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Francesca Simon: how I turned The Monstrous Child into ‘Wagner for teens’

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The Horrid Henry author’s YA novel about a smart-talking Norse goddess has become an opera – what will young audiences make of it?

A few years ago, I was sitting on the New York subway when a voice popped into my head. A sarcastic, teenage, yeah whatever, eye-rolling voice. She said, “You’d think after my brother the snake was born they’d have stopped at one.” I knew who was speaking. It was Hel, the Norse goddess of the dead, half-human, half-corpse, daughter of a god and a giantess, who Odin hurls into the Underworld and forces to rule the dead.

The whole plot of my novel The Monstrous Child came to me in that moment. I’ve always loved mythology, and Hel’s story seemed a great way to write about dysfunctional families and the turbulence and passion of adolescence. It was the first time I’d written a novel in the first person. While writing it, I knew it could be turned into an opera. Opera is so heightened, the perfect way to express the epic sweep of gods and giants, love and hate, jealousy and vengeance, as well as a young girl’s journey towards creating her own life.

She’s banished to Niflheim to spend eternity with rotting corpses. Without her flippant asides, it could be unbearable

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