Koja has been actively writing for over 20 years, her cult-like following of fans never ceasing to pick up her latest. Related: Kathe Koja Shares Her Favorite Genre-Defying Tales of Terror Throughout, Koja expertly relocates readers to the past while still managing to dazzle with that impeccable blend of language and narrative surprise. The novel takes readers to 1870s Brussels, set in the titular Under the Poppy, a brothel.
Koja’s ability to transfix and transport readers reached new dark heights with 2010's Under the Poppy, the first in an epic historical trilogy. Teens lose their footing while trying to find a sense of self. Koja has said that writing for young adults only extends these concerns for the greater self, when adolescence is at its peak and everything is at once foreign and strange. It’s a concept that extends throughout both age and time, so much that Koja went on to write multiple young adult books-including Straydog and Going Under-to continue exploring that meaning. Her work deals with philosophical concepts of transcendence, that bittersweet spot of human purpose where we try to make sense of the things we do, and the reason we exist. Right out of the gate, Koja unleashed a blend of surrealism and blood-curdling horror that became an instant cult hit and inspiration for an entire generation of writers seeking to bring the odd back into the world.
A book about a strange hole forming in places unexpected and impossible, it went on to win two of the most prestigious awards in the genre, the Locus and the Bram Stoker. The author of a diverse range of books, everything from literary horror to YA, her 1991 novel, The Cipher, was both her debut and the first title in Dell’s experimental/literary horror imprint, Abyss.
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