Genre can be a tricky thing, and never let it be said I don’t listen to an author when they tell me a book is one genre or another. Or a couple genres at the same time.
Which brings me to author Caitlin Starling, who, in the following email interview about her horror novel Last To Leave The Room — which is now available in paperback a year after originally being released in hardcover, Kindle, and audiobook — explains that while it has a scientist who may be sinking a city, and there’s an “impossible locked door,” and has some sci-fi flavor, Starling says, “it’s straight up horror to me.”
Photo Credit: Beth Olson Creative
To begin, what is Last To Leave The Room about, and when and where does it take place?
Last To Leave The Room is about an ambitious, amoral scientist named Tamsin Rivers, the strange sinking of the city of San Siroco that her research might be causing, and her obsession with the impossible locked door that appears in her basement.
Oh, and the perfect copy of her that walks out of that door one day.
Where did you get the idea for Last To Leave The Room?
A confluence of a few things. Years ago, I wrote a short fanfic trying to mimic (at least in broad strokes) Lovecraft’s style. It was about an obsessive scientist, his sinking basement, and the door he was building up the nerve to go through. But that was all vibes, no plot.
Enter a character I made up almost two decades ago and have never found anything to do with. If I told you about how I originally conceived of that character, it would spoil the book, so let’s just say that Tamsin begins to resemble her more and more as the book goes on.
The plot arose out of figuring out how to get from the freaky basement to this initial idea of the character. Throw in a dash of COVID lockdown-induced agoraphobia, and you get Last To Leave The Room.
Is there a reason you set it in the fictional city of San Siroco as opposed to a real city like San Francisco, San Diego, or San Jose?
Mostly because I’ve never lived in those cities and didn’t want to get the details or vibe wrong. I like being able to adjust things at-will in my worldbuilding. Especially since I keep my worldbuilding pared down to just what the plot needs, it saves me the trouble of saying, “Well, sure, it’s X city, but this is different for this historical reason, and…”
Also, should we read anything into the fact that Siroco is very close to sirocco, which is a Mediterranean wind? And Scirocco, a three door Volkswagen hatchback they don’t make anymore?
You know, Tamsin Rivers, Lachlan Woodfield, and a wind-evoking name… I think I must have been missing the outdoors when I wrote this thing.
Last To Leave The Room sounds like it might be a scary sci-fi story…
Oh, it’s straight up horror to me. There’s some sci-fi thriller trappings in there, but the real focus is the characters, and Tamsin’s waxing and waning grip on reality.
Last To Leave The Room is your third novel after The Luminous Dead and The Death Of Jane Lawrence, though you’ve also written two novellas: Yellow Jessamine, and The Land Of Milk And Honey, the latter of which was part of the book Vampire: The Masquerade: Walk Among Us. Are there any writers, or specific stories, that had a big influence on Room but not on anything else you’ve written?
Argh, I’m always terrible at this question! I swear every book I’ve ever read immediately falls out of my head.
Despite the genesis of the idea, definitely not Lovecraft. I have a hard time putting my finger on direct influences in the literary world, though. Casualty of coming up with the main character so long ago, I think.
What about non-literary influences? Was Last To Leave The Room influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games?
There’s a little of Final Fantasy VII (in very abstracted ways) in there. And while editing, I did watch Severance and play Control — they’re not generative influences, but they have a similar vibe, and I think that helped focus the editing phase a little.
I also listened to Tsar B’s The Games I Played on heavy repeat while drafting, so it makes me think of the book immediately, on every song.
Now, the reason we’re doing this interview is because Last To Leave The Room is coming out in paperback; it was previously available in hardcover. Aside from new cover art, is there anything else different about this version?
No changes.
As you know, sci-fi novels and horror stories are sometimes stand-alone stories and sometimes part of larger sagas. What is Last To Leave The Room?
Stand-alone, like my other works. I very rarely have series-length ideas, and that seems to fit the horror genre pretty well.
Speaking of your other books, you actually have two more novels coming out next year: The Starving Saints, which is slated to be released May 20th, and Graceview, which does not have a specific release date yet. First, what is The Starving Saints about, and when and where is it set?
The Starving Saints is a fantasy horror novel, set in the besieged Aymar Castle. Six months in, food is running low and tempers are about to boil over — until divine intercession arrives in the form of the Constant Lady and Her saints, bringing seemingly endless food and merriment with them.
Only three women — a mad nun turned magical theorist, a disgraced noblewoman turned ratcatcher, and a war hero turned trophy knight — can see that something is very wrong, and their rescuers are not what they appear.
You can expect mind control, cannibalism, weird magic, and lots of bees.
And then what is Graceview about, and when and where is it set?
Graceview is what I’m calling a “hospital gothic.”
Our protagonist, Meg, is dealing with an incurable, disabling immune disorder. When she’s offered a spot in a paid trial that might just cure her, she signs up — even though it means spending months in Graceview Memorial Hospital, submitting to a grueling series of medical procedures. She quickly becomes disoriented and paranoid, convinced that something is stalking her through the hospital halls.
Think [Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s] The Yellow Wallpaper meets your medical drama of choice. It’s set in our world, complete with nurses dealing with their burnout in the wake of COVID.
So, did you write The Starving Saints and/or Graceview at the same time as Last To Leave The Room, or concurrently? I ask because I’m curious if writing Room had any impact on the other two books, or vice versa, and if so, how?
The Starving Saints was actually written before Last To Leave The Room. I wrote The Starving Saints, then Last To Leave The Room, and then Graceview.
As far as impacts on one another…beyond just developing my skills on each one, Graceview is definitely a response to The Starving Saints not quite fitting what St. Martin’s Press wanted in a story. They liked Last To Leave The Room, which is contemporary with a weird twist, so I gave them Graceview, which is contemporary with a weird twist.
I do think having two more books under my belt by the time I came back to editing The Starving Saints helped, especially in catching some of my earlier writing tics that I’ve now hopefully outgrown.
But really, all three books are very different. Saints has three rotating POVs compared to Room‘s one, and Graceview is first person past compared to Room‘s third person present.
Going back to Last To Leave The Room, earlier I asked if it was influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games. But to flip things around, do you think Last To Leave The Room could work as a movie, show, or game?
Show, I think. Not enough mechanically for a game, and the loss of control that Tamsin experiences would probably be pretty frustrating, but you could do a really neat limited series; there are a number of cliffhangers that would work best episodically, rather than raced through in a film.
So, is there anything else you think potential readers might need to know about Last To Leave The Room?
Well, there’s a list of content notes on my website.
Beyond that, I really want to emphasize that it’s queer! Very queer! Don’t go in looking for a happily ever after romance plot, but Tamsin and Lachlan are lesbians, and the plot as a whole is grappling with some gender performance things, and it’s all extremely relevant. It doesn’t get mentioned much in promotional materials for some reason, but it’s integral.
Finally, if someone enjoys Last To Leave The Room, and it’s the first book of yours they’ve read, which of your other novels or novellas would you suggest they read next?
Ooh, that’s hard. Of the ones that are out, probably The Luminous Dead. It’s also queer, it also deals with unreliable narrators, and aside from being in past tense, I’d say the style is fairly similar to Last To Leave The Room. Or if contemporary’s more your jam, The Land Of Milk And Honey.
Otherwise, Graceview when it comes out. I don’t want to spoil too much, but I think just the fact that it’s contemporary and a little sci-fi thriller adjacent sells it.
