Author Interview: A Catalog of Burnt Objects by Shana Youngdahl
Today we are sharing with you an Author Interview with Shana Youngdahl, about her upcoming new release, A Catalog of Burnt Objects, which is a timely look into how an already troubled family struggles to recover from a small town fire in California, based on the author’s own experiences with the 2018 Camp Fire. A Catalog of Burnt Objects is releasing on March 18th!
A Catalog of Burnt Objects
by Shana YoungdahlPublished by: Dial Books for Young Readers
on March 18, 2025
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
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The powerful story of a girl struggling to figure out her estranged brother, a new love, and her own life just as wildfires beset her small California town—perfect for fans of Nina LaCour and Kathleen Glasgow
Seventeen-year-old Caprice wants to piece her family back together now that her older brother has returned home, even as she resents that he ever broke them apart. Just as she starts to get a new footing—falling in love for the first time, uncertainly mending her traumatized relationship with her brother, completing the app that will win her a college scholarship and a job in tech—wildfires strike Sierra, her small California town, forcing her to reckon with a future that is impossible to predict.
A love story of many kinds, and a reflection of the terrifying, heartbreaking Camp Fire that destroyed Paradise, California, where the author grew up, this is a tale that looks at what is lost and discovers what remains, and how a family can be nearly destroyed again and again, and still survive.
Author Interview
1. Wildfires, as a real and metaphorical force, play a significant role in the book.
How did you use the wildfires to symbolize larger themes in the story, such as
destruction, rebirth, or the fragility of life?
The inciting incident of the book is Caprice’s brother Beckett returning home from rehab.
Beckett is a character who has seen lots of metaphorical fires in his struggle with
addiction, and Caprice tends to view him at the start of the book as unpredictable at
best and destructive at worst. In many ways Beckett and Caprice’s relationship the
heart of this book, and as Caprice comes to understand her own destructive nature, she
also learns how to transform her constructive nature into something meaningful for
herself and her community. Or to put it another way, her brother has been through fire
and so he is proof that she can go through it to and come out all right.
In terms of the story, it was really important to me that the fire was caused by outside
forces and that it happens in the midst of my character’s already complex lives. In this
way the fire is not just something we cause, or that any one individual is at fault for, but
rather something we are all fighting. Something that necessitates a community to face
together.
2. The book portrays how a family can be torn apart and come back together. Was
there a particular message you wanted to convey about the resilience of families
in the face of adversity?
I was mostly interested in the resilience of community in the face of adversity. And since
families are often the first circle of our community, and often the most complex
relationships in our lives, it made sense to put my focus there.
Family relationships for teenagers are rarely perfect before disaster strikes, but
supportive families and friendships can rely on how they have endured challenges in the
past, and build from what they have gone through before to seek a path foreward.
I also wanted to highlight the reality that in a community like Sierra when catastrophic
wildfire hits it can mean that a person’s entire network has lost everything, that can be
hard for people to understand this when they are just seeing the clips on the news. It’s
not just someone’s house that’s gone, it’s their house, and their aunt’s house, and their
grandparent’s house. It’s their school, their family business, their favorite restaurant.
Caprice’s family as the center of the story allowed me to highlight that reality.
3. Are there any themes or characters from this novel that you would like to revisit
in future work, or is this a story that feels complete to you?
The story feels complete, but if it were possible I would love to revisit Beckett someday.
Maybe his high school story? Hmm. . .you’ve got me thinking!
About Shana Youngdahl
Shana Youngdahl is a poet and author who teaches writing at Lindenwood University. One of her greatest joys is helping people embrace the stories they need to tell. She is the author of the acclaimed novel, As Many Nows as I Can Get. Shana lives with her husband, two daughters, and two cats in Missouri.
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