“I
’ve very much always adored Greek mythology,” says Bea Fitzgerald. “I’m autistic, it’s a very common special interest! The plethora of so many written
sources, the research deep-dives… it’s a real crosspoint of my interests.” We are speaking over video call about A Beautiful Evil, which will be published by Penguin Random House Children’s Books in August. A reimagining of the Pandora story, this is Fitzgerald’s third YA Greek myth novel, following Girl, Goddess, Queen and The End Crowns All, which took on, respectively, Persephone and the Trojan War. Her first love, she tells me, is always stories. “So much of my research process isn’t just how these stories are told in the ancient world, but how they have been retold over the years… and the way people continue to connect with those stories and shape those stories and recreate them for what is then the cultural zeitgeist.” Her own reimaginings create a unique perspective: smart, funny and romantic, putting teenage girls firmly at the heart of each story. She began writing before the current boom in the genre. “For me there was a gap in the market between Percy Jackson and Circe. I wanted to do a YA bridge, trying to reimagine the myths in a way that’s going to connect with a teenage audience.”
was writing without an agenda,” she asserts. “I am actively looking at these stories through a contemporary lens with the aim of telling a contemporary story for contemporary teenage readers, looking at what the characters represent and how that can be used to explore what women are still going through today.” The characters she is drawn to are rarely seen as three dimensional in the source material, especially Pandora who, she notes, has barely a glimmer of personality in the original myth. “All my stories are reimaginings, but this one goes very hard on the reimagining.” Once the gods have delivered Pandora to her
new husband, she discovers that Matheos wants absolutely nothing to do with her. “He has been wearing a mask of his own for the Olympians this entire time,” she explains. A “grumpy- sunshine” romance slowly unfolds as the two of them try to work out what Pandora’s purpose really is. Fitzgerald confesses that she “loves love”, particularly the idea of exploring character development in how they interact with each other. “The themes always have at their core that idea of coming of age, coming of age through love, depicting healthy love,” she explains. “I love to write a love where these characters would do anything for each other, to support each other, can be more themselves with each other and uplift each other.” Fitzgerald studied English literature and
It’s such a teenage question: what is my purpose here, what do I want to do with my life? It felt like such a natural fit for a YA space
A Beautiful Evil opens with the creation of Pandora. Zeus has commanded the gods to create “a beautiful evil” who will be the first human woman. She is being crafted for a purpose yet unknown, instructed only to love and be loved by her new husband, Matheos, a Titan and brother of Prometheus. “Pandora is Greek-myth Barbie,” laughs Fitzgerald. “It was something that really interested me, that idea of what was I made for? It’s such a teenage question: what is my purpose here, what do I want to do with my life? It felt like such a natural fit for a YA space.” The char- acter of Pandora came to her fully formed and clearly neurodivergent. “Pandora uncovering her real purpose is a very literal explanation of unmasking,” Fitzgerald explains. “It was so intrinsic to the myth for me. As soon as you have the idea of being made for the world and feeling being made wrong for the world, that’s such a neurodivergent experience.” We soon discover that Pandora’s purpose is
to open a jar and release all the evils in the world. “So that the King of the Gods doesn’t have to shoulder the blame!” she harrumphs. All of Fitzgerald’s heroines are forging their own paths by outplaying what the gods have planned for them, which is a vehemently femi- nist perspective. “No writer in the ancient world
worked in publishing before signing with her agent. Her debut, Girl, Goddess, Queen, was on submission for a “very stressful” year before PRH won it in a five-way auction. At that point, she recalls, TikTok was becoming a new buzzword. “Tropey romances were booming… here’s my fake-dating and Insta lovers debut! That was just organically where I’d been writing.” TikTok also became a key way for her to engage with the YA community. She started her @chaosolympus channel in 2021, parodying Greek myths in “bad outfits and tacky lipstick”. Now, she says, social media allows her to stay connected with the books and to consider them in fun ways. “It’s an extension of the same creativity that makes me sit down in front of a blank page and write.” Fitzgerald tells me that she writes YA “because
being a teenage girl was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I had mental health issues when I was a teenager and hoping for a better world is all that got me through”. Pandora may have been created to punish humanity, but Fitzgerald’s story seizes on the fact that hope is all that is left once the jar has been opened. “I’m not downplaying hope, I’m going to make it the core part of this story.” Equally of The End Crowns All, she notes that we all know how the Trojan War ends, but we hope that this time it will be different. “A friend told me that she didn’t realise how much she needed a version of this story where the women win,” she recalls. “That became such a core part of A Beautiful Evil… hope not being this foolish whim, but something that you have to fight for, and the bravery of hoping.”
Key backlist
Girl, Goddess, Queen PRH Children’s Books, £8.99, 9780241624289
Fitzgerald’s debut YA novel reimagines the story of Hades and Persephone. It was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and won the Romantic Novelists’ Association Fantasy Romance of the Year. “An ancient Greek myth retold brilliantly,” said the Telegraph.
28,530 TCM copies sold
The End Crowns All PRH Children’s Books, £8.99, 9780241624302
The Trojan War becomes an epic rivals-to-lovers sapphic romance as Cassandra and Helen take centre stage. “A witty, sharp reimagining that overflows with heart,” said Jennifer Saint, author of Ariadne.
8,258 TCM copies sold
Then Things Went Dark Michael Joseph, £16.99, 9780241695432
Fitzgerald’s adult thriller debut sees a hit reality show descend into a murderous nightmare. Pitched as Taylor Jenkins Reid meets The Hunting Party, Waterstones called it “a whip-smart pageturner”. The mmpb edition will be published on 9th October 2025.
830 TCM copies sold
7
DESIREE ADAMS
Books Author Profile
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