And then the letters start arriving. Letters from Mandy, claiming that their family's blighted history is not just bad luck or bad decisions - but a curse, handed down through the generations. Mandy has gone in search of the curse's roots, and now Deena must find her. What they find will heal their family's rotten past - or rip it apart forever.

All the Bad Apples is about 17-year-old Deena, whose older sister Mandy goes missing after having told Deena about a curse on the women of their family who do not conform. While Deena’s other sister Rachel is sure Mandy is dead, Deena believes she can't be — especially after she starts receiving letters from Mandy asking her to follow the history of their family across the country in order to break the curse before it comes to her. Along with her best friend Finn, a family member she never knew she had, and a sweet stranger met along the way, Deena travels to places in her family’s past, uncovering the stories of a long line of bad apples, in search of her sister, and the origin of their family curse.

Ohh, this is a really difficult choice. I wrote through so many voices, between Deena, Mandy and their ancestors, and loved delving into each of their stories. I had never written historical fiction before and was surprised at how easily Mary Ellen (whose story takes place in the late 1800s) came to me, and how much I looked forward to writing her chapters. I loved setting up the contrasts between adult twins Mandy and Rachel — hot and cool, wildness and stability — and then exploring their own teenage years. And I loved writing Deena, who’d been knocking about in my head for about a good decade, whose voice was the first thing I heard when I told myself I was going to write this book.

I have, so far, stolen the characters for every book I've written from my younger self. When I was 18 or so I started writing a book about the Rys family, and Deena, Rachel, Mandy and Ida came from that, although Ida in particular changed a lot from first to final draft.

The idea of a family curse that is really a curse on women who don't follow the rules was built out of the fury and helpless of the whole country as horrible truths started coming out about the mother and baby homes, as we fought hard for reproductive rights that didn't seem like they'd ever happen. I read a lot of first-person accounts of Magdalene laundries, of having to travel overseas for abortions, and those stories inspired the history of the Rys family.

Three Babies by Sinéad O’Connor. I listened to it every day I wrote the second draft of this book & cried every time.

If your book was going to be made into a movie, who would play your characters?

To be honest, my dream cast would be of unknown, age-appropriate Irish actors. I've always had issues with 28 year olds playing teenagers and don't know of any Irish teen actors offhand who fit any of my characters!

Can you recommend your readers any other books in case they are left hungry for more once they finish ALL THE BAD APPLES?

If you want witchy feminist rage, queer characters & stories set in Ireland, please read the stunning Perfectly Preventable Deaths by Deirdre Sullivan and Other Words for Smoke by Sarah Maria Griffin — you’ll fall deep & fast.

What’s next for you?

I'm working on something so new it's too fragile to talk about yet, but it looks like it will be on the more magical side of magic realism, and I'm drawing up a lot of birth charts for it — including one for a house.

View this post on Instagram

🍎 G I V E A W A Y 🍎 A nice, normal girl. Dublin, 2012 On my seventeenth birthday, two things happened. I came out to my family (somewhat by accident). And my sister Mandy disappeared. Died, Deena, Rachel said - our other sister, the middle sister, the one who came between us. Died, not disappeared. But I knew Mandy wasn't dead. ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ . Hello everyone and Happy Wednesday! The week is going so fast! 🌿 . . Today I have a book I have been dying to share with you: #AllTheBadApples by Moïra Fowley-Doyle (@moirawithatrema). Filled with mystery, heartache and magic, Moïra's new book will catch your attention from the very first page. . . Here's the author's TLDR about the story: ATBA is about 17one-year-old Deena, whose older sister Mandy goes missing after having told Deena about a curse in the women of their family who do not conform. While Deena's other sister Rachel is sure Mandy is dead, Deena believes she can't be - especially after she starts receiving letters from Mandy asking her to follow the history of their family across the country in order to break the curse before it comes to her. Along with her best friend Finn, a family member she never knew she had, and a sweet stranger met along the way, Deena travels to places in her family's past, uncovering the stories of a long line of bad apples, in search of her sister, and the origin of their family curse. . . We have partnered with @penguinukbooks, @penguinrandomhouse and Moïra, to bring you ALL THE BAD APPLES to @theffbc tours and to give you the chance to WIN 1 of 3 copies of the book. . . 📖 HOW TO ENTER 🎁 All you need to know is go to @theffbc website and find the TOUR SCHEDULE for All the Bad Apples and fill out the rafflecopter. You can do this 2 ways: 1) Using the search bar under our logo, on the right side of our website. 2) We have a Current Giveaways widget on our right side of our website. Just find the book and click on it! 3) Scrolling through our posts until you find Jill's book. Make sure you find the tour schedule, since it is the only post that has the rafflecopter! Also, don't miss my interview with the author! Good luck and hope you enjoy this book as much as I did!

A post shared by Patricia Lopez (@whatmakespatri) on Aug 21, 2019 at 1:07am PDT