A Q&A Interview with Mats Strandberg

Mats Strandberg is one of Sweden’s most acclaimed suspense and horror writers for children and adults. His Frank the Monster series has been published in countries around the world and is now available in the UK, thanks to Gecko Press, book one out in April.

Mats answered our questions about the book.

You are a best-selling writer of horror. What first attracted you to the genre and why do you think it is so loved by readers (of all ages)?

Well, the simple answer is that it’s a genre that provides stories that are both exciting and, when done well, can ask a lot of big questions about good and evil, and life and death, and pose moral dilemmas. But on a deeper level, I discovered horror through Stephen King’s novels when I was 9 or 10, the same age as Frank. It was the 80s, and I was afraid of so many things. Aids, Chernobyl, atomic bombs, our prime minister Olof Palme had just been killed… And my mother was very ill during my whole childhood. I carried so much worry around. Fictional horror, even though it terrified me, provided me with a sort of safety valve. It made me feel less alone. Writers like King, Koontz and Barker had put words to feelings I couldn’t yet express. And it’s a genre where the underdog can become a hero. Horror still works as an escape from reality for me. Nothing terrifies me more than reading the news.

Frank the Monster is for readers of 6 – 10 or thereabouts. What appealed to you about writing for this age group, and what are the particular challenges?

My god daughter Juni was the same age as Frank when I started writing, so she was a big inspiration. But also, I was about Frank’s age when I really fell in love with reading. I knew exactly what my inner nine-year old would have loved to read.

What is it about werewolf stories that appeals to you?

Haha, they usually don’t. There are of course exceptions, but werewolves are my least favourite monster. They are so often just an allegory of the macho beast that supposedly hides beneath the surface of all civilized men. I find it kind of boring. But I guess that’s what drew me to write a different kind of mythology around shapeshifters.

There’s a subtle message in the story too about being different and finding your group. Did that emerge as you were writing or did you know when you began the story that it would touch on these issues? 

It wasn’t planned out in the sense of ‘here is this important lesson that I want to teach kids.’ I sort of followed the story where it lead me. But in hindsight, I can see that it is not a coincidence that I started writing these books at a time when a far right party, with roots in the neo-nazi movement, shocked most of us by gaining votes rapidly.

I needed hope. I think that’s what drew me to write about how fear of the unknown can make people dangerous, and about the power of empathy.

Were you like Frank as a child – how much or what about the story would have resonated with you as a young reader?

Frank is very much like me. I loved imagining myself as a sort of Clark Kent figure, someone with secret superpowers, and one day I’d show the other kids… Like me, Frank has difficulties making friends his own age, and like me he tells himself that he doesn’t care.

What Frank’s monster self reveals about him is that he needs friends, his own pack so to speak. He doesn’t want to be a lone wolf, neither as a boy nor as a monster.

Who was or where did the inspiration for Frank’s neighbour Alice come from? (a great depiction of an older woman)

(Thank you so much!) Alice is inspired by an elderly woman who lived next-door to us when I grew up. We watched afternoon tv together or did crossword puzzles, and I was allowed to have syrup on my pancakes at her house. So of course I loved being there. I could finally breathe there, and be myself. I didn’t have to act a certain way, we didn’t even have to talk. She was just happy I was there. I hope she knew how important she was to me. Alice is sort of my love letter to her, even though she passed away a long time ago.

Might there be more adventures for Frank and his friends?

At this moment, I don’t think so. I wanted to resolve the big conflicts in book 3, since I wanted to tell the story of how that can be done. I’ll

Författarna Mats Strandberg och Sofia Falkenhem, fotograferade för bokförlaget Norstedts hösten 2015.

never say never but the story feels finished where the trilogy ends. But I have published a spinoff story about one of the characters that you’ll get to know in book 2. And I have an idea for a prequel about Alice’s childhood during World War II. It’s taking shape in my subconscious…

Frank the Monster by Mats Strandberg, illustrated by Sofia Falkenhem is published by Gecko Press, 979-834802966, £8.99pbk.