Sarah Rees Brennan: How my cancer treatment inspired my new book — and my 'villain era'

Sarah Rees Brennan became blind in one eye as a child and underwent treatment for stage four cancer in adulthood. The YA author has now written her first adult novel. Her experiences have shaped the narrative

Author Sarah Rees Brennan at her home in Dublin's city centre. Pictures: Gareth Chaney

Make no mistake: self-professed “childless cat lady,” Sarah Rees Brennan has already left an indelible mark on society, and she’s just getting started.

The New York Times best-selling author was diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2016 and now mentors women with cancer.

“The support system’s awful. If I was in America, I would have just died. But the Irish healthcare system saved my life so I feel a responsibility to give back,” she says.

Strong in spirit, Sarah managed to find the lighter moments throughout her treatment but there were days when she felt judged, lonely, and too weak to summon up the positive attitude often expected of people with cancer.

“Even people who were there for me during the chemo afterwards, were like; ‘Remember when you were an unreasonable bitch?’ And I was like; ‘When? When I was so sick I couldn’t walk?”

Hurt and feeling trivialised by those caustic comments, she imagined what it would be like not to care. And thus her newest novel was born, her first foray into the adult fantasy novel genre, the first of a trilogy.

“ Long Live Evil is about finding escape in stories, about waking up and finding yourself a villain.”

Sarah Rees Brennan: Long Live Evil is her first foray into the adult fantasy novel genre, the first of a trilogy.

It’s a lonely place to be, says Sarah. “People are only patient with you for so long.”

Since President Nixon declared a ‘War on Cancer’, we have been subjected to tired military tropes of patients as brave soldiers “battling” cancer — as if it were a war to be won or lost. Using equally patronising language, women’s bodies have been weaponised; presented as “battlefields” for men to dominate, attack, and ultimately control.

A scathing critique of the patriarchy via the military comparisons underpins the narrative of Long Live Evil.

“Rae has her feelings about her previous body, which is cancer-wracked but her new body is curvaceous. She’s Jessica Rabbit, she’s the villainous harlot. I wanted to show how we see curvy ladies.”

Immoral, I’m guessing? Yes, she says.

Inspired by Sarah’s own experience, Rae goes from an unassuming cheerleader to a “treacherous bitch” with a beauty mark, killer curves, and long, flowing locks.

“I had my own body transformations. I lost a lot of weight. I was stick thin but people were saying; ‘Oh, but that’s good. You look great’.

“When I did start gaining weight, people were like; ‘Why are you wearing that top?’ The tits are there but you’re four cup sizes bigger than you were.”

Sarah Rees Brennan: I was stick thin but people were saying; ‘Oh, but that’s good. You look great’.

A conversation about fertility proved triggering for Sarah who was still grappling with what felt like “a death sentence”.

“When I was diagnosed; they said; ‘Ok pause, you need to go freeze your eggs.’ I was like; ‘Well, I can’t exactly have babies if I die’.”

It wasn’t Sarah’s first time dealing with a serious illness.

“I had terrible cataracts. I had an operation when I was a baby and they saved the sight of one eye but they never got the other.”

Escaping into books has always been Sarah’s safe space. A precocious child, she remembers being refused entry to the adult section of the Dalkey library.

“They wouldn’t let me into the adult section so I stumbled onto children’s fantasy novels.”

She began eating up the stalwarts of the genre, especially women authors like Diana Wynne Jones.

It was a natural choice for her to study ancient Greek and Roman civilisation and history and after graduating with an Arts degree from UCD, she applied for and was accepted onto an internship in the US.

“I moved to New York at 22 and worked at LifeTime Media in the nonfiction division. I learned a lot but it was an uphill climb.”

Sarah Rees Brennan: 'Escaping into books has always been Sarah’s safe space' 

After a year of working in publishing, Sarah knew her rightful place was in creative writing.

“I’d learned a lot about books but I didn’t have a permanent job. I had no salary so I did my master’s in creative writing at Kingston University and worked in a library to pay for it.”

Armed with an insider’s knowledge of the publishing industry, after getting her masters, she set about signing with an agent.

“I knew agents were the ones who called the shots,” she says.

Well-versed in strategy at this stage, Sarah made the ultimate power move and sparked a bidding war.

“I fired off manuscripts to quite a few. When one agent offered representation, I went to my favourite and was like; ‘Do you want to offer as well? And they said ‘yes’.”

Just as she started making headway in her career, Sarah began to experience mood changes and faced a series of consecutive illnesses that left her feeling
depleted and irritable.

“I got sick and a lot of people didn’t want to know anymore. I’m talking friends, boyfriends, my second agent. My family were great, especially my brother, who was there for me every step of the way. I celebrate those people.”

Sarah Rees Brennan: 'I knew agents were the ones who called the shots'

A long-term fan of Taylor Swift, Sarah underwent a metamorphosis that ushered her into her “villain era”. “When you’re young, you are the shiny drone but that doesn’t last long — and it can’t.”

Rather villain than victim, says Sarah who allowed herself to feel bad without sugarcoating her experience. Bald, and unapologetic, she felt a new wave of empowerment.

“When I went to the Reputations era tour, I had no hair. That was a very cathartic thing to do.”

After the hashtag #TaylorSwiftIsASnake began trending back in 2017, the pop icon leaned into the characterisation and posted a series of social media posts with a slithering reptile.

“Snakes are a villain thing. Alice Roosevelt also had a pet snake, which she called Emily Spinach and she was notoriously not a nice lady.”

In a nod to Taylor, Alice, and Emily, the protagonist in Sarah’s new book has a pet snake called Victoria Broccoli and features on one iteration of the book’s cover.

“My German publishers had a jacket hand-painted with the heroine holding the snake so I wore that to see Taylor.”

What about Taylor the lover? Sarah sees herself in that era too: “You see so many generations of women feeling free to love and to be unashamed about it. For fans, it’s part of an identity.”

Sarah Rees Brennan underwent a metamorphosis that ushered her into her 'villain era'

Sarah almost had to learn to fall in love again; with her life, her friends and family and with her craft that eluded her when she was in the throes of cancer.

“My family were great but I was reeling from betrayal. I took comfort and joy in art. But I kept thinking; ‘What is it like to be wicked?’ When you have cancer, you give yourself permission to be selfish. You can say; ‘Ok, fuck you’.”

A new-found anger energised her and she found freedom in accepting that her life as she knew it was fundamentally over: “In some ways, remission is dying because you’re not the same person.”

A chance meeting with a key player at Scholastic in 2019 led to her being commissioned to write the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

“It doesn’t tend to be paid that well but for the entirety of my teenage years, I had watched Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Salem is still the best character.”

She says this in hushed tones — perhaps to spare her loyal feline friends, Jadis and Binx, who are milling about in the background. They’re indifferent.

Sarah Rees Brennan with one of her cats.

This new project was quite different from Sarah’s other books in that she was given the ideas, characters, and plot fully baked.

“Some writers look down on it because it’s someone else’s property. I found it liberating.”

Hot on the heels of a cancer-free prognosis and the success of Sabrina, the author was approached again by Netflix in 2021, this time to write supernatural teen drama Fate: The Winx Saga.

Some reviewers critiqued the adaption for having a “Riverdale sheen” or feeling like a “Mary Sue fan fiction come to life” but ultimately, 163,659 people signed a change.org petition to bring it back after it was cancelled in 2022.

Sarah Rees Brennan is legally blind in one eye. She’s short-sighted in the other but her vision is clear: she wants teenage girls to feel seen and heard.

“Teenage girls create language but it’s seen as slang and cringe. It’s codified into language by their sons and then it becomes respectable.”

“Women are always communicating and building bridges. There’s real power in that.”

Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan

• Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan published by Orbit is out now, €15.99