Rektok Ross Opens Up on Her New Psychological Thriller Summer Rental (Exclusive)

As the summer heats up, it’s the perfect time to settle down with a good book about toxic female relationships and a serial killer stalking a remote island during a natural disaster. If any of that sounds appealing to you, then Summer Rental, the newest thriller from author Rektok Ross is a book you’ll want to check out. Described as a combination of Mean Girls and Scream, Summer Rental is Ross’ follow-up to Ski Weekend and finds Riley March and her group of friends heading to the ritzy remote Palm Key island to blow off some steam before college. However, their trip is filled with stunning secrets, a hurricane, and that serial killer we mentioned earlier.

ComicBook.com spoke to Rektok Ross about Summer Rental to find out if it exists in the same universe as Ski Weekend, crafting compelling characters, how the Saw producers are developing Ski Weekend into a major motion picture, if she’s ever experienced any harrowing adventures while on a luxurious vacation, and much more. 

Everyone Loves a Good Murder Mystery

ComicBook.com: After I read the synopsis for Summer Rental, it definitely sounds like something that I’d like to read. When you’re crafting stories like this, for Summer Rental and for Ski Weekend, how do you go about mapping out the threats so they catch the reader’s attention?

Rektok Ross: I think my brain just works cinematically. I grew up on all these really fun thriller movies like I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Scream, and for whatever reason, I tend to write really commercially. I tend to write really hooky. I think I write the things that I love, and it just so happens that those are the things that are very commercial and very in vogue. And so I just knew for Ski Weekend I wanted to do a survival thriller. People tend to really love those. They’ve been around for eons and eons because everyone wants to know, “What would I do if I was out in the wilderness?” So for me, it was something I really wanted to write, something I love and enjoy myself as a consumer. And it just seemed to really resonate with people because that’s a story that is for the ages, that people are always going to love survival stories.

And then a kind of similar thing for Summer Rental, everyone loves a good murder mystery. Even since Agatha Christie, there’s always been this fun concept. Maybe it’s the same thing, people want to know if they would survive. If I’m on an island with a killer, am I going to be the one who makes it and gets off the island? Maybe it’s another inborn thing that we have, a challenge to ourselves, but people tend to really love murder mysteries. I love them myself. And I grew up, like I said, on those really fun slasher movies.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence. I think I subconsciously was kind of going for this anyway, but we’re now having this resurgence, where Scream was just remade and was a huge hit, and then the second one came out and was also a huge hit. And then I know that they’re remaking I Know What You Did Last Summer. So I think fortuitously, this is what I love to write, and it seems like it’s also the direction where people are going. And I think part of that’s also Stranger Things. I think people both my age who grew up in the ’80s loved it, but then it’s been so fun to see the younger generation who love to watch the ’80s culture in Stranger Things. And now Summer Rental kind of tapped into the ’90s, and I think that’s a little bit where it’s going, as well.

Summer Rental and Ski Weekend Shared Universe

Do Summer Rental and Ski Weekend exist in the same universe?

They do. So I know you’re a comic book person and I love all of that too. I love having a universe that all exists at the same time. So they’re different characters and they happen in different regions. I actually have four in mind. The first two are obviously done and then the second two are plotted.

But I thought it would be really fun, and I think I wanted to build on that concept of the Marvel Universe or the DC Universe, where I have these characters that are in the same world. All the towns are imaginary, they’re not real towns, but these characters all interact in the same kind of universe. And there are little Easter eggs, so it’s been really fun. When I wrote Summer Rental, I left little hints and little references to things that happened in Ski Weekend. The people who read Ski Weekend, it’s been so cute and amazing, they’ve DM’d me or emailed me. I’m very reachable to readers. I actually love connecting with them and they know this. And so they’ll shoot me a DM or they’ll comment and say, “Oh, my God, I got to Chapter 18, and I totally got what you were doing. That was so awesome. I love the reference.” I’ll be doing that in all of them, where they’re standalone, but you definitely get rewarded for reading all of them because you’ll get all the little hints.

Have there been any Easter eggs that anyone hasn’t caught yet from both books?

No. I did a lot of fun kind of horror movie references in Ski Weekend. I would say that one’s more horror adjacent, it’s definitely a survival thriller. But since I love those kinds of stories like Frozen, the horror movie Frozen or Cujo or The Ruins, I love that kind of stuff. I kind of put little references, if you’re a horror movie fan, you would get those. Again, I’d get messages, people totally got those. And then Summer Rental, of course, is a lot more because it’s like my homage to the ’90s slasher. I do Silence of the Lambs in there. I do Nightmare on Elm Street. There’s a Yellowjackets thing that’s kind of weaved through and everyone’s like, “Oh my God, it’s, I Know What You Did Last Summer.”

So, I think people are definitely getting it. And what’s been really awesome is, even the younger generation, like I said, definitely the ’90s and the ’80s babies are getting it. But even my kids’ age. I have stepkids, they’re getting it too. I think because Scream is so popular, they’re all going back now and watching the older movies. And I’m really active on TikTok and it’s been really something else fortuitous, that I could not have foreseen. But whatever reason, “Summer Slasher” or “Slasher Summer” has really taken off on TikTok. It’s been this huge trend thing, where everyone’s challenging themselves to watch all the classic slasher movies, and that’s really also helped get Summer Rental out there. People are reading the book and then they’re saying, “Oh, my God, now that I just watched I Know What You Did Last Summer. I’d never seen it before or whatever, my parents told me to watch it.” They’re like, “That’s in your book.” So it’s been this really cool, super exciting thing to see, both younger and older people, and getting it together, has been really fun.

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Mean Girls Inspiration

When you’re creating these antagonists and protagonists in your stories, what traits do you look for that you want readers to latch onto?

So first of all, I like to have a really diverse cast. I like to have people from all different backgrounds because I think that really shows the world we live in, at least the world I live in and the people that I interact with. It’s not all vanilla, one type of person. I like different ethnicities, different religions, different socioeconomic backgrounds. I think that makes a story richer and more interesting and really reflective of the world we live in. So that’s kind of the first thing. I don’t like to write purely good or purely bad people, I don’t think that’s realistic. I don’t think that’s interesting. So even my villains, in my opinion, or the way I try to craft them, are very relatable and they could be any person, just something went a little wrong or whatever, or in their own mind, they are the hero. I love to do that.

And the hero is never a purely good hero either, they have a lot of flaws, as well. Riley, who’s the main character in Summer Rental, she is not perfect by any means, and she definitely grows throughout the arc of the story. But when it first starts out, she is pretending to be someone she’s not. She is doing things that are maybe, not super nice or really wonderful things to do, but she’s just trying to fit in, so she’s doing the best she can. And so I think just making people not purely one way or the other, those are the kind of characters I like to write, I like to make them interesting. I like to make them have lots of layers. And also, with what was really important to me with Summer Rental, we describe it as, Mean Girls meets Scream.

And so there’s going to be some really mean girls, that’s one of the underlying messages of it, is really anti-bulling, anti-toxic friendships, finding the right people to call your friends and avoiding those toxic situations. And so of course, the girls have to be really mean, otherwise the story doesn’t work. And it’s funny, I get a lot of comments like, “Oh, they’re so unlikable. I hated every character.” I’m like, “Yeah, that’s the point. It doesn’t work if they’re nice girls. It’s not Nice Girls meets Scream.” But even those characters, I love all of them. And as mean as they are, some of them are funny, they have other cool, unique traits about them. They’re not just villains. There are other things about them that I think make them interesting. And I also wanted to make it really clear, that as terrible and privileged as these girls are and as thoughtless as they are, they’re never actually doing anything to be evil outright. They’re just living their own life with no consideration for anyone else or the impact of what they’re doing.

And I think that’s actually, really true to human nature for a lot of people, not everyone who causes real emotional damage to others, not everyone’s doing it just to be a bad person. They’re doing it because they’re living their own life. They have their own worldview, and honestly, they’re not caring about the impact. I think that’s again, more realistic. That’s what I want to touch on. If someone’s just a horrible evil person, okay, there’s not much you can do. But if someone really is not doing things that are great, but it’s because they’re clueless or they just don’t care, but if they were to see their actions, then maybe that could effectuate change. And that’s kind of what I was trying to get at.

It’s a really personal book to me because I went through bullying and being ostracized from my friend group, and then I saw my stepdaughters do it, as well. And I know the people that did it to me and the people that did it to them, they’re not evil people. They’re not like Darth Vader or whatever. They’re for whatever reason, that stage in their life, they just decided that they wanted to behave that way. But I truly think if they had seen the impact of what they did, that they would have acted differently, that they were not meaning to cause that level of emotional pain that they caused. And that’s the conversation I’m hoping to start with a book. And also, just a fun beach read or at the pool, if you don’t want to take it seriously, it’s just also a really fun murder mystery.

Braving Florida Hurricanes

I’m sure you’ve probably been asked this before, but have you ever had a traumatic experience on vacation? 

Has anyone tried to chase me down and kill me on vacation? Luckily, not yet. It’s funny because I write these crazy scenarios and they’re more my head, my thought process kind of escaping with me doing a worst-case scenario. Luckily, I have never been stranded in the mountains, although I’m terrified of that happening. And as a Florida girl, growing up in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, I have always had this fear of the mountains. I never saw mountains or snow until I was 18 years old. So it’s always been kind of scary to me, even being uphill, I don’t like. So I think I just kind of reached into that part of my brain that gets really freaked out by that aspect of nature. And that’s kind of how I had the idea for Ski Weekend. Summer Rental, a little bit different because I’m actually pretty comfortable with hurricanes, which is a funny thing to say, but that’s almost like my element.

You get used to living in Florida, that doesn’t freak me out. I think I actually baked that into the story because I think people reading Summer Rental from out of town, that don’t live in Florida or haven’t had the Florida experience, a lot of them, I think, might question why the characters choose to stay on the island, when there’s a hurricane coming through? But that’s a very Florida thing to do, to stay on the island with a hurricane. I guess you could say, I’ve definitely had that experience, of being somewhere with a hurricane, but I’ve never had a vacation where I’ve had a serial killer, thank goodness, chasing after me.

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Summer Rental Reception

What’s the reception been like for Summer Rental since it just came out?

Honestly, it’s been so great. I’m super happy with how it’s been going. I mean, some of that, I really take a proactive view on marketing and branding and all of that. I spent a lot of time with Platform and social media and ads, and I just really view this holistically, as a business, not just writing the book. I’m hands-on with the PR aspect, the marketing, branding, all of that. I have to give myself a little bit of credit because it definitely didn’t just happen.

Just a lot of time and energy in getting the book into the hands of early readers and early influencers and Book Talk has really been amazing. The community on TikTok, we call it Book Talk, has been really supportive and really wonderful for the book. Instagram as well, has been really incredible. It’s kind of funny. I think the book’s a little polarizing because people are still trying to get used to what a slasher is. It’s not as mainstream, I think, as other genres like horror. So I think people who think that they don’t horror, I kind of consider myself a gateway author. People think they don’t like it, a lot of people have been very nervous to read the book because they think, “Oh, it’s a thriller.” But they say, “Thriller horror or it’s a thriller, but it’s reminiscent of slashers and I don’t like scary movies. I can’t read a scary book.”

And so I think there’s been resistance originally and then people have been taking a chance and reading it and then loving it, which has been for me, as someone who loves genre, has been so exciting. If I can introduce someone who thinks that they don’t like a scary movie or a scary book, if I can introduce them to something that they like and they realize, “Oh, my God, this genre actually does have something for me.” It’s so awesome, it’s one of my favorite things to do. I do it to my husband all the time. I’m getting him to watch a lot of horror movies. And he is like, “Oh, it isn’t that bad. These are actually really good stories.” Like M3GAN, he loved M3GAN. 

It’s fun to introduce people to things that they are resistant to and then they realize, “Oh, my God, this is actually fantastic storytelling. I really enjoy this.” And so I think the reception’s been really fun because the people that like horror, it’s a no-brainer, they’re all loving it. And they’re like, “Oh, my God, I loved these movies growing up.” Or, “I loved the most recent Scream.” And they’re really getting it, enjoying it, but it’s been fun to see the resistant people like, “I don’t know. I don’t think this is for me.” And then they’re just taking a chance and then I’m hearing from them like, “Oh, my God, you were right. This actually is amazing. Now I want to try more books like this.”

And then the other end is, I think with any genre, unfortunately, I feel like it’s really easier to get fast and quick support, for something that’s easy, like a romance that everyone understands what it is. And if you market a romance happily ever after, everyone knows what that is. Horror thriller is a little bit different because some people are going to go into it blind and they’re just not going to want to read something about people getting murdered. There’s not that much gore, but it’s too much for some people and they’re just going to ding you or someone will say, “I hated this book.” Or whatever, because nothing you could ever write, that’s going to be genre, is going to be something they’re ever going to like.

Ski Weekend Movie Update

What’s the status of the motion picture development for Ski Weekend?

So it’s going very well. I’m hoping to have some really exciting big news to announce, but with the writers’ strike, everything’s kind of on hold right now. And so we’re kind of on hold, as far as when things can be set. But before the writers’ strike, and God bless those writers, I know they’re fighting very hard.

Before that, it got picked up by two amazing producers, Oren and Miles Koules. Oren of course, did all the Saw movies and Two and a Half Men. They are amazing, amazing people. I am so incredibly grateful that they found this story and loved it. And they’ve been so supportive of me and letting me be fully hands-on. So in the meeting they asked, “Do you want to be involved?” And I was like, “Yes, I really want to be involved in developing this.” And so I’m in an executive producer. I wrote the first draft of the screenplay. We were in the process of bringing someone on-board to help get it to a place, where you move forward and start attacking actors and a director, when the strike hit.

So, I think there’s other stuff happening that they are going to announce, but right now everything is, out of respect for the writers’ strike, kind of at a standstill, just like everything in Hollywood. But I am expecting there to be some really fun news. And I also love that they’ve been incredible to me and I’m fully involved in it. So I’m really, really excited. And I’m hoping Summer Rental starts to go that course as well, because I also saw that very much cinematically in my head. And I’m getting really cute messages, people, they’re like, “I wish this was a show on Peacock or Paramount. Someone needs to do this. This would be a great TV show.” And I think it would too. So we’ll see how that goes.