Title: The Creeping
Author: Alexandra Sirowy
Publication Date: August 18, 2015
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Pages: 400
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Twelve years ago Stella and Jeanie vanished while picking strawberries. Stella returned minutes later, with no memory of what happened. Jeanie was never seen or heard from again.
Now Stella is seventeen, and she’s over it. She’s the lucky one who survived, and sure, the case is still cloaked in mystery—and it’s her small town’s ugly legacy—but Stella is focused on the coming summer. She’s got a great best friend, a hookup with an irresistibly crooked smile, and two months of beach days stretching out before her.
Then along comes a corpse, a little girl who washes up in an ancient cemetery after a mudslide, and who has red hair just like Jeanie did. Suddenly memories of that haunting day begin to return, and when Stella discovers that other red-headed girls have gone missing as well, she begins to suspect that something sinister is at work.
And before the summer ends, Stella will learn the hard way that if you hunt for monsters, you will find them. (less)
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The Unofficial Playlists of THE CREEPING’s
Stella, Zoey, and Sam by Alexandra Sirowy
When I was a kid, way before I considered myself a writer and storyteller, I used to sit and listen to music for hours. Every song was a new three-minute-and-some-seconds story for me to find the meaning of, let it make my heart swell and grieve its ending. Have I mentioned that I was a melodramatic kid? Because I was. Every love song was for me, even before I had crushes; every ballad was an opportunity to perform for the empty living room, the TV remote control a microphone for lip-syncing; each new band on my iPod or radio was a chance at creating new characters.
I’m still that melodramatic little girl, getting swept up in music (or movies or books), but a few things have changed. Now I consider myself a writer, and although I still sit and listen to music for hours, the stories in my head come first and rather than my hands wrapped around my mic, they’re readied on the keyboard of a laptop. My writing process is a perpetual experiment in what will work best creatively and the only constant variable, other than my laptop, is the music playing.
While I was working on my first novel, The Creeping, there were whole days I listened to the same song on repeat to stay in the headspace of a scene. And eventually playlists for each of The Creeping’s characters took shape. I could imagine these characters listening these songs as they drove to school, lounged in their bedrooms, or danced at one of Wildwood High’s lakeside bonfires. These are songs that inspired me as I wrote character dialogue and integral parts of the story.
Stella’s songs are strong, vulnerable, complex, and a little bit whimsical, just like her. There’s a mysterious undercurrent to the music I’d listen to while writing Stella talking about her childhood, that day in the woods when only she came back, and her feelings about being the lucky one, the survivor. There’s a spine and optimism to everything Stella does; this girl is brave and whip-smart, so is the music she listens to.
Stella’s Playlist
Ex’s & Oh’s by Elle King
Where Are You Now by Skillerex & Justin Bieber
Hideaway by Kiesza
Zoey is Stella’s longtime best friend and Zoey’s music is as exuberant and stubborn as she is. She turns the speakers way up, rolls the windows down, and belts out the lyrics. Her playlist makes it easy to imagine a bunch of friends baking in the sun, launching off of the rope swing, cannonballing into the lake, and flipping off authority.
Zoey’s Playlist
The Killing Type by Amanda Palmer
I Love It by Icona Pop feat. Charli XCX
Bad Blood by Taylor Swift
Sam (oh, you are going to love Sam) is Stella’s childhood best friend. Their paths diverged in high school, but Sam and Stella can’t really shake each other. There was always something more than friendship there. Sam’s playlist is thoughtful, hopeful, and soulful. I imagine him at his desk with his earbuds in or staring out his bedroom window, daydreaming and listening to songs that make him think of his crush. .
Sam’s Playlist
I Bet My Life by Imagine Dragons
Stiches by Shawn Mendes;
All I Want by Kodaline
I’d love to hear what music makes your unofficial soundtrack for THE CREEPING. Tweet the songs you think Stella, Sam, and Zoey would listen to!
Author Bio
Alexandra lives in a small town in Northern California. Although it’s fringed by forests and foothills like the town of Savage in THE CREEPING, it doesn’t have as many secrets (she thinks) or as dark of a history (fingers crossed). In addition to writing fiction, she loves traveling (Istanbul is her favorite), trees, lighthouses, seven layer cakes (who doesn’t?), running at dusk, music (the kind that makes your chest swell), and risky adventures. THE CREEPING is her debut novel. To learn more, visit her at alexandrasirowy.com and follow @AlexandraSirowy.
