Video transcript
NSW Premier's Reading Challenge 2025 - SWF author interview (secondary) - 04. Neal Shusterman

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BHAVYA: Hi! My name is Bhavya, and I'm a student from Glenwood High School in western Sydney. I'm here today on Cammeraygal land at The Concourse in Chatswood for the Sydney Writers' Festival Secondary Schools Day. I'm very excited to be interviewing Neal Shusterman for the Premier's Reading Challenge. Hi, Mr Shusterman, how are you today?

NEAL SHUSTERMAN: I'm doing very well. Happy to be here in Sydney.

BHAVYA: Yeah. I have enjoyed reading your stories as part of the Premier's Reading Challenge and have a few questions that I would like to ask you about your stories and about your inspirations and processes.

NEAL SHUSTERMAN: Of course.

BHAVYA: I'm going to start off with the hardest question I can possibly think of. What is your favourite book you have written so far and what makes it so special to you?

NEAL SHUSTERMAN: It's very difficult to pick a favourite book. They're all favourites in different ways. 'Scythe' is a favourite because that one, I think, I did the best world building. I'm really proud of the world building that I did in that. But then 'Courage to Dream', those are stories about the Holocaust, so it's very meaningful to me.

And then 'Challenger Deep', that's a personal story. I guess it's inspired by my son's experiences with mental illness. So it's very close to me. But then 'All Better Now', I think, is the best written. It's my latest one. I always think that my most recent book is my best. I like to think that I'm getting better with each book.

BHAVYA: That's really nice. What type of stories did you read when you were younger? Perhaps there's an author whose books you still like to read, or who still resonates with you in some way.

NEAL SHUSTERMAN: I liked to read stories that bent reality in one way or another, whether you call that science fiction or fantasy, from 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', when I was very little, to 'Lord of the Rings' when I was in middle school, to 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' when I was in high school. And if you notice, those are all different styles. I mean, I tend to be very eclectic in the things that I read. I like to read lots of different styles, lots of different types of things.

BHAVYA: That's great. That's amazing. What do you think when you read books as a writer? Do you find yourself immersed in the story, or does your writer's head try to improve the author's storytelling?

NEAL SHUSTERMAN: That's a very good question. Thanks for asking. I think that I tend to be a writer when I read. And so I have very, very little patience for bad writing. But when I find a book that I really like, I mean, I love it. The books that I like the most are the ones that make me say, wow, I wish I could have thought of that.

BHAVYA: The series that most students would know you for, at least in my school, is the 'Arc of a Scythe' series, where all causes of death have been cured, except for deaths at the hands of the Scythedom. What made you decide to write this series?

NEAL SHUSTERMAN: I wanted to do the opposite of a dystopian story. Dystopian story is about the consequences of the world gone wrong, all of these terrible things happening, and then where we end up. I was tired of seeing that, because we've seen it so many times. So I wanted to see what would happen when the world goes right. What are the consequences of getting the things that we want?

We want a world without war. We want a world without disease. We want a world where everybody is fed, where there's no poverty. We want a world where we've conquered all of the illnesses that plague us. And in looking at all of-- of getting all of these things, when we achieve all of these things, one of the consequences is that people will live longer, and eventually people will live forever, because we're nearing the point at which we are about to conquer mortality.

What does that world look like? People will still need to die. If nature is no longer taking care of it, what is the least dystopian way of regulating the population in a world where we have everything that we want? And I realised that the least dystopian way would be kind of like if the Jedi did it, the Jedi of death. And so that sort of became 'Scythe'.

BHAVYA: That's great. That's really interesting. You're well known for writing science fiction and dystopian titles. Your first series, 'Unwind', is about a world gone mad about reproductive rights. And your latest book, 'All Better Now', is about a virus that causes happiness, and the power structures develop a vaccine to it so they can sell us things through fear. So can I ask, what is it that draws you to writing science fiction and dystopian stories?

NEAL SHUSTERMAN: I think I'm drawn to stories that pose questions. And I like posing difficult questions. And I don't like giving the answer, because I think the only questions worth asking don't have easy answers. So I try to explore the question from all different points of view. For instance, 'All Better Now' poses the question of, do we want to be happy all the time? And what does that world look like?

And I don't give the answer yes. I don't give the answer no, or even maybe. But those are the 3 points of view that I try to explore-- someone who thinks that it's a good idea to spread this virus of joy so that everyone is happy, someone who wants to prevent that from happening because they want to hold onto negativity in the world, and someone who sees that this could be positive but is it worth what we're losing? So-- and I don't pose the solution. I leave that to readers.

BHAVYA: How did you feel when your books became famous? Did it make it easier or more difficult for you to follow up on your successes?

NEAL SHUSTERMAN: When the books become very successful, there's always a lot to live up to. I remember when I was working on 'The Toll', 'Scythe' and the 'Thunderhead' were so wildly successful, and now I have to complete the series. That book took a really long time to write because I wasn't willing to let it go until I felt it was the best of the 3. And I was pretty happy with it.

Now I have to live up to that whole series, because now I'm writing a prequel for 'Scythe'. And that's really hard, because I want to make sure that readers and fans of those books will like the prequel as well.

BHAVYA: In the many books that you've written, are there any books that you plan on making a series about or a film series?

NEAL SHUSTERMAN: Actually, yes. 'Scythe' is currently in development as a TV series.

BHAVYA: Oh, that's amazing.

NEAL SHUSTERMAN: And so I'm very, very excited about it. The pilot episode is being written now. And if that goes well, then they'll hire writers, including me. I'll be involved in writing the entire first season, and then they'll film it. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed. It's very exciting.

BHAVYA: Yeah, I'm keeping my fingers crossed now, because that's really interesting. Who were your earliest inspirations to start writing? Have your inspirations changed since that time?

NEAL SHUSTERMAN: It was the authors that I was reading when I was growing up, and also my teachers. I mean, I had great teachers that encouraged me. I had one English teacher. She challenged me to write a story a month for extra credit that entire school year. And by the time I finished that year, I just felt like a writer. And I haven't stopped writing ever since.

BHAVYA: Wow. That's amazing. You mentioned that you were writing a prequel to the 'Scythe' series. Do you want to expand on that?

NEAL SHUSTERMAN: Sure. At this point, for the longest time I was just calling it the 'Scythe' prequel because I didn't know what the title was going to be. But now I think I'm kind of settling on 'Rising Thunder', because it has to do with the Thunderhead and the original 12 Scythes.

One of the things that I was thinking about was that in the world of 'Scythe', there's only one AI. There's the Thunderhead. Whatever happened to Siri and Alexa and ChatGPT and all the other AIs that are around? And I realised that the Thunderhead had to have eaten them all.

BHAVYA: Yeah.

NEAL SHUSTERMAN: And so I wanted to see how the Thunderhead decided that everything else other than itself was malware and had to destroy it to save the world.

BHAVYA: Yeah, especially since the rise of AI is all--

NEAL SHUSTERMAN: In current day, I think it's very relevant.

BHAVYA: Yeah. Which of your books would you recommend to an audience reading your books for the first time?

NEAL SHUSTERMAN: For first time readers, I would suggest 'Scythe' or 'Unwind'. Those are books that I've heard from a lot of people that people who don't like reading, or people who have trouble finishing a book will read those books, and then they'll want the next one.

BHAVYA: Yeah, they're really interesting. I've read the 'Scythe' series as well. Thank you so much for letting me interview you today. And it's been amazing talking with you. I hope everyone watching out there today enjoys reading your incredible novels as much as I did while they work to complete the Premier's Reading Challenge.

NEAL SHUSTERMAN: Thank you very much.