Past-life images spur the future

Since the success of the Harry Potter series, followed by Stephenie Meyer's Twilight and the Pretty Little Liars phenomenon, publishers have banked on big thriller series that hook fans and keep them reading book after book. Each week new possibilities along with sequels of current books arrive at our doorstep. We won't deny that we've grown weary of the countless novels starring vampires trying to capitalize on Twilight's fame or of the Gossip Girl wannabes about mean girls, cliques and designer labels.

So, we confess that we view new series-starter books with a jaded eye. It takes something special, something with a spark to make us straighten up and notice. This week, The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller debuts. We think that Miller (the author of the Kiki Strike books) is giving teen audiences a new series to embrace. It's fraught with all we like in a robust read. The mystery, complex relationships and the Southern setting add icing to the story for us.

Plus, Kirsten Miller, 37, grew up in Sylva. Even though she moved to Manhattan nearly 20 years ago, we still claim her as a North Carolina writer. We interviewed her last week to find out more about her and The Eternal Ones.

THE ETERNAL ONES. By Kirsten Miller. Penguin. Ages 13 and up. 414 pages. $17.99.

Haven Moore has lived in small-town Snope City, Tenn., her whole life. However, the visions that have disturbed her for years show that Haven's small-town roots trace back to a big-city girl named Constance. Plagued with fragments of Constance's memories, Haven is desperate to escape Snope City so that she can search for answers of another life during a different time in New York City.

The images in Haven's head are filled with Ethan Evans, the lover whom she has never seen in person. When Haven's best friend, Beau, turns the TV to an infamous New Yorker, Iain Morrow, Haven feels a chill of recognition. Iain Morrow is her beloved Ethan Evans. Haven runs away from her controlling grandmother and ends up in New York, seeking answers. She visits the mysterious Ouroboros Society (which, by the way, has its own website, www.OuroborosSociety.com) for the truth about her suspected reincarnation.

In discovering who she is and who she has been, Haven finds danger as well as identity in this fast-paced blend of romance and mystery. Rarely do we read books twice. This is one that begs for multiple readings and surely will become the next big hit in young-adult literature.

Here is our interview with Kirsten Miller:

HMcY: Have you always been interested in the supernatural?

KM: (Laughs) I'm not a practicing witch or anything! I grew up in a small town. There was not too much to do, so my brother and sister and I wandered around wild. We would go outside and not come home until dark. We did things like playing in the creek in front of my best friend's house, even though we were told not to; and I spent a lot of time in the library reading about many odd topics. The public library had an aisle of what I called "good" books. For two to three years, I would sit in that one aisle reading books about these types of topics. Later the librarian told me she had worried about me just reading books in that aisle. I blow little boys' minds with my knowledge of Bigfoot.

HMcY: What led you to write a book featuring reincarnation?

KM: This is a subject I read a lot about when I was 13 or 14. I spent a lot of time in that aisle reading things like reincarnation. Then I didn't think about it for a long, long time, but I think this planted the seed in my head. After I wrote the second Kiki Strike book, I was looking for something and rediscovered this interest.

MY: How did your North Carolina background affect or contribute to the book? There seem to be some positive as well as negative stereotypes about people in small Southern towns.

KM: I loved growing up in Sylva. It was the best childhood ever. It was a small enough town that our parents didn't have to worry about us. A number of my friends have moved back, and I'm a little jealous. Sylva is a weird place because of the university there. What I was trying to do with the book's setting is to create the certain kind of claustrophobia you feel growing up in a small town, no matter where that might be. When I was 17, I had applied to Duke and to Chapel Hill. Then I decided on the spur-of-the moment I was going to New York City. I went to Barnard at Columbia University. I considered myself very sophisticated, even though I had never visited the school. It was a culture shock, but the best decision I could have made.

In the book, I wanted to show that people can have one way of thinking and that people get branded one way that lasts. I tried to turn the snake handler stereotype on its head. I get sick of seeing them as hillbillies who are two-dimensional. The character of Leah Frizzell is a nod to the mountain people of my grandfather's generation. They were brilliant, eccentric and deeply religious.

HMcY: Is the Ouroboros Society website actually a functional, running site?

KM: It was meant to be promotional. The publisher helped me come up with it. A friend of mine actually plays Padma Singh and was the inspiration for the character even though she is nothing like her in real life. We even have fake tattoos for it. I was thinking of putting one on my daughter!

Monica Young and Hannah McRae Young can be reached at cyoung9@triad.rr.com. View book reviews at the Journal in Education site at www.jie.journalnow.com.