ROOT ROT by Saskia Nislow is one of, if not the most, scariest books I have ever read. I just HAD to know more about Saskia and her amazing novella. Check out what she had to say below!
Enjoy!
Saskia Nislow: Author of ROOT ROT
Christina Pfeiffer: Tell us a little (or a lot) about yourself.
Saskia Nislow: Let’s see…I’m a fiction writer and I’m also in psychoanalytic training and I also make ceramics (when I have time, which has not been the case recently) and I also used to be a public-school teacher. I like to do a lot of different things! I live with my partner and our cats in Brooklyn. Unsurprisingly, I love horror.
CP: ROOT ROT is unlike anything I have ever read before. I mean, from premise to execution, I was kept on the edge of my seat (sometimes literally). Where did this idea come from?
SN: I started writing ROOT ROT when I was doing a residency at the Blue Mountain Center. It’s a pretty isolated place out in the Adirondacks, very beautiful, which reminded me a bit of the environment I grew up in. I’ve always loved the woods, but I’ve also always been very afraid of them. And I had this project I was supposed to be working on that I was avoiding, so I decided to write a scary story about the woods instead. It essentially started as a fun writing exercise to get out of a rut but then ended up taking on a life of its own.
CP: The names of the characters are unique as well. No one is named per se but given an attribute - The Crybaby, The Oldest, The One That Runs Away. Is there a reason for this? I kept thinking of the old adage, “names hold power” as I read it. Does that come into play?
SN: I definitely think it can be understood that way. I chose to do the names like that because I wanted to shift the focus away from how the characters understood themselves as individuals to how they understood themselves as a collective. I hope that the names will help the readers see what’s missing or misunderstood in this collective understanding.
CP: I am not one to be scared while reading a book or creeped out because it rarely happens… but you did it. You caused me to read with the lights on. The table scene while The Liar is outside and then comes in or when The Crybaby was under the table. (The Crybaby’s realization of the feet under the table will stay with me for a very long time.)
This quote is nightmare fuel, “She couldn’t quite put her finger on it because they were almost identical to his normal eyes, but something was different. They seemed to blink from the bottom instead of the top.”
Was the idea to cause fear for the reader or is that an added bonus?
SN: Hell yeah! This project essentially began as an experiment in writing something scary, so I love to hear that.
CP: There are so many scenes and places that the reader struggles to remember what just happened, much like the characters. Keeping all of us (readers and characters) off kilter and questioning ourselves was done with such a fine line precision. Case in point - The Twin Boy dive scene. Absolutely brilliant. Was that a hard scene in particular to write?
SN: Actually, that scene was one of the most fun ones to write (I love writing about water), but it was definitely a bit of a chore keeping track of where everyone was all the time. Lots of going back and forth between the manuscript and half-coherent diagrams scribbled in my notebook.
CP: I have to know, more for my personal curiosity, how did the scene of the baby in the roots come to be? I found myself cringing yet wanting the children to find out for sure about what happened. And when The Secret Keeper went back out, oh my heart.
SN: There a wild folk-horror movie called Eyes of Fire that has these beautiful faces growing out of trees and I think that image really stayed with me. I also was thinking about how, when I was a kid, I used to be afraid of accidentally getting into an animal burrow. It was never that I was afraid of touching an animal really, but more that I was afraid I’d find something mysterious and surprising inside.
CP: Will you ever revisit this world as there is so much more to unearth (no pun intended, well maybe a little pun intended)?
SN: Without stating anything too decisively here, I probably won’t write more about this particular family or this particular place, but I will certainly continue thinking about them.
CP: Is there another project you are working on or in the planning phase?
SN: Yes! I have something already completed and I’m hoping to get to drafting something new this spring/summer.
Thank you so much for these questions and for sharing your thoughts about ROOT ROT. It’s been wonderful getting a chance to talk/write with you.
Check out ROOT ROT releasing 3/25/25!
Pre-order here.
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