Exclusive Cover Reveal + Q&A: Jennifer Niven’s New Young Adult Thriller When We Were Monsters

Author Jennifer Niven is known for her bestselling contemporary YA novels, most notably the very personal All the Bright Places, which was based on her own experiences and wrestled with weighty topics surrounding mental health, grief, and love. (It also spawned a feature film adaptation starring Elle Fanning and Justice Smith.) But her latest novel, the forthcoming When We Were Monsters, marks a thrilling for the writer—into the world of dark academia.

A simmering psychological thriller about a dead teacher at an elite boarding school, the students who had every reason to want her gone, and the tangled web of rivalry and romance concealing the truth, When We Were Monsters is full of complicated characters who are forced to come together to survive when their exclusive workshop takes an unexpectedly dark turn. The story aims to take a critical look at the monsters who walk among us—even in the glittering upper echelons of society—and the ways in which we seek redemption for the wrongs we’ve done.

Here’s how the publisher describes the story. 

At an elite boarding school, 8 students are selected for an exclusive program, but only one will walk away with a lifechanging opportunity to realize their creative dreams. Effy is piecing together a story about the tragic betrayal that led to her mother’s death. Arlo hopes to publish a novel—but he’s also trying to start a new chapter with Effy after he broke her heart and ghosted 3 years earlier. Everyone has a compelling reason to be there—they all want a big break—but only the most ambitious will prevail as the students are eliminated one by one. Their mentor is the one and only Meredith Graffam. An enigmatic writer, director and actress, whose unorthodox teaching methods push them past the breaking point. Under Graffam’s tutelage, the students reveal their darkest secrets, take unthinkable risks and slowly start to turn on one another. But Graffam never expected they would turn on her . . .

When We Were Monsters won’t hit shelves until September 2, but we’re thrilled to give you a first look at its (beautiful!) cover—and a sneak peek from the author about what to expect from the story. 

“Niven’s signature ingredients: deep sensitivity, romance, poetry, and misunderstood, passionate characters. Now add a gothic mansion, a dangerous cliffside and a charismatic genius— and she’s serving up a standout dark academia thriller,” E. Lockhart, #1 New York Times bestselling author of We Were Liars and Genuine Fraud, said in a blurb that will appear on the book’s jacket.

We also had a chance to chat with Niven herself about the inspiration behind When We Were Monsters, what readers can expect from the story, writing a new kind of YA novel, and more.

Paste Magazine: Tell us about When We Were Monsters! What can readers expect from the story? 

Jennifer Niven: When We Were Monsters is a dark academia psychological thriller about a group of students at a New England boarding school who are chosen for an exclusive storytelling workshop with Meredith Graffam, a renowned writer, director, and actress. For sixteen days, they will live in the isolated estate of the school’s founder, surrounded by snowy woods and a storm-tossed sea. And everything goes horribly wrong . . . 

I wrote the novel for my teenage self, who loved ABBA and Shirley Jackson in equal measure, and who hid the scary books behind the bookcase so that she would be safe at night.

Paste: This is a book that revolves around several key characters. Which of them do you think the audience will respond most strongly to and why? 

Niven: I hope that readers will find themselves in one or more of the characters. Prickly Effy, who feels like an orphan in most areas of her life. Arlo, who has made mistakes that hurt others and is in need of forgiveness and second chances. Ness, who struggles to feel like she actually belongs, even after earning accolades on her own merit. Isaac, whose expectations for himself are greater than the ones other people place on him. Even Meredith Graffam, who, in various ways, can relate to each of her students.

Paste: You said once that a common theme among your books was that they are stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Is that still the case in When We Were Monsters? 

Niven: Definitely. I especially love stories about strangers who have little in common and come together to fight a common cause, which is also the case in When We Were Monsters.

Paste: Tonally (and subject-wise!), When We Were Monsters is a pretty big swerve from some of your earlier books like All the Bright Places. What made you want to dip your toe into such a different genre? Was it challenging to shift your mindset toward this type of story? 

Niven: When I was growing up, I read voraciously. Of the many, many books I devoured, I gravitated most to those by Lois Duncan and Shirley Jackson. They pulled back the curtain on humanity and revealed what lurked in the shadows. They kept me in a constant state of chilled, delicious unease. It was my love for them that inspired some of my earliest childhood stories—prison mysteries that usually included a crumbling old estate, a dark forest, a group of disparate strangers thrown together in extraordinary circumstances, and at least one murder. 

After the release of my eleventh book, when I, as reader, was consuming yet another twisted mystery, I thought, How have I never written the type of story I most love to read? The type of story I used to most love writing? I have, after all, crossed genres multiple times in my career, while never once crossing into the genre I’m drawn to most. How quickly I learned that reading dark academia and mysteries and thrillers hadn’t prepared me for actually writing one of my own. This book is a genuine labor of love.

Paste: What draws readers so strongly toward dark academia/thriller stories right now? (Goodness knows they’re everywhere.) 

Niven: As readers, we like to put ourselves in the shoes of the characters we read about, to ask ourselves what we might do in the same situations. I think it’s normal to be fascinated by the darker side of humanity. As with true-crime stories, it can be riveting to delve into the events and circumstances that might turn a good person into a monster or, at the very least, make them commit monstrous acts. And to ask ourselves Could this be me? Am I capable of this too?

I also think there’s something wonderfully atmospheric about dark academia. I love to slip into any book set on a hallowed campus surrounded by woods and mystery, inhabited by ivy-covered buildings, storied tradition, dark lore, and murder—anything to send a shiver down my spine. When I started thinking of writing When We Were Monsters, I went back to my bookshelf and revisited Lois Duncan and Shirley Jackson to remind myself what I have always loved about them. The surprise. The simultaneous dark and light of human nature. The complexity of people. And, yes, the crumbling old mansions. Dark woods. Murder. Madness. And the spine-tingling need to look over my shoulder while reading.

When We Were Monsters will be released on September 2, but you can pre-order it right now. 

Lacy Baugher Milas is the Books Editor at Paste Magazine, but loves nerding out about all sorts of pop culture. You can find her on Twitter and Bluesky at @LacyMB