Much like Buffy the Vampire Slayer brought the mythical creatures of the night into a young adult sphere, Kim DeRose’s new novel Hear Her Howl — set in the world of an all-girls Catholic boarding school — brings a feminist twist to the world of werewolves. This is DeRose’s second book, following 2023’s For Girls Who Walk Through Fire , which was set in her hometown of Santa Barbara.
“I definitely have some recurring themes that I can point to,” said DeRose, a Santa Barbara native who currently lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two young children. “I would say one theme is the use of speculative fiction. I love speculative fiction as a genre, just personally to read, but I think as a writer, I love it because you can use something that’s supernatural as a metaphor for what the characters are dealing with, or sort of the thematic core of your story. For whatever reason, that just deeply resonates for me.”
Feminism is another theme that is embedded in both YA novels.