and are any of them things that weren’t a big influence on The Chosen And The Beautiful?
Jordan from Chosen was very influenced by Lilian Faderman’s Odd Girls And Twilight Lover: A History Of Lesbian Life In Twentieth-Century America, so of course Nick had to have Gay New York by George Chauncey. I was also reading some Raymond Chandler at the time, which probably influenced things quite a bit.
Oh, and I suspect some of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley went in as well.
What about such non-literary influences as movies, TV shows, or games? Was Don’t Sleep With The Dead influenced by any of those things?
Wrong era, but the TV show Babylon Berlin has a few things to do with how Nick’s New York looks in my head. It’s a dark, dirty, cold place, which does not stop it from being improbably gorgeous at times. Everyone wants to eat you, the magic is real, and almost anything can be deadly.
As we’ve been discussing, Don’t Sleep With The Dead is a companion novella to your novel The Chosen And The Beautiful. Are you thinking you’ll write other stories connected to these books, or is this it, you’re done, LEAVE ME ALONE, PAUL!!!
Ha! No plans at the moment for more, but never say never. If someone asked me tomorrow to come up with companion pieces to Chosen and Don’t Sleep, I could have five to ten ideas for them in about twenty-four hours.
In a similar vein, are you thinking you might write similar kinds of companion stories to your other novels, Siren Queen or The City In Glass?
Oh, I’ve got a million and one ideas and no time to chase all of ’em down, unfortunately. The plan, as it always is, is to try to keep my deadlines in line and to come up with things that hopefully make my publisher think I’m a good bet to keep around.
That said, if I had carte blanche to write whatever my little heart desires, I would love a chance to go back to Fairyland Hollywood with Luli Wei of Siren Queen or to explore more of the world of The City In Glass. City especially is loaded with weird little plothooks and stories that I never noticed while I was writing it.
Given the connection between The Chosen And The Beautiful and Don’t Sleep With The Dead, do you think people should read them in order or does it not matter?
Oh, for sure, in order. It’s fun to go from the twenties to the forties, and to see the start of a disaster before you see how it deforms the world to come.
Now, along with Don’t Sleep With The Dead, you have another novella coming out October 7th: A Mouthful Of Dust, which is the sixth book in your cozy fantasy series, The Singing Hills Cycle. For people unfamiliar with this series, what is it about, and what kind of stories are these, genre-wise?
Singing Hills is a novella series that follows the adventures of Cleric Chih as they wander the Anh Empire to collect its stories and learn its secrets. They are accompanied by Almost Brilliant, a hoopoe bird with an eidetic memory, and together, their travels take them from windswept tiger strongholds to the riverland territories of genius martial artists.
Each novella is a stand-alone, but there are definitely Easter eggs for people who read them all.
And then what is A Mouthful Of Dust about, and when does it take place in relation to the previous book in the series, The Brides Of High Hill?
A Mouthful Of Dust is a story about hunger and what we’ll do to stop being hungry.
Chih and Almost Brilliant go to take accounts from a region previously stricken with famine, and Chih finds themself the unwilling guest of a magistrate who very much wants to control the story told.
I am really fighting the urge to call this one a food memoir; I think most properly it’s a story about the secrets those in power think they can keep.
Chronologically, it takes place before The Brides Of High Hill, but you do not need to read any of the other novellas to enjoy this one.
Earlier I asked if Don’t Sleep With The Dead had been influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games. But to flip things around, do you think Don’t Sleep could work as a movie, TV show, or game?
You know, with some judicious cuts, I bet Don’t Sleep would be a pretty good stand-alone mini-series. While I think Chosen would be a great series in general, Don’t Sleep feels more contained to me, in some ways more limited and with the advantage a central unifying question.
So, if someone wanted to make a TV show based on Don’t Sleep With The Dead, who would you want them to cast as Nick and Jay, and why them?
Sometimes I have no idea what my own characters look like. What I’ve got instead is how the world reacts to them.
For Gatsby, I’d want an actor who could sort of fade in and out of existence, someone with charisma to burn who could actually turn it off at will.
For Nick, I’d want someone who would be called good-looking without much thought. In my head, Nick Carraway has all the ingredients of a handsome man, but the end result is blandly pleasant rather than anything interesting.
So, is there anything else you think potential readers need to know about Don’t Sleep With The Dead?
This one’s a bit dark and weird. Nick’s not a happy man, and even worse, he doesn’t quite see the point of happiness. That said, old questions get answered, no love is ever wasted, and it ain’t over ’til it’s over, and maybe not even then.
Finally, if someone enjoys Don’t Sleep With The Dead, and they’ve already read The Chosen And The Beautiful, but those are the only books of yours they’ve read, which of your others would you suggest they check out next?
Probably Siren Queen, for the similar noir-ish vibes.
