Hello everyone and welcome to my stop on the Escapist Book Tours virtual book tour for Kaitlin Corvus’ New Adult Urban Dark Fantasy novel Sorrow’s Forest! Today, I am excited to help kickoff the tour by sharing an interview with the main characters from the book!
You can find my Q&A with Mackie and Blue down below, along with all of the info about the book, the author, links to purchase a copy of Sorrow’s Forest for yourself, and, if you’re feeling lucky, an opportunity to win one! Also, be sure to take a look at the schedule at the bottom of the post and follow along to see the stops from our other awesome hosts!
Book Information:
Sorrow’s Forest by Kaitlin Corvus
Series: Sorrow’s Forest Duology #1
Genre: New Adult Urban Dark Fantasy
Intended Age Group: Adult
Pages: 300
Published: July 16, 2022
Publisher: Shadow Spark Publishing
Blurb
At twelve years old, Mackie King had done something no one had ever done before: he had snuck into the forest, where Queen Sorrow reigned and had unintentionally stolen one of her devils while she slept in a death-like sleep.
In as little as an hour, the devil named himself Blue, fit almost seamlessly into the Kings’ life, and the Township of Lakeview.
Now, Mackie and Blue are grown, Queen Sorrow has awakened, and she wants her devil back.
In a fit of uncontrolled rage and desperateness, she snatches any that match Blue’s likeness. When their identities are revealed, she ruthlessly casts the bodies aside. Each murder is met with the town’s hopeless ignorance. A dark enchantment is sweeping over the land, dulling the minds of the townspeople to the supernatural violence.
Mackie has always been resourceful, but it will take every bit of ingenuity he and Blue have to thwart Queen Sorrow and her minions, save the town, and free themselves from the shadow of the bittering forest.
See Also:
Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black • Broken Things by Lauren Oliver • The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff
Book Links:
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B469DJX6/
Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0B469DJX6/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60891841-sorrow-s-forest
Character Q&A
What music do you listen to?
Mackie: I am classic rock junkie. I really enjoy The Turtles, Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, Johnny Cash. Basically, anything 1950—1980’s is a big win
Blue: A lot of upbeat electronic stuff. Something with a lot of bass that I can close my eyes and dance to without thinking too much about how I’m moving my body.
What are 3 items you can’t live without?
Mackie: My GTO, work boots. The only other thing I can think of that has any emotional value is the cast of my cherry red 1951 Bel Air, that Dad got me for my birthday once upon a time, when he still remembered my birthday.
Blue: I have this spider ring that I found at the edge of the forest when I turned sixteen. Mackie though it was weird, but I loved it as soon as I saw it. I also have this indigo lipstick that’s pretty stellar. The last thing… probably my cell. Only because of the camera. Mackie’s awful about taking pictures when we’re on vacation. I like to always make sure we have something to look back on.
If you were stranded on a deserted island, what is one thing you’d like to have with you?
Mackie: I don’t feel particularly attached to any one thing, other than my car. That’s sort of a ridiculous thing to bring to a desert island, isn’t it? But, if I had something to fix or build, I would be happy.
Blue: I’m trying to find the perfect answer for this and have none. Maybe something to keep me entertained? Like a book? Am I stranded here for the rest of my life? If so, one book isn’t going to cut it. I’d go nuts reading the same thing over again. Maybe just an endless supply of fresh mangoes. No. No. Sunscreen. Endless supply of sunscreen. I’ll swim in the ocean and explore or something for
entertainment.
What is your biggest pet peeve?
Mackie: My biggest pet peeve is bullies, hands-down. The people that always pick on those smaller than them, or different than them. They gotta go. And I’m more than happy to show them the way out.
Blue: When people jump to conclusions about others. Just give the person a chance to prove you wrong, they might surprise you!
What do you do in your free time?
Mackie: I rebuild vintage cars. My pet project is this GTO my dad and I pulled out of the scrapyard when I was a kid. He didn’t think it’d run, but I was determined. The body needs a bit of work now, but the guts are basically all new.
Blue: I’m a social creature. I hang out with my friends a lot, go to parties, parks, day trips to Yarrow Beach, or head over to Owensboro to catch the Pride festival. It’s the only one in our area.
What makes you want to get out of bed in the morning?
Mackie: The goal of having my own autobody shop one day. I’m going to rebuild classic cars and do custom work.
Blue: A lot of people come to me for advice and friendship when they feel like society is rejecting them. I love helping people feel comfortable in their own skin again. It’s okay to be different. It’s okay to be you, and damn anyone that says otherwise.
What is the best advice you’ve ever been given?
Mackie: Stay the hell out of the forest. Oddly enough, it’s the one piece of advice I seem to ignore the most.
Blue: When I was fifteen, Mackie told me that it wasn’t polite to eat live beetles in front of people, haha. Really, though… the best piece of advice I ever got was probably from Missus King, Mackie’s Mom, and she told me that whatever it was I wanted to be, whoever, I should just be it, that she would love me anyway. Sometimes I wonder how much of her advice was spurred by magic—did she have to love me?—and how much was genuine. I like to believe she meant it, though.
What do you carry in your bag?
Mackie: At any given time? Running gear, Gatorade, wallet, keys, snacks. I don’t know, the usual stuff?
Blue: Wallet, of course. House keys. Lipstick—that awesome indigo colour I was talking about, and this wicked black shade that you only need one coating of. Cell phone. And a little Tupperware container of this lightning bug. It’s been with me for years. You’d think it’d be dead by now, but it still just blinks and blinks. Sometimes, I think about eating it.
What’s your favorite animal?
Mackie: Eeer… my immediate thought was ‘owls are cool’ but then I remembered they were birds and birds kind of freak me out. Owls are dope, though. Nocturnal, quick, deadly. Their eyes are neat, and they can twist their heads around like 270 degrees. I saw that once on a documentary. You’re forgiven for being a bird, Owl, you don’t belong with them.
Blue: Beetles.
What do you think about Mackie?
Mackie: Blue’s amazing. Better than me. Better than anyone I know. That said, I’m worried he doesn’t always protect himself from the wrong people—he wants to help anyone he can, wherever he can, and doesn’t always hold back when he should. But that’s also part of why he’s so amazing. I don’t know anyone as selfless as him.
Blue: Mackie is great. A really genuine guy. Introverted, yeah. That’s just who he is, though. Sometimes, he doesn’t always think about the right ways to solve his problems. He’d rather punch someone in the face for being an asshole than tell them that they’re being one and finding a way to work around it. But there isn’t anyone more loyal. He’s a really good guy to have at your side, when things are tough and when they’re good.
Do you have favorite saying?
Mackie: Sure. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Words to live by. Once you start tinkering with something that doesn’t need tinkering with, you start a cascade effect, and suddenly you have fifteen things to replace, not one. Just. Don’t. Do. It.
Blue: I don’t know if it’s a favourite saying, but while we’re on the topic of Mackie, I find myself saying violence never solved anything quite a bit.
What is your favorite holiday?
Mackie: Easter. Not because I’m religious or anything, or because I like chocolate, (though Mom still buys us the Lindt chocolate and it’s delicious), but because it’s kind of like the steppingstone between winter and spring, and the food is amazing.
Blue: Halloween, for sure. You’ve never lived until you’ve trolled the thrift shops for castaway Halloween costumes—you know, the real misfits. Knockoff TMNTs, poo emojis. I have a Beetlejuice one I snagged a few years ago that was a real hit.
If you could go anywhere in [the book’s world], where would you go and why?
Mackie: Somewhere away from Sorrow’s Forest, if I could bring Blue with me. Somewhere out of Queen Sorrow’s reach. It doesn’t matter where.
Blue: If I could, I would go to Westchester—it’s a small city just West of Lakeview. I had an interview there, as a promoter for local bands, you know? They offered me the job, but I didn’t take it. It’s hard being away from Lakeview. Away from Sorrow’s Forest. Like I can’t breathe. I thought maybe it’d get better with time, but I couldn’t even make it a day before I had to come back. That kind of scares me if I’m being honest. The stillness? I’m too big to be trapped in one place forever. I want to see things, do things, meet people.
What do you do to relax?
Mackie: Work on my GTO. When it’s done, I’ll find another car on the brink of death to revive. Maybe I’ll sell it. Maybe I’ll keep it for myself.
Blue: I love to roll up to my favourite sushi bar with a good book and eat until I’m stuffed. If that fails, mani-pedi with one of my best friends, Kristy Chow, and an online shopping spree of all my favourite stores.
What is your favorite food?
Mackie: I think after I went on about Easter, I should say something about homemade turkey dinners. That’s second on my last meal plan. First would probably be Pad Thai, though.
Blue: If I don’t have to be polite? Beetles. Predaceous diving beetles are best. They’re the biggest and juiciest. If I do have to be polite, I’m a big sushi fan.
What is your favorite season?
Mackie: Spring. When it’s still soggy and wet out, and the snow is melting in rivers between the snowbanks in parking lots. The really shitty spring weather. Sometimes, it still snows at night, but during the day flies are sunning on the door and you can smell the ground thawing. I love it.
Blue: I love summer to death. I live for the late nights on patios and the hot weather.
How would you define happiness?
Mackie: Feeling safe, remembered, wanted.
Blue: Being able to do whatever I want—and I don’t mean that in a weird way. But if I wanted to leave Lakeview and go to Westchester, I could. If I never wanted to see Lakeview Township again, I could put it in the rear view and never look back. I guess being able to go anywhere I want, for as long as I want, without feeling like I’ve left my lungs behind is a good start.
What are you passionate about?
Mackie: Fixing broken vintage cars.
Blue: Making safe spaces for people struggling with identifying their sexuality to explore themselves and learn to love who they are.
How do you feel about your government?
Mackie: They care a lot about big business and not a lot about local business. Lakeview never used to have a Walmart, but as soon as it went in, it started to get harder for local businesses to survive. I think about that when I think about opening my shop. Are people going to come to me, or are they going to go to Walmart for their mechanical things? Most of what I’m going to be doing is custom work, sure, but I can still change a person’s oil if they need, right? Like, that’s where I’m going to get my most reliable business.
Blue: I try not to talk about politics. I mean, I vote every time I should. But if I’m being honest, our riding is always conservative, and they always end up pouring most of their energy into budget cuts and not enough into social and environmental programs and I think that’s a big mistake.
If you could change one thing about [the book’s world], what would it be?
Mackie: I would go back to the night Blue and Shawn first hooked up and I would say something—anything—to scare Shawn off. He was bad news when we were kids, and honestly, he’s only gotten worse as an adult.
Blue: I would bring kids like Kevin Evans and Austin Leek back. The ones taken by the forest.
What’s your biggest secret?
Mackie: I should say something like I stole Blue from the forest, and I’m the only one that knows he’s more devil than he is human, but… the thing I’m most secretive about is that part of me, a very small, very quiet, and very ugly part, was glad it wasn’t Blue Queen Sorrow led into the woods when she was hunting for her lost devil. I hate that Austin and Kevin died. I hate it. They were innocent. If it was Blue, though, it might have destroyed me.
Blue: I’m not like the rest of the people in Lakeview, and not in the ways they think. When a devil comes to the forest edge, I see it. When they drift through the trees, I feel it. When they eat, when they’re at peace, when they war, I know it, and it’s an all-encompassing knowing, as if I’m experiencing it myself. Sometimes, it’s scary.
What do you hate?
Mackie: Feeling helpless.
Blue: Stillness. Complacency. The idea that one day, I’ll find something comfortable, and get slow, and get quiet, and stop trying to be better.
What’s your biggest fear?
Mackie: Not being able to protect the ones I care about from forces that I can’t control.
Blue: Putting the ones I love in danger because of who and what I am.
What do you think your best quality is?
Mackie: I try not to be too judgemental of anyone. Except for Shawn and his posse. They’ve proven on multiple occasions that they deserve my judgement. I’m a ‘you do you,’ kind of guy as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone around you.
Other than that, though? If you need a guy to bloody his knuckles for you, I’m in. Always good for a row. Mom hates that. Blue hates it, too. Dad always told me to stick up for myself and people that can’t stick up for themselves, though. You’ll feel good about yourself when you do, he used to say. Wonder if he ever remembers that sometimes? Guess he left me with something more than a love for vintage cars.
Blue: I’m good at seeing the good in people. Or at least, I’m hopeful for the good in people. Keeps me from being too skeptical, and I’d like to think my optimism rubs off on the ones closest to me, too (ahem, Mackie.)
How would you describe the world you live in?
Mackie: In a word? Volatile. We’ll go years without a hiccup from Sorrow’s Forest, and then all at once, something weird will happen. Like the year the river flooded and those weird fish things (that were definitely not a species of fish that I’ve ever seen) died all over the banks, or when the newts crawled out of the forest to wither in the sun.
Something’s changed lately, though. What used to be an occasional feeling of malevolence has turned into a full-time thing. I feel like I’m always watched. Always followed. Something has changed in Sorrow’s Forest, and not for the better.
Blue: For the most part, things are good. I surround myself with like-minded people, and we have a ton of fun and help each other be better people. But I’ve had run-ins with some bad people, for sure. I try to focus on the good stuff, though. You know what they say—your reality becomes that which you surround yourself with.
About the Author
Kaitlin Corvus is a curator of the weird and unusual. She may or may not be a murder of crows in a trench coat. It can, however, be said with certainty she loves monsters. Toothy and gummy ones. Big ones and small ones. Weird ones. Pretty ones. Ugly ones. Totally benign ones. And especially the ones that crawl into your heart, nest, and live there forever.
Author Site: https://kmariecocks.wixsite.com/website
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KaitlinCorvus
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kaitlin-Corvus-1526181161006368
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16455601.Kaitlin_Corvus
Giveaway
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