The idea to set the story in the region, at first, came from her publisher at Héritage jeunesse – the publishing house that took over the popular horror series in Quebec. But Francesca Tremblay didn’t need to be asked twice, as she says she has Saguenay “tattooed on her heart.”
In fact, the Charlevoix native lived in this region for 20 years. Just long enough to self-publish her first novels and immerse herself in the trails that would ultimately become the setting for her latest: The Bloody Shelter.
“I chose The Bay because it’s such a bucolic place, and I needed a special decor. I also wanted to go for darker, more Halloween-like hues,” the author immediately confides, a smile in her voice.
She couldn’t have said it better, as her bloody-leaning tale unfolds against a backdrop of missing hikers, cannibalism and obscure legends.
That of the Wendigo, especially, a terrifying creature that young Jacob and Geneviève are becoming increasingly interested in at La Baie, as their prom approaches, and as part of their end-of-year project. Their curiosity even becomes fascination, through macabre discoveries and troubling clues found along the way. Somewhere between the former Consol site, Anse-à-Benjamin and the Eucher trail, which Francesca Tremblay knows like the back of her hand, in real life.
Because as a seasoned hiker, she has walked it many times. Often in the fall, when the dense vegetation creates large areas of shade, she says, and the remains of the Barkers take on an almost cinematic air.
This was a perfect starting point. Because to write horror, you have to “go into your own fears,” notes the author, who let herself be carried away by this feeling that sometimes appears when you find yourself alone in the forest… and by many other things.
In The Bloody ShelterFrancesca Tremblay also touches on mental health, the supernatural, and even family issues. “Sometimes, there are secrets that come to the surface, which explain a little why we act in a certain way. Like a family constellation, a cellular heritage, which in the book means that Jacob has problems inherited from his uncle, from his father.”
Speaking of family, Francesca Tremblay was also inspired by the story of her own grandfather, who refused to go to the front during the Second World War. Like other deserters from Saguenay who hid in L’Anse-à-Poulette, according to rumour.
“I was told that there were people who had already hidden there, at least that’s what they said. […] “My grandfather left before going to war on the other continent. He and another friend had no news of their friend there, and they said to themselves that they were not getting involved in that,” says the woman who was a military police officer in the past and who now works as a para-legal technician.
This is in parallel with writing and illustration. Two passions that she developed at a very young age. Particularly with the Frissons series.
“My big sister often ordered them when I was 10 or 11. I read them too, or sometimes the covers inspired me. I drew the characters, I wrote my own stories. It was like a dream for me to one day write a Frissons. When Héritage jeunesse took over the collection – with Sang pour sang Québécois – and they told me about this project, I got on board right away.”
And while we were at it, Francesca Tremblay wanted to offer a literary scare that would live up to those that punctuated her youth. “I really wanted to do something thrilling, to create the impression that I had when I read them.”
The many responses received in recent months, from young and old, and the recent reprinting of the book, tend to show that she was right on target. “I even had a voice from a child, through his mother, who said to me in her little voice: “Is Jacob going to come back in a future book”, shares the author, visibly very touched by this kind of testimony.
To answer the reader in question, it is not impossible that the protagonist of the novel The Bloody Shelter will return in a second volume, “if the inspiration is there.” But before that, Francesca Tremblay is working on other literary projects; another youth horror novel, and a “Fantasy for adults” that will feature two homosexual heroines, at Béliveau Éditeur.
“This is a really important project for me. Because it’s not easy to bring such stories to the market, and there is an audience for it.”
