Scarlett St. Clair mixes fantasy with contemporary settings, where Gods and Goddesses roam around us, yet still possess the powers of the classic myths.
In St. Clair’s best-selling novel, A Touch of Darkness, fans fell in love with a retelling of the story of Persephone, Goddess of Spring, and Hades, God of the Underworld. Set in present-day New York City, Persephone works as a journalist when she stumbles upon the powerful and feared Hades, a local owner of a seedy underground gambling hall.
What started as one novel unfolded into the beloved Hades x Persephone series. Book 7, A Touch of Chaos, has just been released, and this time, the tables are turned. It’s Persephone’s turn to save Hades from a fate worse than…Death.
Alpha males, strong female characters, and intricate and engaging settings are all part of Scarlett St. Clair’s Greek myth-inspired world. Booktrib had the chance to chat with the author about the Easter eggs throughout her books, navigating social media fame, continuing her Hades X Persephone series, and what’s next.
Your books don’t only cover romance and fantasy, but the characters are all inspired by Greek Mythology. In your Hades X Persephone novels, there are also “Easter eggs” that take readers back to the history of that time due to your research. What are some of your favorites and how did you come up with this idea?
I’m not sure I can say I came up with the idea, it just feels like something that naturally occurs as I write these retellings. It might be because I do have so much existing knowledge of various Greek Epics. A huge part of my work in college as an English Writing major was critically analyzing texts for various commentaries on society. I think that had a lot of influence over how I adapted my own retellings.
Some of my favorite Easter eggs are Helios’s cows in A Game of Fate, Retribution and Gods, and the sheep and Polyphemus in Gods and Chaos. Both are references to the Odyssey. Another favorite reference to the Odyssey is in Gods. In The Odyssey, Odysseyus offers Polyphemus wine to get him drunk so he can escape. In Gods, Dionysus is the god of wine so he turns water into wine to get Polyphemus drunk. The situation just worked out so perfectly to bring that element into play.
In Chaos, I have Hades building the walls of the labyrinth in which he is trapped. This is a nod to the Aeneid, one of my favorite epic poems. In the book, Aeneas stops in Carthage and helps build the walls of the city. Later, Rome will destroy those walls and Carthage. While tragic, it is poetic, that the man who helped build the walls would later found the city that would destroy them. The reference is the same within Chaos.
Your popularity on BookTok led legions of readers and fans to pick up your books and recommend them to others. People believe that social media quickly propels an author to fame, but it seems like it takes more time than people might realize to reach a point where you are known as an author. How was your experience with BookTok and what are some ups and downs that you might’ve experienced throughout that time?
I went viral on BookTok without being on BookTok. To me, it felt like a slow increase. Over time, I noticed more reviews, more followers, then I noticed my physical book sales exceeding my ebook sales. What unfolded just seemed to fit with growing popularity not necessarily an explosion on TikTok.
To me, it isn’t even TikTok that is responsible for the popularity of my books, it is the readers. I think what made TikTok the platform to use was social distancing during COVID, but it also complements our shorter attention spans. Those are not bad things at all, it just means that this social app has found a way to communicate to a society that has grown used to technology.
In the end, I know that people read what their friends are reading, and that is the environment social media has been able to create among readers online. That is a very positive and amazing thing.
As far as challenges, it is always overwhelming when an author suddenly has hundreds more people reading their books. I had to learn how to handle being tagged in the negativity, but also handle things that came up on my FYP. The solution for me ended up being to delete the TikTok app from my phone and also limit tags on my Instagram. That was the best solution for my mental health.
Readers have every right to express their opinion and while a lot of authors would prefer not to be tagged in negative ones, I didn’t feel like just asking people not to tag me in those reviews would work. I had to take control over what I saw in my own feed and it has been the best thing for me.
There’s no doubt that the genres of Dark Romance and Romantasy are popular right now, and readers have a certain obsession with dark behaviors of male characters in romance novels. Why do you feel this has become popular, and why do readers gravitate towards these tropes?
It’s safe to explore these experiences and desires in fiction. Those of us who read Dark Romance and Romantasy are well aware that most of the dynamics are unhealthy and not something we would want in real life but that doesn’t take away from the enjoyment.
If you look at what is happening in society paralleled with what is popular, I think you see a desire for escapism. The important element here is that we also need to be able to recognize ourselves and our challenges in the material. It’s all about being in a controlled environment where hope is attainable. A rule of romance, typically, is that the books end in a happily ever after and there is something so comforting about knowing everything’s going to be okay.
Speaking of dark and toxic male characters, how did you come to create Adrian? He is the ultimate dark anti-hero and perfect modern romance lead that has made King of Battle and Blood so popular.
Adrian is sort of a spite character. I was very…exhausted by what I felt was the internalized misogyny directed at Persephone while Hades was uplifted as the ultimate partner, except that he is just as flawed, if not more.
That being said, I do think sometimes environments create the monster, and that is something I was very eager to explore with both Adrian and Isolde. To me, Adrian’s only redeeming quality is his love for Isolde and even that is questionable given that he so often lives in the past. Overall, I think Adrian is a critical look at what it means to be made into a monster both figuratively and literally. It’s a really difficult thing to write, too. He is not good, and that is very uncomfortable.
Is there anything coming up next in the literary and creative world for you that you can share with readers and fans?
I’m working on a lot of things at once actively and in my head. My next project is the second novella in my fairy tale retelling series, Apples Dipped in Gold. It’s a play on several fairytales, but mainly inspired by The Hand with the Knife, The Elfin Hill, The Water Nixie, and a little Snow White. After that, I’ll work on my next Adrian and Isolde novel, Kingdom of Spirit and Shadow. I can’t wait to dive into a darker storyline for those two.
About Scarlett St. Clair:
USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Scarlett St. Clair was born and raised in Oklahoma and is a citizen of the Muskogee Nation. She is the author of several books, including A Touch of Darkness, King of Battle and Blood, and When Stars Come Out. Originally self-published, Scarlett’s books ignited readers into a frenzy, and A Touch of Darkness quickly became a TikTok-trending title. Scarlett rocketed to the top of bestseller lists across the industry in 2021, leading the prolific and popular author to sign with the Bloom Books imprint of Sourcebooks.
Scarlett is published in more than 13 countries. With millions of copies of her books sold around the world, she is a global bestseller.
The author is a fierce advocate of inclusivity in all her creative endeavors; her books celebrate agency, sex positivity and female empowerment.
