Kathryn Clark introduces her YA debut, Things I Learned While I Was Dead
About Author
Kathryn Clark explores consent and medical ethics in her dystopian debut, Things I Learned While I was Dead, and tells ReadingZone what inspired the novel's challenging themes.
Kathryn is a graduate of the Bath Spa MA Writing for Young People. Her work has been long/shortlisted in awards including Times/Chicken House, Mslexia Children's Novel, Bath Children's Novel, and Searchlight Novel Opening.
Kathryn works as a freelance writing mentor. She lives in Gloucestershire with her family and two dogs.
Interview
July 2025
Kathryn Clark introduces her science-fiction YA debut, Things I Learned While I Was Dead (Faber)
In Things I Learned While I Was Dead, a novel about familial love, medical ethics and consent, debut writer Kathryn Clark explores what happens when teenage Calico wakes up in a medical unit as part of a cryogenics research programme, in a near-future world changed by climate breakdown.
In this month's indepth Q&A, Kathryn tells ReadingZone what brought her into writing for YA readers, explores the book's challenging themes and tells us what she hopes her readers will take from Calico's story.
Read an extract from Things I Learned While I Was Dead.
Review: "There are plenty of twists and turns which kept me turning the pages. This is without a doubt, one of the best books that I have read this year!"
Q&A with Kathryn Clark, introducing Things I Learned While I Was Dead
"I hope readers will come away asking what we can do better as humans - in terms of the rights of individuals
and in taking care of the planet."
1. Thank you for joining us on ReadingZone to talk about your debut novel, Things I Learned While I Was Dead. Can you tell us about your path into writing?
I studied English at uni, which included some creative writing. However, after I graduated I didn't write for a really long time. I didn't think my writing was good enough, or that people like me could become published authors. But what I didn't understand back then is that writing is a craft, something to be worked on and practised - just like playing a musical instrument.
Later on, I realised something was missing in my life, and that turned out to be writing. I began working my way through creative guides and how-to-write books, attending courses and workshops, and entering story competitions. Eventually I went back to uni as a mature student to study for a Masters in Writing for Young People.
I've had all sorts of jobs, including working in a call centre, being an aromatherapist, and researching rich people! My work now is all writing related - I mentor other writers, teach writing workshops and read for writing competitions.
2. What happens in your novel, Things I Learned While I Was Dead?
After years of failed medical treatment, Asha dies. The only way Calico can save her sister now is by joining her in death and a cryogenics research programme, until modern medicine can bring them both back to healthy life. But Calico wakes up in a future that is post climate catastrophe. There's limited technology. She's trapped in a decaying, rule-bound facility. And worst of all - Asha is missing.
Joining forces with the other teenage test subjects, Calico uncovers lie after lie. She doesn't know who she can trust or how she can save Asha, and time is running out to make it out alive.
3. Why did you want to write this novel? Were there specific incidents or characters that helped inspire the story?
I started writing this novel back in 2016 after I read a news story about a teenager who was terminally ill. They wanted to be cryogenically preserved. One parent supported this choice, the other didn't, and the teenager took the latter to court. I was overwhelmed by the emotional and moral complexities of this family's terrible situation, and felt empathy for all involved.
Cryogenics seemed like science fiction, so I started researching. It's actually real, although of course we can't bring people back to life (yet). This news story also made me think about who gets to make decisions about our bodies, about consent, and how some voices, particularly those of young people, can go unheard. I wanted to explore these issues too.
4. At the start of the book, you provide an Author's Note, commenting on some of the issues you explore in the novel. Why did you want the reader to have this, and what kinds of questions do you address in Things I Learned While I Was Dead?
The book deals with issues including physical and mental illness, violence, death, references to suicide, and the climate crisis. I believe books are an ideal place to explore difficult issues - if you don't like something you're reading, or it's not the right time for you to read it, you can put the book down.
Still, I didn't want any reader to go into this story unprepared which is why I included the note. As it says: 'Although this story goes to some dark places, it is also full of resilience, love and hope.'
Some of the questions addressed in the book are:
Who should be involved in making decisions about an individual's body/healthcare?
What does it mean to be human?
Who gets to decide?
How can we be sure we have all the information to make a choice?
How can we trust the information we have? -
What will the future be like environmentally, politically, socially?
5. Given that you acknowledge that these are difficult subjects for you, too, did you find it a challenging novel to write? How do you also bring warmth and hope into the story?
There were times when it was difficult to write, yes. I was writing about things that cause me anxiety and there are no clear-cut answers. For example, thinking about the implications of cryogenics - if we do ever find a way to ‘'wake' people, it will probably be a long time in the future. Everyone you love and who loves you, could potentially be dead. Would this be the start of a new, exciting adventure? Or would it be a lonely existence in an alien world? Might it be better to have let go when the natural time came? I still don't know the answer to those questions.
How do I bring warmth and hope into the story? I think the simple answer is ‘love'. At its heart this is a story about love in all its forms - between siblings, friends, and found family. Romantic and obsessive love also feature. It's Calico's love for Asha that drives her. As the story progresses, this is complicated by the feelings she develops for the friends she makes in the facility.
6. Can you tell us about your main character, Calico, develop? Why did you decide to tell her story in the first person, and also through her sister's voice, Asha?
In the news story I mentioned above, I was struck by the fact that the teenager needed to go to court to make their voice heard. How unfair that was, but also how determined they must have been. This kind of determination is a big part of who Calico is, and she had that right from the start. Her identity is totally tied up with being Asha's carer and hope is her defining characteristic. As I wrote Calico, I thought of her as always moving forward, questioning, finding an alternative way when every door is closed.
I tend to write in first person present tense, because that's what I like reading - I like to feel I am living the story with the character rather than being told what happened by somebody else with hindsight. There are limitations to it, though. The reader can only know what the character knows, and even then, you can't be sure whether they're being honest with themselves!
At first, I was only telling the story from Calico's point of view, but I kept hearing someone else in my head. It was Asha, quite rightly reminding me that I was writing about how some people's voices go unheard, and here I was actually excluding hers. She needed to be in the story. Asha's chapters are tiny free verse poems, mostly in second person.
7. What challenges do the characters around Calico face in the facility in which they find themselves? What do each of this group of friends bring to the story?
Jem has to face his disbelief that his parents signed him up for cryogenics. Honestly, he'd rather be dead. He's deeply suspicious of everything about the facility and is in constant conflict with staff, particularly over the lack of consent around the tests. Some people think he's paranoid, but it might turn out that he's onto something. He's the first person Calico trusts.
Shimmy, a teen star, must face up to the fact that her family has left her here even though they could afford to buy her out. She can irritate the friends, particularly Jem, but brings fun and lightness to the group, although there's something darker under her perfect skin.
Veda faces up to the disability which was caused by the cryogenic process. She embraces being in the research programme, recording everything so she can use it to help others when she's released. She's factual and logical, and almost always has an opposing opinion to Jem. She died the most recently so brings a wealth of knowledge about the current state of the world.
Taylor is a mediator by nature and is usually trying to calm any conflict in the group. He brings balance and kindness.
8. Why did you decide to set Things I Learned While I Was Dead in a near-future world? How did the setting, a struggling, climate-challenged world, emerge?
I wanted it to be believable that Calico's mother might still be alive, so it couldn't be too far in the future. The setting came about very gradually - some aspects were down to practical plot reasons, like, if there were phones, Calico could just call someone to get her out of the facility. So, there had to be no technology. But then I had to work out why that was and the climate elements and biotechnology started to come into the story.
Calico 'died' the longest time ago (2025) and I had to work out the whole history of the world between now and when the story is set - everything from the specifics of the climate catastrophe, politics, tech, travel, wars, society, economics, the environment, religion, and AI.
9. Other than a gripping story, what sorts of questions do you hope your readers will come away with after reading Things I Learned While I Was Dead?
I hope readers will come away asking what we can do better as humans - in terms of the rights of individuals and in taking care of the planet.
10. This is your debut YA novel; are you writing another novel currently? Where and what do you enjoy doing in your downtime?
I am working on another YA novel. It's set in the near future in a world split into AI-governed zones and human-run communities, featuring extreme preppers and genetically modified teenagers!
In my downtime I love to read, walk, work out, and spend time with my family and two dogs - a grumpy old border terrier and a crazy cavapoo.
Things I Learned While I Was Dead: Discover the heart-wrenching YA sci-fi about sisterhood and the ethics of medical science
