Melinda Salisbury discusses the allure of the Underworld in her latest YA novel

The route that Melinda Salisbury’s new YA novel took to publication is almost as twisty as the plot of one of her fantasy tales. She first thought she wanted to do a Medusa retelling, but that didn’t come to fruition because she couldn’t find a plot. When the author then decided to do a version of the Hades and Persephone myth, it was rejected by her former publisher, so she put the manuscript to one side in a cynical attempt—her words, not mine—to pre-empt the market by writing a middle-grade.

It was only when an editor at David Fickling Books (DFB), Anthony Hinton, questioned whether this middle-grade story was what she really wanted to write that a deal for Her Dark Wings was struck, and a route to market was ensured. And thank goodness Hinton spoke out when he did. Salisbury’s take on Persephone, the daughter of Demeter and Zeus who became queen of the Underworld, is astonishing: an intoxicating, sensual YA that combines Greek mythology with a modern-day love story.

The advantage of being a small publisher is they can take more risks

In Salisbury’s version, Corey, a teenager who lives on a fictional island somewhere in Scotland (but a Scotland where the Greek gods are still part of the culture) is beyond furious because she has been betrayed by her best friend and her boyfriend. At the Thesmophoria festival she is kissed by a boy who tastes “like diamonds” but is distracted by the sight of her former best friend and wishes her dead. When Bree is then discovered to have drowned, Corey’s journey in love, as well as to the Underworld, begins. The image of Bree lying face-down in a pool of water was what kicked off the novel for Salisbury, as well as the idea that Corey, crucially, isn’t sorry her former friend is dead. “It grew from there, her reasons why she wasn’t sorry, her hatred and her anger, and how that can be used against her,” she says. “Then she goes to the Underworld, where there are creatures and beings who can help her lose that anger but potentially at the cost of losing her true self.”

That rage Corey feels is refreshing to read and Salisbury is too great a writer to offer easy platitudes. “I didn’t want her to go on a journey of forgiveness and righteousness. I didn’t want her to end the book as a saint. Sometimes you shouldn’t forgive people who wrong you. You should move past it but that doesn’t mean you should grant absolution.”

When the world turns on its axis and the Underworld is revealed to her, Corey doesn’t fall straight into the arms of Hades. She finds herself under the protection of the Furies, aided occasionally in her endeavours by Hermes, and the game of will they/won’t they commences, with neither Corey nor Hades able to communicate, or even fully understand, their desires.

Going Under

Salisbury enjoys writing about people in love because you can see “who people really are”. In this book, both of these characters are vulnerable. Hades has constructed an austere world around him (in the book the Underworld is described as looking like an endless car park) and Corey has lost everything. “Hades knows what Corey will be to him but is not angry when he realises she’s not ready. It buys him some respite. And obviously she has no intentions of liking him whatsoever.”

Her Dark Wings is one of Salisbury’s most personal books to date. Corey, like her author, is passionate about plants and a part of the storyline shows her growing flowers in the grey and desolate underworld. Salisbury says she had to draw deeper from herself than she was normally comfortable with doing, but credits that to Hinton and DFB, who gave her complete freedom to “write my weird shit”. “I used the f-word in the opening chapter and I didn’t expect it to pass. I didn’t expect them to believe in me so much. The advantage of being a small publisher is they can take more risks. The buck stops with David Fickling, so if he’s on board, that’s it. I wrote the darkest, strangest book I could think of, where none of the characters are particularly nice. No one is forgiven and evil wasn’t defeated. At every turn I expected them to pull me back in, but they never did. They trusted me to tell the story.”

Her Dark Wings will be released nearly a decade after Salisbury started writing, although that seems hard to believe. The author never expected to become a professional writer, saying: “I grew up quite poor. Our income came from benefits and my family weren’t readers… I thought you had to go to Oxford or Cambridge or have family in the business.”

Eventually I will have to stop because I will lose touch with the youth and write horrible morality tales with no bearing on young people now, but I think I have few YA stories in me

After a brief stint in an office job, which didn’t work out, she moved to the seaside and set out to become a writer. Her first novel, The Sin Eater’s Daughter (Scholastic), was a commercial and critical success: it was the bestselling UK YA début novel of 2015, and since then she has been shortlisted for several awards, including The Bookseller’s YA Book Prize, the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and the Branford Boase. But success didn’t always sit lightly and she sometimes struggled, she says. “It was such a lot of pressure at that time because I was too emotionally invested. It became too much in my life. I wanted so badly for [the books] to do well but I never would have been satisfied with how well they did, there would have always been something else that I wanted.”

Now, a few years down the line, she is more sanguine, and has learned to appreciate success when it comes. Having friends outside publishing helps, too. “When I say, ‘Why aren’t things happening to me, why isn’t Reese Witherspoon on the phone?’ they say, ‘Why would she be? You’re an idiot. Sit down’,” she laughs. “Having people like that is useful.”

Seventh heaven

Her Dark Wings will be Salisbury’s seventh YA novel. She has written one adult manuscript, although her agent Claire Wilson hasn’t sent it out on submission yet, and she won’t be moving out of the YA space any time soon. She “loves” writing for this age group, saying: “Eventually I will have to stop because I will lose touch with the youth and write horrible morality tales with no bearing on young people now, but I think I have few YA stories in me.”

In any case, the experience of writing this book and working with DFB has made her realise authors have to write the story that means the most to them, even if the market doesn’t seem to be receptive.