Interview with author Tatiana Schlote-Bonne
- Annalee Scott
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
"The Mean Ones" is a supernatural slasher horror that takes you through and beyond one final girl's bloody escape into the years after as she struggles with PTSD and the possibility that the horror she faced may not truly be over.
With alternating timelines the details of what really happened are tautly unraveled in an unflinching narrative that is disturbing and disgusting. I felt so much reading this book, cheering on our final girl, and then questioning myself for thinking "good for her."
Narrating this book was one of my favorite experiences and being able to get to know Tatiana and talk through the personal artifacts she wove into the story elevated my insight and made audiobook production a collaborative dream!
I had the chance to talk to Tatiana about the horror genre and her inspo behind the book:
It feels like horror is having a moment right now. Why do you think people are so hungry for this genre and what draws you to it personally?
Horror is my comfort genre and always has been, from Goosebumps to the first Resident Evil game to 2000s horror movies like Stay Alive and The Ring. The genre is nostalgic for me and has always been a source of escape. This genre also has the unique ability to hold up a mirror to the world and engage with current real-life horrors; some of my favorite examples of this are The Substance and Nothing Tastes as Good by Luke Dumas. I’m also drawn to horror for its range of possibilities (I’ve written social media horror, folk horror, fantasy horror, cave horror.) There’s no real formula to horror.
What inspired the Mean Ones? Was there anything unique about how/when the idea struck you?
The Mean Ones was primarily inspired by Midsommar, Yellowjackets, and The Ritual. I was thinking a lot about cult survivors and what life would be like many years after the fact. Plus, I’d always wanted to write about weightlifting and what strength training has done for me but had never found an interesting angle for it when writing about myself.
My ideas form slowly, with me thinking about different things that interest me and crumbs of stories and scenes I’ve collected over time. I knew I wanted to do something with the middle school/high school scenes I wrote for my memoir for my grad school thesis at Iowa. My early notes for The Mean Ones looked like: Midsommar + cult survivor + middle school trauma + powerlifting?
Did you have a favorite scene to write? Were there any that were challenging to get through?
One of my favorite scenes is when Allie and Blakely are murdered and we finally see how the night of the sacrifice went down. The ending is another favorite scene but it would be a spoiler to go into too much detail!
You built such a horrifying visual landscape in The Mean Ones. Where did you come up with these images? Did you ever scare yourself?
I was thinking a lot about Silent Hill when I was writing. I love decaying visuals and the banal becoming horrifying (like the shower walls early on in the book.) The only time I’ve scared myself while writing was the claustrophobic caving scenes in What Feeds Below. Like Sadie in The Mean Ones, I’m afraid of somehow ending up trapped in a tunnel in a cave.
Why did you want to set Sabrina’s origin story in the early 2000’s?
When I was in the Nonfiction Writing Program at Iowa, I wrote several personal essays and a whole memoir with the bulk of it taking place in the early 2000s, and I wanted to do something with all those middle school / high school anecdotes. The early 2000s also had a unique brand of bullying around body shaming and thinness that shaped my own insecurities and relationship with my body that I didn’t really break out of until I started weightlifting. Since Sadie’s my age during the years the book takes place, it felt natural to make her character’s childhood similar to my own.
Not every book has to have a message but was there anything you were hoping to leave readers feeling or thinking about?
“Good for her.”
I’m also hoping readers take away something about the power of saying no. The story was cathartic for me to write and I hope it feels cathartic to read.
You have a new book coming out this year and I can’t wait to read it! Without spoiling anything can you reveal one favorite element from What Feeds Below?
Definitely the world building and how much fun I had with all the creepy creatures
and plants!
What Feeds Below has a 4.6 rating on Goodreads with over 500 reviews and a starred Kirkus review. It will be releasing October 6, 2026.
About Tatiana Schlote-Bonne:
Tatiana is the author of the horror novels Such Lovely Skin, The Mean Ones, and What Feeds Below (Fall 2026.) She has an MFA from The Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa. When she’s not writing, she’s either gaming, lifting weights, or teaching people how to lift weights. She is of Japanese, Mexican, and European descent, and lives in Iowa.
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