Karla Brading speaks to first-time YA novelist Louise Finch who addresses teen-boy toxicity and the perils of time travel with The Eternal Return Of Clara Hart.

Everyone has a time in their life that they wish they could re-live over and over. Whether it be a perfect memory they would love to be able to return to, or a day of struggle they wish they could understand better… even change. They might wonder what could be done differently this time, and if they made those changes, would it make life any better?

Spence is stuck in a glitch. The very fabric of time is broken, and only he knows it. He’s forced to see one of his classmates, Clara Hart, die repeatedly in a tragic accident. Now, caught in this harrowing loop, Spence endeavours to put a stop to Clara’s awful fate any way he can – because saving Clara is the key to set his path in time back to rights, surely? 

Well, apparently, it’s not as simple as just saving the girl. So what is he missing? 

Louise Finch’s debut novel The Eternal Return Of Clara Hart is about to shake up the world of YA literature with its sensational plot, appealing to fans of Black Mirror and Promising Young Woman. With a focus on toxic masculinity and gendered violence, its thought-provoking messages would be worth unpicking in book clubs or comprehensive school environments, for the benefit of growing minds.

Set in high school, teenage protagonist Spence still suffers with the loss of his mother a year previous and undergoes difficulties in connecting with his grief-stricken father. Spence’s peer group are somewhat feral beasts, bringing the cringey phrase ‘boys will be boys’ to mind as they behave disgustingly towards their female counterparts. 

“I’ve always been passionate about tackling sexism and gendered violence for the simple reason that it has directly impacted my own life,” Finch explains, asked what research and inspirations led to the creation of her debut. “It’s a subject I’ve been thinking about, reading about and arguing with people about for years, so it made sense to write about it too.

“I did also undertake a lot of research – in particular, I sought out articles, papers and other media about men’s attitudes towards consent and sexual violence, as well as spending a lot of time looking at other women’s accounts of harassment and abuse, and speaking to people I know who have their own first-hand accounts.

“It was a difficult thing to immerse myself in for such a long period, honestly. The words and jokes of some of the boys in the novel are pretty tame compared to some of the examples I have seen from the real world.”

Backlash sometimes results from an individual highlighting problematic areas in humanity. We’ve all seen it on social media, as an example. The public often discovers projects, articles, books and argue the opposite of the point being made – that women can also be toxic. The point that the individual is highlighting comes under fire by people with an angered agenda, attempting to discredit the essence of the point: that change is needed because of x, y and z.

Has Finch ever experienced this reaction in the past and what would she say if someone tried to argue with the messages in her novel? “So far, I’ve been very fortunate in terms of how people have responded to the book, but over the years while writing and editing, I’ve spoken to a lot of different people about it, and some of them were clearly defensive about the concept.

“One male writer gave me a long lecture on why the whole idea of it is flawed because abusive men are ‘monsters’ who don’t have friends. It’s exactly those kind of unhelpful misconceptions I’d like the book to be able to address.

“It would be comforting to believe it’s just bogeymen in dark alleys hurting people, but unfortunately they are far more often men with friends, brothers, they are people’s sons. If we don’t accept that, there is no hope of addressing this issue.”

From her research, Finch reports, “A quarter of women in England and Wales have been raped or assaulted in adulthood. That’s so many of us. Every single woman I know has experienced harassment or abuse – not once, but over and over again throughout our lifetimes. All of us know from an early age that we have to adjust our own behaviour to not only stay safe but to avoid being blamed if anything were to happen to us. These are simply facts and anyone arguing otherwise needs to open their eyes.”

Steering away from the darker and more serious side of Finch’s important work of fiction, and focusing on the time loop aspect that her protagonist is stuck in, is there a day Finch herself would wish she could repeat a few times?

“If time travel stories have taught us anything, it’s that you should never go back and repeat a day! But really, I’m quite an anxious person and tend to beat myself up over the smallest things, so if I could repeat every single day of my life at least five times until I got it right, I probably would. I’m grateful I don’t have that power because it sounds exhausting.”

As The Eternal Return Of Clara Hart launches on Thurs 4 Aug, Finch will be enjoying its release whilst working on her next contemporary YA novel. Though she says it’s not yet under contract, there is unquestionably more to come from this outstanding new voice in YA literature.  

The Eternal Return Of Clara Hart by Louise Finch is published by Little Island. Price: £8.99. Info: here

words KARLA BRADING