LISTEN: Irish author Louise O’Neill on fame, fiction and the cost of being watched

Louise O’Neill’s latest novel, "Whatever Happened to Madeline Stone", begins with a prophecy: one twin sister will become the most famous woman of her generation, while the other will die before her 30th birthday.

Speaking on "Natter with Kate and Michelle", the Cork author explained how that chilling premise became a story about sisterhood, celebrity culture, and the brutal scrutiny women face in public.

Set against the Y2K era of gossip blogs, teen dramas, and paparazzi cruelty, the novel follows twin sisters Chelsea and Madeline Stone. Their mother, Erin, moves them to Los Angeles after a psychic’s prediction, pushing them towards fame. Chelsea lands the life-changing role every young actress wants, while Madeline disappears in her early 20s.

Twenty years later, a storage unit containing Madeline’s belongings is discovered, forcing Chelsea to question whether she ever truly knew her sister.

O’Neill revealed that part of the inspiration came from the real-life Paris Hilton storage unit scandal, when private belongings, including medical records and diaries, were exposed online.

That image of a woman’s private life being turned into public entertainment sits at the heart of the book.

Chelsea and Madeline represent “two sides of one coin”, O’Neill explained. Chelsea is compliant, ambitious, and rewarded by the system, while Madeline refuses to play along and is punished for it.

The novel looks back at an era when young, famous women such as Britney Spears, Mischa Barton, Lindsay Lohan, and the Olsen twins were endlessly picked apart. O’Neill described the media treatment of women then as a kind of warning: “If you don’t operate within the system, we will destroy you.”

For the author, the danger was not only to the women at the center of the stories, but to every young woman watching.

Social media, a recurring thread in her work, also came under discussion with O’Neill admitting that while she once took a more nuanced view, seeing its value for social justice and artists, she now feels the harm has begun to outweigh the good.

“Our attention spans are broken,” she said, adding that she spends far less time online now to protect her “brain and peace”.

The conversation also turned to the pressures of publicity, and O’Neill spoke candidly about the strange contradiction of being a writer who craved readers but found the public-facing part of publishing exhausting.

“Being a writer, it's such a quiet, solitary life. You spend a lot of time by yourself, and then all of a sudden you're, you know, in front of an audience, and you're trying to sell yourself, and you're trying to sell the book. And I think for a long time, I sort of confused it because I thought I was good at it. I assumed that meant I enjoyed it. And then as I got a little bit older and a bit more in tune with what was going on in my body, I was like, no, it actually takes quite a lot from me, and I have to kind of mind myself.”

She acknowledged the privilege of being invited to speak about her work, but said the visibility can still be draining, especially for women writers, who are often judged as much on appearance and charm as on their books.

O’Neill has also been working on her memoir, A Bigger Life, due out in September. Writing nonfiction, she said, was one of the most challenging creative experiences she has had.

“I feel like I sort of took everything and really left it on the page. And I think it’s a really special book, and I’ve never said that about any of my books. This is different, but I think writing nonfiction is not for the faint of heart…it’s actually very exposing, I suppose, in a way that fiction isn’t because you can hide behind fiction a lot.”

Despite the darkness often explored in her novels — gendered violence, shame, power, body image, and social pressure — O’Neill ended the interview on a note of hope.

Asked whether life is easier now for young women than when she published Only Ever Yours over a decade ago, she said the answer was complicated. Some things had improved, particularly in how openly misogynistic media coverage was challenged. But she also saw worrying echoes of the early 2000s returning, including extreme thinness, Y2K nostalgia, and a backlash after the MeToo era.

“It's sort of like the more things change, the more they stay the same. But I also do believe that we have to stay hopeful and keep believing that things can get better for generations of women to come, because I think if you don't hold on to that hope and that belief, then apathy can really set in. Then it just begins to feel really hopeless, and what’s the point of even trying? So I think it's really holding onto that hope that things can get better for, for women, for all women."

Louise was speaking to writer friends Kate Durrant and Michelle McDonagh on the books podcast Natter with Kate and Michelle, produced in association with Bookstation, Ireland’s fastest growing and best value bookseller, and Irish Central, your daily source for all things Irish.

You can buy Louise’s new book, "Whatever Happened to Madeline Stone?" at Bookstation here.

Listen to Louise’s interview on Natter with Kate and Michelle now on Acast or on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. Make sure to follow us on instagram @natterwithkateandmichelle or Facebook.