Fairy tales + Group Therapy + The Bachelor = your next read.On this episode of Complicated Conversations, we are thrilled to be chatting with Maria Adelmann about her debut novel, How To Be Eaten. This darkly funny and provocative novel reimagines classic fairy tale characters as modern women in a support group for trauma. ** Maria talks about her development of these five complicated women and how the seeds from flash fiction and short stories lead to this novel. (03:06) ** Group therapy brings these women together— not just as a narrative device— but also as a way to explore how we consume womens' trauma in society. (06:26)** Maria shares why she wanted to explore the aftermath of trauma for women and the ways stories are received and retold. In society, we claim to give women voice while also commodifying their trauma. (09:03) ** We discuss the only man of the novel, the group leader Will, and what he represents in the novel and in the real world. (11:27)** Maria shares her love of travel, writing, and complicated crafts. (15:01)** We loved hearing about what Maria learned about herself and writing a novel when she was trapped in Denmark during the pandemic. (20:03)** We discuss astrology, the enneagram, Meyers-Briggs, and our love of all these different ways to understand people. (27:20)** Maria is loving tarot cards right now and explains how they appeal to the story teller in her. She may or may not also love The Bachelor (shhhh!). (32:27)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.