Contemporary Authors

• The Darkhouse ( novel) Dancing Cat Books (Ferndale, WA), 2017

1. The darkhouse LCCN 2016945336 Type of material Book Personal name Radecki, Barbara. Main title The darkhouse / Barbara Radecki. Published/Produced Ferndale, WA : Dancing Cat Books, an imprint of Cormorant Books Inc., 2017. Projected pub date 1705 Description pages cm ISBN 9781770864788 (alk. paper) 9781770864832 (ebk. : alk. paper) Library of Congress Holdings Information not available.

Print Marked Items
Radecki, Barbara: THE DARKHOUSE
Kirkus Reviews.
(Mar. 15, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text: 
Radecki, Barbara THE DARKHOUSE DCB (Children's Fiction) $14.95 5, 1 ISBN: 978-1-77086-478-8
A lonely teen girl's life is changed forever when she discovers horrifying secrets about her family. Fifteenyear-old
Gemma has never left the place she calls home, an island off the coast of New Brunswick. Her
father, an amateur scientist, tells her that it's for her own good. But he's too busy with his experiments to
spend much time with Gemma, and there's no one else her age on the island. From the first page, Gemma's
lonely interior world is drawn in rich detail, as is the island setting. Gemma spends her days alone or with
the island's older residents, who are like family. The all-white community is tight-knit, so everyone takes
notice when Marlie, a mysterious woman, comes to the island. Marlie's arrival sets off a chain of events that
leads Gemma to uncover terrible secrets about her father and her past. Distraught, Gemma embarks on a
journey full of dangerous twists and turns. Strangers and longtime friends make the journey with her, but
ultimately Gemma must decide how to reconcile the past with the present and the truth with the lies about
her past. The well-paced narrative builds from Gemma's quiet longing to her bold quest for the truth to a
shocking conclusion readers won't see coming. Science, mystery, and family collide in this creepy,
satisfying page-turner. (Thriller. 12-16)
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Radecki, Barbara: THE DARKHOUSE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2017. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A485105063/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=a109defd.
Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A485105063

Herchenbach, Seth
School Library Journal. Apr2017, Vol. 63 Issue 4, p147-147. 1/5p.
RADECKI, Barbara. The Darkhouse. 244p. Cormorant/Dancing Cat. May 2017. pap. $14.95. ISBN 9781770864788.
Gr 7–10—This debut novel sees teenager Gemma reach her breaking point as she discovers who she is and where she is going in life. It takes place on an old, sleepy, small island in New Brunswick, with a detour to Maine. The limited first-person point of view adds to the tense mood as the protagonist struggles to uncover the mysteries surrounding the lighthouse and her father Jonah’s obsession with amateur science experiments. Jonah keeps his projects secret in a storage shed behind their house. Mysteries abound as things just don’t sit right with Gemma. Who is her real mother, and will she ever see her again? Why does Jonah keep his science experiments hidden? Some mysteries are left unresolved, such as why Gemma refers to her father as Jonah and why she has conversations with her doll Adria. Though satisfying, the climactic conclusion is not neat and tidy. VERDICT A dark work that should find interest among mystery fans and those who enjoy Lois Duncan’s books.

"Radecki, Barbara: THE DARKHOUSE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A485105063/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.

• Alisha Sevigny
  http://www.alishasevigny.com/general/authorlove-the-darkhouse-by-barbara-radecki/
  Word count: 1013

  #authorlove: The Darkhouse by Barbara Radecki
  BY ALISHA // JUNE 21, 2017 // NO COMMENTS
  Hey guys!
  I’m so excited to kick of my #authorlove series today! Each week will feature a different author Q&A, along with their latest book, so you can get to know more about all the amazing novelists out there. For my very first post in the series we have The Darkhouse by Barbara Radecki. The Darkhouse has been described as “…a young adult thriller unlike any other… Radecki’s work developing Gemma’s character through the first person narration is masterfully done…” Let’s get to it!
  So B, give us a snapshot of what The Darkhouse is about.The Darkhouse is about a 15-year-old girl named Gemma, the only young person in a tiny community on a remote Maritime island, whose life unravels when she discovers the terrible truth about who she really is.
  Fans of who/what will like this book?
  The Darkhouse melds a few different genres—mystery, coming-of-age, the dark undertones and shocking discoveries of speculative fiction. Another definition I’ve come to love is that it’s an original fairy tale for adults and young adults. The heroine basically walks into the mysterious woods alone and discovers that the world isn’t the safe or predictable place she thought it was. To survive, she has to mine for resilience and courage she doesn’t know she has.
  What inspired you to write the book?
  The idea for The Darkhouse came to me while I was weeding my garden one sultry summer day. I was working on another novel at the time, so I wasn’t really searching for another story idea. But out of nowhere, I heard this young girl’s voice in my head—and she told me the secret that lies at the heart of the story. And I knew I had to find out what happens to her by writing it.
  Any thoughts on if you had to cast the movie?
  Coming from an acting background, I’ve thought about this a lot! I’d love to see a fearless young actress play Gemma, someone like Anna Paquin when she was a child in The Piano. I’ve also pictured Casey Affleck or Joaquin Phoenix as Jonah, and Emily Blunt or Michele Williams as Marlie.
  Do you have any writing quirks?
  Well, I do like to write with my feet up, say, lying on a couch or lounger. Somehow my body doesn’t suffer so much from the hours at the computer if I switch up sitting at a table and reclining. Also, I get so many ideas or thoughts in the shower or as I’m falling asleep that I have to keep Post-it pads and pens in my bathroom and bedroom.
  Can you tell us about the cover?
  This is one of my favourite Darkhouse stories! When Cormorant/DCB acquired my book, I was also scheduled to appear at a few comic-cons—I have a small fan-base because I dubbed the English voice of Sailor Neptune in the original Sailor Moon series. My agent, Sam Hiyate, suggested I print up some postcards announcing the upcoming release so comic-con fans could look for the book when it came out. I needed some artwork for that postcard, and it was way too early for Cormorant to commission a cover design. My daughter, Stefanie Ayoub, is a professional designer and illustrator and I asked her if she would design something. She was amazing—taking careful notes about the story and Gemma’s character (and, of course, she’d read a few drafts along the way). Then she created this incredibly evocative, textured image, which I used for the postcard. Later, when my editor was beginning his search for the cover designer, I suggested they consider Stefanie’s artwork. Before he saw it, he was understandably sceptical—do you know how many authors have family or friends who’ve “designed a cover,” only for them to be terrible or unusable?! But he was open to considering it, and when he saw it he was blown away. The cover you see on the book today is only a few tweaks from her original creation.
  What are some of your favourite authors/books and why?
  I’m a voracious reader and have been all my life. This is the hardest question to answer because I don’t dote on one writer, but read so many different books that I feel it’s unfair to land on a writer or book as my “favourite.” The only exception to this rule is, in fact, my fairy tale collection—these are the only books I’ve read and re-read over the years. In general, I’m most drawn to evocative literary fiction with a strong story. Margaret Atwood, Barbara Gowdy, Toni Morrison, David Bergen, Richard Wagamese, Austen, Eliot, Tolstoy. Standouts for originality and emotional power after all these years are Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Juno Diaz, and The Outlander by Gil Adamson (not the British series). Oh, and I can’t forget A Prayer for Owen Meany and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
  Any plans for future projects?
  I’m writing my next book right now! Briefly, it’s about a 16-year-old girl who gets a message in the middle of the night telling her she’s the next messiah, and her first mission is to save the runaway sister she hates. But is she the next messiah, or is she just a messed-up kid from a dysfunctional home looking for love?
  Thanks to Barbara for joining me today and make sure to grab a copy of her book if it sounds like something you’d be interested in. If you’re an author who’d like to be featured on #authorlove, send me an email!

• Brutal Gamer
  http://brutalgamer.com/2016/06/04/lets-talk-sailor-neptune-interview-actress-barbara-radecki/
  Word count: 1877

  Let’s Talk About Sailor Neptune: An Interview with Actress Barbara Radecki
  Nadia June 4, 2016 Featured Articles, Interview, Movies & TV, News 1 Comment 2,039 Views
  Neptune Deep Submerge!
  Sailor Neptune is known for her maturity and iconic romantic relationship with Sailor Uranus. She was brought to life by Barbara Radecki in Sailor Moon S, Sailor Moon S: Hearts in Ice and Sailor Moon Super S: Black Dream Hole.
  Radecki grew up in Montreal on the West Island and had a passion for writing and reading Shakespeare plays throughout her childhood. In high school her focus in writing was still present however, she took a leap of faith and auditioned for Alice in Wonderland and was cast as Alice.
  Radecki credits her high school teacher and plays director John Whitman for teaching her what it meant to be an actor.
  “Writing is a very solitary experience and acting is a very communal experience and right away I had this wonderful time working with all these different actors and learning what it meant to convey emotion, and John taught me what it was like to really inhabit a character,” she said. “In the meantime, I stopped getting positive reinforcement for my writing so I kind of felt that maybe my gift is really being an actor. So that is what I pursued,” Radecki said.
  She got her BFA in acting at the University of Windsor and said her career took off quickly. “I went from Montreal to Windsor to Toronto which is where I felt is the best place in Canada to do an acting career, and I was one of the lucky ones as my career took off quite quickly,” Radecki said.
  Radecki stated that she got a lot of lead roles in various series and while it didn’t go anywhere, it was enough for her to earn a living and support her lifestyle.
  The history of Sailor Moon is very rich and deep for every actor involved. Radecki’s history started with the character of Queen Serenity in the very first episode of the show.
  “When I first did Sailor Moon I had the very first line in the English dub series because I was the one voiced Queen Serenity and that very first line that she had in episode one, and I actually forgot about that until I re-watched some of the episodes recently and I’m like ‘oh! That’s me!’ I forgot I did that!”
  She also voiced Serena’s mom Ikuko Tsukino and shares her first impression of Serena. “You probably know that I also played Serena’s mom, and all I saw of Sailor Moon because we only see the scenes that we are dubbing all I saw was this in my mind bratty kid who was always whining and crying, and you know boy crazy,” Radecki said.
  Radecki recounted a funny experience she had with her own daughter regarding Sailor Moon.
  “I had my oldest daughter at the time and Sailor Moon was a big thing for all the kids at that point and she wanted to watch it,” she said. “I absolutely forbade her from watching it, because I believed so much in female empowerment and I wanted her to have a really good sense of her womanhood and I wasn’t sure where Sailor Moon fit into all of that. And she tells me that the first and probably only time she was ever grounded, was when I caught her watching Sailor Moon as I came home early and I grounded her from going to see her friends.”
  It was when Radecki got the part of Sailor Neptune that her impression of Sailor Moon changed. “It was only when I got the part of Sailor Neptune, that I could see the more serious side of the show that really does involve female empowerment, and it is about these heroes coming together to make the world a better place and save the world,” she said.
  Radecki said that she is going back and watching all the episodes on YouTube.
  “Now in retrospect, having this new interest in Sailor Moon that has sustained over 20 years I’m going back now and watching the full episodes on YouTube, and seeing this whole story of this reluctant hero who doesn’t believe in herself, doesn’t believe she can be the hero, who is a regular girl who sometimes has meltdowns, and sometimes is boy crazy but is also committed slowly but surely to saving the world and making the world a better place.”
  She expressed that she is proud of being a part of Sailor Moon that has a statement at its heart which is: People working together and fighting for what’s right.
  Radecki was also proud to have the role of Sailor Neptune. “Not to mention the fact that I get to be this character that embraces the whole LGBTQ community, and the fact that this is one of the first lesbian couples to ever be portrayed in animation and probably even in the greater television world.”
  In the English dub of Sailor Moon Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus’ romantic relationship was changed to cousins. Radecki shares her thoughts. “I know at the time in the North American version you weren’t supposed to know that they were lovers instead of cousins, but obviously in retrospect we know that now and I could speak to that and say as soon as I found out I was very disappointed that we couldn’t be open about the fact that they were girlfriends at the time. But I’m extremely proud that I got to be part of something really special that way,” she said.
  Radecki mentioned that the producer and director told her that they were cousins. “When I started voicing Neptune they told us they were cousins, so that was my understanding for the first two episodes,” she said.
  It’s very rare in voice over work for actors work with partners in the same booth, however, there was a day where Radecki was working with Sarah Lafleur (Sailor Uranus) and the producer and director talked to them about the true nature of Neptune’s and Uranus’ relationship.
  “I remember they told us: ‘Oh you know what? This is actually a lesbian couple, and we need your voices to get lower now because in case anyone notices that they are a couple we want these girls to be of age because obviously these girls are having a consensual romantic relationship.’ So they wanted it to be clear that these were young women and not children,” Radecki said.
  Now years later, we have seen a shift in how open and accepting we’ve become and Radecki says the LGBTQ community probably feels it’s been a long time coming and it says a lot about the human spirit.
  “So I remember distinctly in that time going from they’re cousins and not really thinking anything of it because in the first couple of episodes there is nothing romantic, but before it became romantic and being told that they were girlfriends and then at that moment being disappointed like: ‘Why can’t they just be girlfriends in the show?’ she said. ”But that was that time and those were the kinds of things that wasn’t I guess allowed to be expressed in children’s shows, and now we don’t think twice about it. That just goes to show you how far we’ve come in 20 years.”
  Radecki was a young mom at the time she started working on Sailor Moon and explains how Sailor Neptune inspired and empowered her.
  “You know it’s interesting because that character is a very serious character. She takes her work very seriously, she’s very committed to what she’s doing, she doesn’t hesitate and she does what she has to do,” she said. “In some respects when you’re a young mom as I was when I started- your first goal is to take care of your children, make sure they’re safe, happy, and nurtured and sometimes your work takes a backseat which is why it took me so long to get back to my writing.”
  She continued. “I think a character like Sailor Neptune- someone who focuses very much on what she has to do, is a nice counter balance to a person who’s very nurturing and wanting to make sure everyone’s happy and take care of everyone’s feelings,” Radecki said. “Sailor Neptune wasn’t touchy feely like that, so I think in terms of a role model for me I would say that’s my big takeaway from her is that she does what she has to do and I respect and admire that.”
  Radecki details what she felt Sailor Neptune represents for women. “I think all the characters represent different things to each individual person. So I think each individual person takes different things from these characters and that’s why Sailor Moon has such a long-lasting impact because everyone is going to get something different out of it,” she begins.
  “One person may get female empowerment, one person might get the acceptance of love between people of the same sex, and some people might get saving the world. I guess if I was to speak broadly I would say that’s what she represents. I think the young sailor scouts represent what it really feels like to be an adolescent and how confused you are by love, growing up, autonomy, and being your own person.”
  She commented on how this relates to Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune.
  “I think Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus represent the other side of that learning experience. They’ve come into their own and can show the viewers what it’s like to be grounded. I think when you’re very young you come away from being a child and you sort of feel like ‘oh where is my place in the world? Where do I fit in? What’s my purpose in life? And you feel very unsettled,” Radecki said. “But there comes a time in your life and it might not happen in your early twenties or late teens but I think for Sailor Neptune is an example of a young woman who has found herself, has found her purpose, she’s herself and very grounded.”
  Radecki stated what she hopes people can learn from Sailor Neptune. “I hope that’s what young people can take away that you will get to a point where you’ll feel where you can own yourself, own your mission, own your voice and not apologize for that to anybody.”
  Barbara Radecki’s upcoming book The Darkhouse comes out Fall 2016 through Cormorant/DCB Books in Canada and in Spring 2017 through Orca Books USA. It’s a psychological thriller about a 14-year-old girl who discovers her whole life is a lie, and she has to run from everything she’s ever known in order to find her true self.

• Quill and Quire
  https://quillandquire.com/review/the-darkhouse/
  Word count: 368

  Reviewer: Robert J. Wiersema
  The Darkhouse
  by Barbara Radecki
  Gemma, the heroine of the debut novel from Barbara Radecki, is 16 years old, and lives with her father, Jonah, on a small island off the coast of New Brunswick. Gemma’s mother decamped when the girl was just a baby, so it’s been just her and her dad all along, though the other island residents make for a warm – and unsurprisingly quirky – extended family. It’s a quiet life: Jonah, who in addition to his role as lighthouse keeper also captains the local ferry, keeps busy with his science experiments in the locked shed out back, and Gemma spends her days alone save for her imaginary friend Addie, who sleeps in the closet.
  Their routine is shattered when a mysterious woman arrives on the island. She’s obviously not who she is pretending to be, and it’s too early in the season for her to be a tourist, so who is she? What is she hiding? These mysteries only deepen when the woman is drawn into Jonah and Gemma’s life, forcing Gemma to take a closer look at what is going on around her, and what happened to her in the past.
  All the elements are in place for a winning YA psychological thriller, and for the most part, The Darkhouse succeeds. The novel is well paced, with a narrative just twisty enough to keep even seasoned readers guessing. Radecki, a screenwriter and actress, writes with a clear prose style and good insight into the often-contradictory nooks and crannies of Gemma’s troubled psyche.
  The novel stumbles somewhat, however, when Gemma runs away from home and the island. It’s not just that the developments in this stretch are a bit too convenient (not even Dickens had a gang of street kids as welcoming as the ones Gemma encounters, and her interaction with two brothers on the road is positively sweet), but the shift away from the island’s cloistered, uncanny atmosphere allows the pressure to ease, robbing the narrative of much of its tension. Thankfully, Radecki reverses course in a commanding manner by the novel’s close.

• Globe and Mail
  https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/review-young-adult-books-from-sonia-patel-arushi-raina-nicola-yoon-and-others/article33455270/
  Word count: 181

  SHANNON OZIRNY
  SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL
  PUBLISHED DECEMBER 30, 2016UPDATED MARCH 24, 2017
  The Darkhouse
  Review: Young adult books from Sonia Patel, Arushi Raina, Nicola Yoon and others

  Dancing Cat Books, 244 pages, $14.95
  It turns out that the creepiest place to set a thriller is a remote island off the coast of New Brunswick. This is Toronto author Barbara Radecki's debut and it's a showstopper. Fifteen-year-old Gemma lives with her father, a ferry driver and aspiring scientist who spends hours in a locked shed working on his "experiments." Gemma has only a few adult island dwellers for friends as she's not permitted to the leave the island for fear of her violent, estranged mother. Or, that's what she's told. When a mysterious woman visits the island, things start to get weird. And scary. And unpredictable. Radecki throws in gasp-worthy twists and takes the plot far beyond the boundaries of expectation – about 100 gripping pages past where most novels would end. It's a smarter and more sinister The Face on the Milk Carton for this generation.

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