Mattea Kramer joins the Spotlight this week to chat about her thriller, The Untended

Author Name: Mattea Kramer

Book Title: The Untended

Book Genre: Thriller

Release Date: May 6, 2025

Publisher: She Writes Press

Welcome, Mattea! How would you describe The Untended?

The Untended puts Katniss Everdeen into Euphoria.

What sparked the idea for this book?

My hometown – Greenfield, Massachusetts – was hit hard by the opioid crisis, and in 2017, the town signed on to a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical companies. I was inspired by my tiny town being a part of an action against these huge companies and I started following the subject as a journalist. The early drafts of The Untended included a subplot about the lawsuit, although that soon got cut – because the beating heart of the story is the main character, Casch, and her love interest, Topher.

How long did it take for you to write the book? Did you do any research?

I did quite a bit of research. In a sense, I tested the idea for The Untended by first writing nonfiction about what was happening in Greenfield, which led me to interview incarcerated women at the county jail – and eventually I also facilitated some classes at that jail as well. Many, if not all, of the women I met had been addicted to opioids, and their addiction was inseparable from what was later regarded as their criminality. After that early research, I started writing the book in 2018.

What drew you to writing gritty, contemporary fiction?

Once I knew I wanted to tell this story, gritty was the only way it could be.

What about the publishing process has been the most surprising to you so far?

One thing that’s been a cool surprise is how much it seems like reviewers really got what I was trying to do. The very first review that came out both honored the characters as their own resilient selves, and also saw them as part of a community. Each review has focused on a different aspect of the book, and it’s been gratifying to observe all the different ways that people are connecting to the subject matter.

What do you hope readers will take away from this story?

There’s a moment that comes late in The Untended where one of the characters realizes that it is sometimes possible to save a person’s life by telling them you care about them. If readers forget everything else about this book, I hope they remember that part – which isn’t fiction. We really do save each other by expressing love and care.

Any words of wisdom you give your pre-published writer self (or to a new writer)?

To any new writer, or to myself back at the beginning of this project, I would say: “You’re doing it right. Keep going.”

Thank you, Mattea! The Untended releases on May 6 and is available for preorder.

The Untended

For fans of Rachel Kushner and Gillian Flynn, a gritty contemporary debut novel that puts Katniss Everdeen into Euphoria.

Casch Abbey is a waitress, single mom, and recreational boxer who falls in love twice: first with a veteran who secretly grows pot on a rich man’s land in Vermont’s Green Mountains, and then with a painkiller that eases her long-buried pain.

After her foot is crushed under the wheel of a station wagon, Casch loses her waitressing gig and goes broke—and the meds for her foot are her only source of relief. But when the drug is recalled due to outcries of widespread addiction, Casch’s dependence imperils her already tenuous life, as cravings lead her into her small town’s simmering netherworld.

Intimate and exhilarating, The Untended will upend your every assumption about who is a hero and who is worthy of love.