Night of the Party: Writing Behind The Scenes

Posted on 31 August 2018

‘I wrote a novel of political speculation: a dark fantasy that did, of course, abut reality at certain points especially when it came to imagining life in one of the Party’s deportation centres.’ Tracey Mathias

Night of the Party, the YA debut of Tracey Mathias, is an eerie timely YA thriller. A love story intertwined with the turbulent events in modern politics. So what happens when a world of love is overshadowed by that of twisted politics? Where would a story like this even begin?

With love, of course.

When asked about the inspiration behind Night of the Party Mathias said:

‘One evening I wrote a scene in which Zara reveals to Ash that she not only knew Sophie but was there when Sophie died. I felt completely hooked by that moment, and that conundrum: what would lead you to conceal something so important from the person whom you loved and who most needed and deserved to know it?’ Tracey Mathias

A question of trust, love and loyalty. An explanation of why the truth is so often hidden. The speculation about a political regime whose key policy was the definition of certain people as illegal. A controversial plot, born from a timely matter of “what if”.

This is a novel of love and grief, of shared humanity, of the deep universal things that connect us across all borders. Tracey Mathias shared with us the quote that kept returning to her at every turn of the page: “We have more in common than that which divides us.”

Love is a universal power that we all possess and utilise in our daily lives. A small gesture of love in the form of kindness, or a smile, makes the difference in a world overshadowed by so much darkness. Mathias beautifully aligns two “parties”: one, the teenage birthday party where Ash’s younger sister Sophie died a year and a half ago; the other, the hard right, nationalist party that now governs Britain. The success of this dark fantasy lies in the twisted branches of love and politics.

One important thing to keep in mind is that the first draft of Night of the Party was written in 2015! Long before the political present. Mathias herself felt as if the novel were touching reality at more and more points. We have become witness to the ways in which fiction crosses over into reality and draws our attention to the barriers we are currently facing.

So, we urge you to read this book and find the traces of love, and kindness, that you can emulate in your life and connect with people beyond across all borders of reality


Find out more about Night of the Partyhere. Follow Tracey Mathias on Twitter here.