Charlotte Nicole Davis dives into the politics behind The Good Luck Girls
Author Charlotte Nicole Davis shares the inspiration behind The Good Luck Girls, along with what she hopes readers take away from it.
This October has been packed with exciting young adult book releases, and if Charlotte Nicole Davis’ The Good Luck Girls isn’t on your radar yet, it’s probably time to change that. A novel that turns many of the traditional tropes of Western stories on their heads, The Good Luck Girls is set in a country called Arketta — where people are often tricked into believing they can achieve better lives, only to find themselves trapped in the ones they move on to.
The story follows a group of women who are sold to a “welcome house” in Arketta, only to discover that they’re now trapped in their new lives — and that those lives aren’t what they’d consider better or lucky. But after one of the girls murders a man, the group is forced to flee and try their luck as outlaws instead. And that brings plenty of dangers with it as well.
The Good Luck Girls is a harrowing tale, with an atmosphere that’s been likened to stories like The Handmaid’s Tale and Westworld. But author Charlotte Nicole Davis actually drew inspiration from real-world events when crafting the novel. Here’s what Davis had to say about building this world, as well as what she hoped to accomplish with it.
Culturess: In your own words, can you tell us a little about The Good Luck Girls?
Charlotte Nicole Davis: I like to think of The Good Luck Girls as a Western for people who don’t usually get to see themselves in Westerns. In reality, the Old West was much queerer, browner, and more female than most of the old movies would have us believe, and I wanted the book to reflect that. So on the one hand, I wanted to explore all my favorite old tropes with this new cast full of brown girls, but I also wanted to unpack some of those tropes–this is a Western where the “fallen women” and the political dissidents and escaped convicts are the good guys, and the wealth they steal is only what was owed to them all along.
Culturess: Where did you draw inspiration for the dystopian story and world you built? What societal issues will they address, and why do you feel it’s so important to focus on those?
Davis: Arketta is inspired pretty directly by the United States in the late nineteenth century. Chattel slavery had been replaced by sharecropping, which saw thousands of Black Americans re-enslaved by a cycle of debt, and convict leasing, which saw saw thousands of Black Americans re-enslaved as prison labor. We see the same patterns of oppression operating today, used to exploit poor people of color and especially poor women of color. So I don’t tend to think of The Good Luck Girls as a dystopia because, in my mind, a dystopia is a story that’s looking to the future, while this is a story that’s looking at the past. The present-day already IS the dystopia — so how did we get here?
Culturess: Tell us about Clementine’s character and the struggles she’ll face in the novel.
Davis: Clementine is sort of the optimist and idealist of the group, which puts her in direct opposition to Aster, who guards her heart closely. And there’s good reason for that—Aster and Violet, as the only two “sundown girls” in the group, have experienced a level of trauma that the other girls haven’t.So Clementine’s always had Aster looking out for her,trying to protect her from the same fate, and that’s part of the reason she’s able to kill the brag when the time comes.But Clementine’s hopefulness is going to be tested once they’re on the run. She’s not at all prepared for the dangers waiting for them outside the welcome house.
Culturess: What was your writing process like when piecing this story together?
Davis: Well, like I said before, I wanted to hit as many of my favorite Western tropes as possible. Highway robbery, bank robbery, train robbery, etc. So whenever I was stuck, I would just ask myself, what would be the most fun thing that could happen right now? And I’d go from there.
Culturess: What are you most excited to share with the world in your debut? And what are you most nervous about?
Davis: I had a ton of fun building this world and these characters, so I just hope readers enjoy them as much as I do! And I hope I did justice to the history that inspired them–I was always aware, while writing this story, that I’m descended from enslaved Black women who survived the kind of horrors my characters are running away from. So I wanted this to be a story about strength and courage in the face of evil and about triumphing against all odds.
Culturess: Is The Good Luck Girls a stand-alone, or do you think there will be more stories to tell in this world?
Davis: Book 2 is already in the works!
Culturess: Will you be going on tour or attending any events to promote the book’s release?
Davis: Yes, I’m super excited to be going on a national tour and attending events like New York Comic-Con, the Boston Book Festival, and the Texas Book Festival. You can find my full events schedule on my author website: charlottenicoledavis.com
Next. L.X. Beckett talks world building for Gamechanger. dark