‘Shadow and Bone’ Started With a Question About ‘Harry Potter’

Have you gotten any other interesting messages from frustrated fans?

I will be 100% candid and say I have stepped away from social media in a very big way in the last year. As soon as the show was announced, the kind of conversation that was happening among my readership within the fandom changed, the tone of that conversation changed, and the way people spoke to me changed. I knew it was inevitable because I’ve seen it with other properties that have been adapted or suddenly blew up. But my job is to be a writer—the rest of it is really not part of the deal. I have no problem having a conversation about anything, but I’m not interested in engaging on Twitter or constantly checking my DMs because I cannot serve everybody’s interests all of the time and still be a creative person. If that means that my sales take a hit because I’m not active on social, I’m okay with that. The price has become too high.

I think people will say things online that they would never say to someone’s face.

When my most recent book was released, some people were unhappy with some of the choices I made. A number of them made threats against me and said they were going to find me and beat me up. 

I try to remind myself: This is a time when a lot of people feel powerless, particularly women and girls, especially over the last four years. And when you feel powerless in your daily life, it is tempting to get online and feel the exaltation and the power of taking a swing at someone. It’s much more thrilling to be the hammer than to be the nail, so I try to remind myself of that when people are cruel or thoughtless in the way they talk to me. But that generosity can only go so far. I don’t want to reach a point where I resent my readers or the people who are excited and passionate about this show. They built the Grishaverse. I would not have gotten to write seven novels in this series without these people, so I want to continue to honor that and be proud of who my readers are. I also want the fandom to be welcoming to people. The thing that kills me is that people are not just unkind to me; they’re unkind to each other. I would love for there to be some kind of magic that would eliminate that.

Healthy boundaries! When you visited the set and everyone was having such a good time, was that the day you filmed your cameo?

I visited the set twice. The first time, I did the cameo, and it was quite thrilling. If you’ve seen it, you know I’m not an actor. All the other Grisha are focused and doing their thing, and I’m grinning, so happy to be there. I’m also older than everybody in the crew, so I’m clearly the matron of the Grishaverse.

It’s never too late to become a Grisha, I don’t know what you’re talking about.

It was quite emotional. I wrote Shadow and Bone when I was in a very dark place. I had a job I didn’t like and wasn’t very good at. I was in a scary relationship that had really torn my self-worth to shreds. I didn’t know the way this story was going to go, and there was a big part of me that thought, This is it. Ten years later, standing in a room surrounded by these characters in all these beautiful costumes, it was very hard not to give into those emotions and ruin the beautiful makeup they put on me. But it was also a reminder of how lucky and grateful I am that that wasn’t it. That wasn’t the end of the story—there were more chapters.

Elizabeth Logan has written for Vulture, The Awl, Reductress, Above Average, Indiewire, and NoBudge. You can (and should!) follow her on twitter @lizzzzzielogan.