I’m still a firm believer in word of mouth, being the best way to discover new books, it’s how I discovered K.T. Nguyen’s debut thriller, YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID. Let me tell you, if you haven’t read her novel, you really need to remedy that quickly.
The book’s main character, Annie Shaw, is a well-crafted character. She’s real and heartfelt and happens to live with OCD. As a person who has OCD, I can tell you, K.T. really nailed what it’s like to live with it. Television shows, movies, and a lot of books get it wrong. No, most people with OCD do not waste their days away cleaning, but I like how K.T. brought Annie’s OCD to life. There are spiraling thoughts, definitely moments of feeling like the walls are closing in, which brings me to my point, it’s the perfect tool for this dazzling debut thriller.
There are cringe moments in this novel, things that make your stomach spin, but I mean that in the best ways. The novel is tense, itchy, and desperate, and perhaps a narrator who may or may not be playing with you, maybe even her herself. It’s not only a thriller, but a mystery, even horror, which really gets at the heart of the book. It’s also a book about family and how often our families are not what we’d like them to be. I never give away plot points, characters, lines, quotes, if you haven’t read this book, I suggest you do. It’s an excellent read. I’m a fan of K.T.’s now, and I’ll definitely be on the look out for her next novel.
– Frank Reardon
FR: Hello K.T. How are you doing?
KTN: Hanging in there and trying to avoid “living in a disinformation space,” to borrow a phrase from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
FR: First off, let me say, I really enjoyed YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID. It’s a great read. I’m going to dive right into it. Annie (Anh Le) is a fantastic character. Tell us a little about her. Where did she come from? Who is she to you?
KTN: I share some biographical details with my main character Annie Shaw. The biggest commonalities: 1. My mom was pregnant with me when she fled Vietnam during the war 2. I grew up in a small town in Ohio 3. I have a disgust-driven OCD. But in terms of personality, temperament, life choices, we are not at all alike (phew!).
FR: I’m a person who lives with OCD, and although it doesn’t bother me when a television show, or a novel makes light of OCD rituals, it can get boring because it’s a complex disorder that digs itself into many parts of a person’s daily life. I enjoyed that you used OCD in a creative way. You give readers a sense of dread, feelings of spiraling out. I felt claustrophobic reading the book, which is a lot like spiraling out with obsessive thoughts. Tell us about how it was writing OCD into the book, how you used it as a tool?
KTN: What I’m most proud of in this book is the realistic portrayal of severe OCD. The disorder can take many forms, manifesting itself in many ways from contamination to checking to ordering/organization. Like Annie, I have disgust-driven contamination-based OCD. Fortunately, my OCD is well-managed through medication. However, at its peak my symptoms were much, much worse than Annie’s. I wanted to lock the reader into Annie’s mind to give them a taste of what it’s like to have contamination-based OCD. The relentless chain of intrusive thoughts that can make you feel like a prisoner in your own body. In severe cases, you can experience degrees of disassociation. Did I touch that? Did I use soap? Did I change my clothes? When you can’t trust yourself and your perceptions, you feel like the ultimate unreliable narrator in your own story.
FR: You’ve been getting award nominations and a ton of positive feedback for a debut novel, it must be such a thrill, congratulations! Does it feel somewhat otherworldly? What have you been nominated for?
KTN: Thanks! And thank you to everyone who has read, bought, borrowed the book whether you liked it or not. YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID has been nominated for Left Coast Crime’s Lefty Award and for an Agatha Award for Best Debut.
FR: Annie’s mother is a Vietnam War refugee. Personally, as a child of a Vietnam War Veteran, I feel like that war and what it did to people on both sides is swept under the rug. What bothered my father later on in life was not only his experiences and those of American soldiers, but also the experiences of the Vietnamese people. How it affected them too. Tell us a bit about Annie’s mother, and the impact her mother’s life had on Annie. As we now know, wartime PTSD, war trauma, can be passed down from parent to child.
KTN: About 1 in 4 people with PTSD also experience OCD. PTSD, OCD, and hoarding are all observed at higher rates in war refugees and veterans. Annie’s mother is a refugee who has trauma-related OCD which takes the form of hoarding. She starts “collecting” things at garage sales for a nickel or a dime and amasses walls of books, figurines, tchotchkes that make her feel protected. Desperate to regain some semblance of control, she clings to her daughter Annie almost as though she is a belonging. In YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID, I show how the trauma of war can ripple across generations and bleed through borders. You can arrive in the United States or come back home to the United States, but you’ve left a piece of your sanity behind.
FR: When you were younger you worked at a magazine. I’ve read about how some authors who worked in magazines or in newspapers, like Hemingway for example, helped them get to the point a lot quicker, allowing for punchy sentences. The novel doesn’t waste words and often punches hard. Did working for a magazine affect your writing style?
KTN: Working as a magazine writer and editor, myself, helped me through the publishing process. I was open to edits and conversations about the book in ways some authors may not have been. In the end, my name is on the book but it’s a team that makes it what it is.
FR: Everyone has places and ways they write. Having a family, do you write certain times of day? If you do, do you write in an office, or sometimes sprawled out on a couch? Tell us about your writing process.
KTN: I write in the morning in my home office. This space, unfortunately, also houses tons of art and knitting supplies, a weight bench, two wigs on stands, a TV (plus a broken TV), and various other sundries.
FR: Back to the book. I really enjoy an unreliable narrator which isn’t always an easy thing to do. It pushes a sense of horror, even paranoia, spreads the OCD on top and then sends readers into the horrors of a guessing game. Tell us about your approach and the choices using it? How was it living with it for the time you wrote the book?
KTN: I touched on this a bit in question four. Getting ahead of myself! Because my OCD is so well-managed by medication (I’m really grateful for this), writing graphic, visceral details of the psychological horror didn’t affect me too much. I will always have OCD—the thoughts are there—they are just less frequent, less loud, and I don’t have to listen to them. Every disgust-driven thought/scene in the book was based on something I had read in the news or learned about in real life that I had fixated on when my OCD was at its worst.
FR: I always enjoy hearing about the books authors love, and authors who influence writers. Who are some of your influences or authors you think everyone should read? Give me three dead authors and three living authors.
KTN: DECEASED: Shirley Jackson, Dorothy B. Hughes, Gladys Mitchell
LIVING: Hmm… How about three recent books I’ve loved: The Wedding People by Alison Espach, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano, Think Twice by Harlan Coben. (In these dark times, I’ve gravitated towards humor.)
FR: What separates YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID are the layers you add to the characters. It truly is wonderful to be able to relate and feel what the characters are going through. Tell us about the process there, and the choices you made for the characters in the book to give them depth.
KTN: Character and atmosphere are my favorite parts of any book. Some people favor plot. Of course, ideally you have all three, but I could never enjoy a book with all plot and action and no character depth. The characters in my debut aren’t necessarily likable though and the book is dark and somewhat disturbing. If you’re looking for a twisted, unsettling ride, YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID is for you. If you’re in the mood for a fun or inspirational, feel-good family drama, look elsewhere!
FR: Raymond Carver once said, “When I’m not working on a project it feels like I was never a writer at all.” The point being, are you working on anything new right now? Putting ideas together for something new, maybe? What can fans of YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID look forward to in the future from you?
KTN: I’m about a third of the way through drafting my second novel. I know where the plot is headed (which is the toughest part for me) so I feel good about that. It’s dark, comedic crime fiction that draws on my past experience in the magazine, fashion, and beauty industry.
BONUS QUESTION:
FR: You are active in posting about the horrors of the current administration, as people with half a brain should do. These are scary times indeed (K.T., feel free to elaborate if you want. I’m not stopping anyone from doing so.) but we all need an escape. I’m a fan of nostalgia, simpler times, so Annie is over your house, and you suggest hopping in a time machine and going back to your teen years in your hometown. Where will you take Annie to help the both of you forget the current time? Where will you take her calmly? Your favorite hangout? Your favorite place to eat, and your favorite spots for fun back then?
KTN: Oh Frank! Unfortunately, my teen years were spent in much the same dark, isolation as Annie. Not much of a childhood. Despite the present-day political and social horrors, my life is simpler now in many ways (at least for the time being). I’ve worked hard to pay off my mortgage, my car, save a bit and now I’m experiencing some of the fun I missed out on as a kid. At 49-years-old, I’ve got braces, I’m learning to roller skate, and I’m starting to drive long distances. If only I’d get invited to a prom…
