Out Of The Wild Lets Fairy Tales Escape

Young-adult-fantasy author Sarah Beth Durst told SCI FI Wire that her latest novel, Out of the Wild, grew out of her childhood wish for something magical to happen in her hometown, such as unicorns in the woods or elves in the basement or dragons in the garage.

"I also always loved fairy tales," Durst said in an interview. "Every Christmas and birthday, my mom would give me the most beautifully illustrated fairy-tale book she could find. So it was almost inevitable that when I started to think about story ideas, I'd think, 'What if fairy-tale characters lived in my hometown?' My first answer was that Rapunzel would obviously own a hair salon." Out of the Wild is the sequel to Durst's first novel, Into the Wild.

"I knew from early on in writing Into the Wild that I wanted to do a sequel," she said. "I loved the characters and the world, and I didn't want to say goodbye to them. Even though Into the Wild is a stand-alone and has an ending, I still wanted to know what happens next. Writing Out of the Wild was just as much fun as I'd hoped it would be. It was like visiting old friends. And then totally turning their lives upside down." The duology is about fairy-tale characters who escape from their fairy tales and what happens when the fairy tale wants its characters back.

"Imagine a cross-country road trip with just you and your dad," Durst said. "Now add a fire-breathing dragon, a few thousand magic beanstalks and a run-in with a wolf in Elvis' bedroom, and you've got Out of the Wild."

In the books, "the Wild" is the essence of fairy tales. "It's a living, thinking entity that believes everyone should live a fairy tale life (complete with poison-encrusted apples, hundred-year comas and cannibalistic witches)," Durst said. "If it catches you, it will force you to act out a fairy tale over and over again, even if that means being eaten by a wolf or shoved into an oven again and again. In my books, happily-ever-after is not nice."

-John Joseph Adams