By LINDY RYAN
Sick of the opulent wealth of the mega-rich? Infuriated with systemic classism and misogyny? Then RUE MORGUE invites you to feast on Delilah S. Dawson’s latest novel, GUILLTONE, in what the author calls a “playful off-gassing of that rage.”
Fashionista Dez Lane doesn’t want to date Patrick Ruskin; She just wants to meet his mother, the editor-in-chief of Nouveau magazine. When Patrick invites Dez to his family’s big Easter reunion at their ancestral home, she’s certain she can put up with his arrogance and fend off his advances long enough to ask Marie Caulfield-Ruskin for an internship that someone with her pedigree could never nab through conventional means. When they arrive at the enormous island mansion, Dez is floored. She’s never witnessed how the 1% lives before in all their ridiculous, unnecessary luxury. But things take a dark turn once all the family members are on the island and the ferry has departed. For decades, the Ruskins have made their servants sign contracts tantamount to indentured servitude. With nothing to lose, the servants decide their only route to freedom is getting rid of the Ruskins for good…
We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Delilah S. Dawson to chat about GUILLTONE, available September 10 from Titan Books.
GUILLOTINE’s protagonist, Dez, joins the ranks of “Good for Her” Final Girls taking the slasher genre by storm, and RUE MORGUE is here for it! What inspired the story?
Bestselling author Delilah S. Dawson strikes a blow against the inhumanity of the ultra-rich with “GUILLOTINE”
It began with an article on Buzzfeed about what it’s like to work for the insanely rich. There was one story about a megayacht that was so large it contained multiple smaller yachts that popped out of it like baby Surinam toad hatchlings. The family that owned the megayacht was complaining that other people had bigger, nicer megayachts, and it made me want to vomit. Inheriting so much money that you could never spend it all and using it to buy outrageously wasteful things that don’t even make you happy or grateful – and then abusing your servants aboard your megayacht – it’s just so depressing and infuriating. So, I wanted to punish those people in fiction. Of course, I had to make their sins more extreme than “complains about megayacht,” so I looked at the vilest stories we know about public-facing generational multibillionaires and had as much fun as possible drawing my own conclusions.
An unmissable, brutal narrative on classism, wealth, and privilege underlines the story. Is there a larger message in this novel?
The larger message is that we need to tax the crap out of mega-billionaires instead of making up laws to help them further hoard wealth won through exploitation. Everyone I know is angry. We’re working ourselves to the bone and still having trouble making a living, and the arts are considered a hobby instead of a livelihood. We’re stuck in an era where my kids can’t reasonably expect to buy their own homes until I die, a time in which the American Dream of the 1950s is entirely out of reach even for smart, responsible people who do everything right. This book is a playful off-gassing of that rage.
Dez is taken to the Ruskin’s ancestral home because she’s dating one of the family’s sons, but it’s the Ruskin matriarch she’s most interested in. Indeed, Marie Caulfield-Ruskin is at the center of this story in more ways than one. Can you share more on the dynamics of female relationships explored in GUILLOTINE?
Dez will do anything to survive and succeed. For her, this means working as hard as she can and securing any available advantages. Her biggest sin is pretending to like Patrick Ruskin – and even that isn’t a pleasant experience for her. Marie Caulfield-Ruskin will also do anything to survive and succeed, and for her, that means she’s willing to uphold the patriarchy and oligarchy and play by her family’s twisted, sadistic rules, even if it hurts other people. Even if it hurts her children. Even if it hurts her. I see these women as two sides of the same coin – a have and a have-not – and it was fun to explore how they deal with the same impossible choice.
Readers will notice a series of stunning designer numbers catwalking through the story, which adds lovely texture to the plot. I imagine conjuring these up took as much magic as some of GUILLOTINE’s kills! For the fashionistas among us, was there a certain number that struck your fancy?
Well, I have to admit that instead of giving Dez the couture numbers she would actually love, I gave her things that were chosen for her to further subjugate her and render her less unique, less provocative, less confident. She’s waited all her life for a Chanel, and she gets one that’s matronly and prudish, which is not her style at all. That’s part of the cruelty. It’s like when the genie grants your wish, but they use it to torture you. My favorite number was the pair of snakeskin Louboutin stilettos – for obvious reasons.
Finally, what incredible Delilah S. Dawson novel should readers expect next?
My next book is It Will Only Hurt for a Moment, an atmospheric horror-thriller that, like GUILLOTINE and The Violence, explores feminine rage. That one is out October 22 and is available for preorder now. September also brings the paperback of Bloom, my cottagecore Hannibal sapphic love story, and Midnight at the Houdini, my spooky YA haunted hotel romance. I have nearly 30 books on my backlist, so if you’d like a personalized recommendation, hit me up on Instagram, Blue Sky, or Threads @delilahsdawson.
