Music

Toronto author wrote a fanfic book about dating Kurt Cobain's ghost

by Mark Teo

In the publishing industry, fan fiction has risen from the fringes of the Internet to become a massive industry. The most notable example, of course, is 50 Shades of Grey, which began as Twilight fanfic before exploding into a massively successful book (and a far less-successful movie). Indeed, the genre is no longer a literary taboo: Twilight alone has spawned The Beautiful Bastard and Gabriel collections, prompting the Daily Beast—among others—to call it “the future of publishing.”

But amidst the reams of fanfic about Harry Potter, Twilight, and David Usher (probably), the genre is twisting in new directions—and one title that’s caught our eye is Lynn Crosbie’s Where Did You Sleep Last Night. Currently an instructor at the University of Toronto and the AGO, Crosbie’s the writer behind the controversial’s Paul’s Case—which used serial killer Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka as its focus—along with countless other books. And her newest subject? You guessed it: Kurt Cobain.

In an interview with Noisey, Crosbie details Where Did You Sleep Last Night: It began as a YA novel, was morphed by Hole’s “Malibu,” and emerged something different entirely. Following the story of Evelyn Grey, the book details the story of a heroin-addicted high-school student who ends up dating Cobain’s beautiful reincarnation.

To us, it’s a fascinating concept: Without having read the book, it seems like a wonderful way to explore Cobain’s legacy—and the fact that Nirvana’s remained evergreen with teenage audiences. And the concept, it seems, isn’t completely stripped of its young-adult tendencies. Here’s how its described, via on House of Anansi, who is publishing the book.

Evelyn Gray is a sad and lonely sixteen-year-old from Carnation, Washington who is terrorized by her classmates at school. She spends most of her time in her room reading, writing letters to dead people, listening to old records and talking to the poster of Kurt Cobain above her bed.

Her mother is an alcoholic grunge relic from Seattle, whose recollections, books and music help ignite Evelyn’s love for Cobain—a love so painfully strong that it summons the deceased singer to her side.

When Evelyn is taken to the hospital after an overdose, she awakens to find Cobain—who has little to no memory of his former life—convalescing in the bed beside her.

Once united, they quickly become addicted to drugs and each other.

Crosbie, for her part, explained to Noisey why Cobain—and other musicians who die young—have such an adoring, obsessive fanbase: Musicians like Cobain, who died at 27, will be remembered at the peak of his beauty.

And as such, makes for the perfect subject for fanfic. “Even just the destruction of his beauty, and you pile onto that the destruction of his art and then all the art that could’ve come, and then the tragedy as the years go by of Courtney left alone, and his child especially left alone,” she told Noisey.

Here’s the book’s full cover.

Colour us intrigued. Where Did You Sleep Last Night will be released on May 4 via House of Anansi Press. Check the teaser video for the book below.