Steph Cha's Beware, Beware (2014)

In the second episode of season 3, Mal will be taking a look at 'Beware, Beware' by Steph Cha. This is the second book in the Juniper Song novel trilogy.

This was an interesting one for me, since I'd never heard of Steph Cha or the Juniper Song series before. This isn't necessarily weird, there are plenty of novel series out in the world I'm unaware of, but the Juniper Song trilogy is a feminist 21st Century Korean American take on Raymond Chandler and noir(ish) 'private eye' novels. As a fan, but not an afficionado, of Chandler this definitely got my attention!

In this episode we'll be taking a long look at Juniper Song and how, as an 'out of order' reader, her motivation and feelings may throw up more questions than answers. We'll take a look at how she might reflect standard feelings of despair, at least 'standard' in noir detective fiction. In addition, we'll ask whether this novel can standalone or should you start with the first novel in the trilogy in order to know what is going on?

Content Warning: Mention, but no description, of rape and sexual assault.

Email: outoforderbookclub@outlook.com

Useful Links and Helpful sources

Steph Cha's website: You can find all her novels here, plus the list of awards and nominations Cha received for her fourth novel 'Your House Will Pay'.

Michael Caleb Tucker's article: This is called 'Despair and the Noir Character' and can be found in Clues - A Journal of Dectection (Volume 42/Number 1). It was published in 2024. I can't say I understood all of it, I'm no philosopher, but the links to Juniper Song as a 'private eye' were striking.

The Writing Disorder Interview with Steph Cha: This interview is from 2013 when 'Follow Her Home', the first novel in the Juniper Song trilogy, was published. It is quite a wide ranging and light-hearted interview which takes in Cha's motivation for writing the novel and her background as well.

The Outliers Writing University Interview with Steph Cha: This is a 20 minute interview where Cha talks about where she is now in her writing as she spent the last few years working on the TV series 'Butterfly' and her role as series editor of 'The Best American Mystery and Suspense'. This was the most recent interviews with Cha I listened to, so it was useful for finding out what she has been doing since her last novel which was published in 2019.

The Wendy Kendall Interview with Steph Cha: This interiew is about 8 years old and Cha talks about her writing process and in more detail about her motivations about writing the Juniper Song series and updating Chandler. This is a source I dipped in and out of, I didn't know about this YouTube Channel and I'll definitely be revisiting it.

The Young Lions Award Interview with Steph Cha: This interview happened in 2020 and is part of a series of interviews for the Young Lions Award. Cha talks in detail about her ideas and the process behind her 2019 novel, 'Your House Will Pay'. I think one of the reasons I enjoyed this because it was a flashback to 2020 and watching so many interviews conducted online!

The LitHub Article by Steph Cha: In this article from 2021, Cha writes about the importance of crime fiction in the 21st century and how she sees her role, and the role of crime fiction, in 'The Best American Mystery and Suspense'. It is a fascinating read, as it makes a clear argument for the importance of crime fiction in addressing the world we live in.