Interview with Pamela N. Harris, Author of Through Our Teeth

Welcome to YAOTL, Pamela! Please tell us about Through Our Teeth.

Thanks so much for having me! Through Our Teeth is about three former friends who suspect their mutual best friend was murdered by her boyfriend. However, as they seek revenge, they slowly start to realize that they all have a complicated history with the dead girl—and they each have secrets they want to keep.

I was so intrigued by your decision to open the story on Halloween. Can you talk a bit about opening with a mask metaphor?

Sure! I’m the mother of two autistic children and am also going through my own journey of diagnosis. I’ve been learning a lot about the term “masking” as it applies to the autism community, which is this idea that autistic individuals sometimes consciously or unconsciously hide some of their traits or behaviors to fit into societal norms. It becomes mentally and emotionally exhausting—and I still sometimes do that as a Black woman to be accepted into certain spaces to prove that I belong there. None of us should have to do this, yet we often do. Especially in high school when the opinions of our peers mean so much.

Do you find the thriller to be a good vehicle for the exploration of larger themes, especially in YA?

Absolutely! I never like preaching to my readers. I learned that as a school counselor working with children and teens. If I talked at them instead of talking to them, then I lose the connection. There’s a lot going on in our society that young readers should be aware of to form their own opinions. If I can integrate some of these critical issues into a page-turner, then I feel like I’ve done my job. It’s kind of like how I hide vegetables in my children’s food!

Hope is dead, but still central to the story. What difficulties did that present in drafting the story?

I felt like I had to know who Hope was to really capture what her death meant to everyone else. Why were others willing to risk their freedom just to avenge her? This is where my editor, Karen Chaplin, became critical in the writing process. She asked the necessary questions for me to make Hope a fully fleshed out character, even though she wasn’t in the present-day story line. I ended up writing flashback scenes that didn’t end up in the final draft but were necessary for me to learn more about Hope and, thus, her effect on the main characters. 

Hope's concerns about Brendan weren’t taken seriously by the community. But this storyline actually highlights broader issues of Black women's voices being dismissed or disbelieved, doesn’t it?

Yes! You hit the heart of this story! I was inspired by seeing how society reacted to Black women telling their truths. The seed of it began while I was working as a school counselor and I saw how negatively my students treated Rihanna after details came to light about Chris Brown’s assault on her. My students, especially my female-identifying students, actually stood up for Chris Brown simply because they thought he was talented and cute. As the years went by, I continued to notice this pattern: from making fun of Megan Thee Stallion getting shot in the foot to hating on Meghan Markle for just about everything. Females, and Black females in particular, often get villainized instead of receiving empathy. I wanted to shed light on that, but in a twisty turny package.

What’s next?

Ha ha, great question! Through Our Teeth is one of the “scariest” stories I’ve written, so I think I want to lean more into the horror genre. I have a few ideas I’ve been toying with that I’m excited to share with my agent and editor. I’ve also been reading a lot of romance lately, so it’s on my writer’s bucket list to write an adult rom com, or maybe even a cozy mystery with romance elements. We shall see!

Where can we find you?

My website is www.pamharriswrites.com. My handle on both IG and Threads is also @pamharriswrites. I promise I’m trying to get better at posting!

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