In Janasha Prabhu’s riveting debut novel, Monster in the Mirror, Jiah Rai lives in a small town where everyone knows her name, but not in a good way. Jiah is the niece of a murderer who a breathless press nicknamed the Doppelganger Killer, for how he used to pose his victims to stare at their own reflections. Amid the distrustful stares of locals, Jiah finds the stain her uncle’s reign of terror has left on her family as inescapable as her own shadow.
One night, when Jiah is found holding the body of her dead girlfriend at the base of a cliff by the sea, she is treated with suspicion by authorities. Local hostility toward her grows. So it’s not great for Jiah, who’s trying to navigate family dynamics and feel safe in life and love, when a murder victim is found in a configuration that exactly matches the m.o. of her uncle. Can it really be a coincidence that a serial killer’s niece lost a girlfriend in a freak accident and is now being stalked by her uncle’s copycat killer? Monster in the Mirror is a racy, original thriller that takes you to unexpected places.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Janasha Prabhu on her novel, on writing thrillers, and on the representation of queer women of color in fiction.
Devi Bhaduri
Congratulations on your debut novel! What made you decide to become a writer, and what made Monster in the Mirror the story that you needed to tell?
Janasha Prabhu
Thank you! To be honest, I’ve wanted to be a writer ever since I can remember. My parents raised my sisters and me to love reading to the point that we would sometimes follow the wrong couple in the grocery store because our noses were in a book! Reading is still one of my most treasured pastimes, but when I was eleven or twelve years old, I knew I also wanted to write stories.
Monster in the Mirror is a book that I’ve been writing for the last eight or so years, but what made me want to write it in the first place was my love for thrillers. And then as I got older, I wanted to write a book about a strong female character who wasn’t afraid to fight for her loved ones. There’s a lot of female rage in Monster in the Mirror and I think that’s a feeling that’s always been present in society, but may be coming more to the forefront in our current climate.
Devi Bhaduri
This is the first novel I can recall reading told from the perspective of a family member of a notorious serial killer. As if it isn’t enough for Jiah to be haunted by the fallout from being a murderer’s niece, she’s also stalked by his copycat killer. Were there any real-life or fictional serial killers you drew inspiration from as you wrote Monster in the Mirror?
Janasha Prabhu
I didn’t really draw on any real-life or fictional serial killers to outline Jiah’s uncle in the book. I know that some readers may go into Monster in the Mirror hoping for, or expecting, more of a deep dive on him, but I wrote this book to do the opposite. I, as much as anyone else, have found myself undeniably fascinated with real-life cold cases—but there comes a point when I feel that in the media, the victims are often forgotten about and the killers are made infamous. And I wanted to write a book that didn’t put the spotlight on the killer or make the victims just another statistic.
Devi Bhaduri
The story takes place in Dumont, New York—a small, seaside town with one pharmacy, overt homophobia, and very little ethnic diversity. Being a queer, biracial woman in this setting, Jiah is seen as an outsider. You wrote a beautiful analogy comparing Dumont to “the miniatures they sold at Christmas—quaint little houses with sugar-cookie snow coating the roofs. . . . Perfect, whitewashed, and sparkling,” but Jiah learns that bigotry is the “rot beneath the beauty.” Have you yourself had to navigate perceived outsider status and prejudice in a small town?
Janasha Prabhu
Yes, I have navigated situations of prejudice throughout my lifetime, as have my sisters and my father, who immigrated to the States when he was a young adult. I grew up in a smaller town with a predominantly white population and am a queer, biracial woman myself—some of the moments Jiah deals with are pulled from my own real-life experiences. I really wanted to get that on the page and hoped that it could provide a sense of connection for readers in a similar situation. Because I didn’t really have that relatability in the books I read as a young adult.
Devi Bhaduri
Jiah is a protective big sister to Lila, the mother of a young girl and the wife of a shady man insulated by privilege and generational wealth. As Jiah gets pulled deeper into danger, Lila is left trying to make sense of her sister’s actions. How would you describe how Lila feels about her sister’s emotional and mental state?
Janasha Prabhu
I think that Lila feels very in the dark when it comes to Jiah and, therefore, frustrated and worried. There are several moments in the book where Lila finds out things about Jiah through a third party, and Jiah keeps Lila at an arm’s length as well. My sisters and I are very close to each other so it’s easy for me to imagine how I would feel if one of them acted the way Jiah did, and I think there’s some anger yes, but it comes from a place of love. No matter if you’re the older or younger sister, there’s that instinct to protect each other.
Devi Bhaduri
When pushed into situations that terrify her, Jiah feels a darkness within herself threatening to emerge, and even in quiet moments; for example, she notes the prosciutto in her fridge is “as thin and soft as eyelids.” Not an incriminating observation, but it’s not exactly reassuring either! Do you think she could have inherited some of her serial killer uncle’s instincts?
Janasha Prabhu
There are two things I immediately thought of when I read this question. One, that women are expected to be soft and gentle and I do think it’s obviously okay to be those things—but women should also be allowed to have a range of emotions and those include darker feelings. And second, that Jiah also clearly struggles with some anxiety and as someone who also does, I can understand how some of those darker thoughts may come into existence whether you want them to or not. I don’t think this shows that Jiah has inherited a serial killer gene but rather that anyone is capable of violence.
Devi Bhaduri
I loved the unselfconscious sexual freedom Jiah lives by. She seems to be thrumming with a hot, vivacious energy that leads to steamy encounters with more than one woman in the book. I imagine it’d be incredibly fun to write a character like her, even if there are moments where Jiah uses sex to avoid other feelings. What was it like to write about these relationships?
Janasha Prabhu
It was very fun to write these relationships! And at the same time, sometimes difficult because there is a lot of toxicity there as well—you don’t see a lot of toxic queer relationships in popular media and although it’s not fun, I think it’s important to highlight that they can, and do, exist. As for Jiah’s healthier relationships, I love being able to write about a woman who is very sex-forward and unafraid to acknowledge her desire and what she wants. Sex drives obviously vary between each individual but I hate the narrative that women don’t have as big of a libido as men, because that’s not true.
Devi Bhaduri
There are some sharp twists and turns in this novel that I know I didn’t see coming. Did you write with a sort of story architecture in mind, or do you prefer to be surprised? To discover where the story wants to go as you write?
Janasha Prabhu
I’ll be honest, I’m so bad at outlining things! So with this book in particular, I definitely wrote with a sense of wanting to be surprised by what came next. I let the story unravel the way it did and when it all fit together, that was the best feeling.
Devi Bhaduri
What writers or works inspire you? Are there any lessons in particular that you learned from a writer that you brought into your own work?
Janasha Prabhu
So many! I’ve been inspired by writers like Carmen Maria Machado, Chelsea G. Summers, Layne Fargo, T. Kingfisher, Oyinkan Braithwaite, C. J. Leede—I could go on. As a kid, I ate up all of the Goosebumps and Fear Street novels by R. L. Stine and I was obsessed with the work of Edgar Allan Poe from the moment I read “The Tell-Tale Heart” in my high school English class. And I think it may be cliche but I really feel like the advice “write what you know” has been the most helpful for me over the years.
Devi Bhaduri
What are you working on now?
Janasha Prabhu
I’m really excited to currently be working on a second, standalone novel that leans a little bit more into the horror genre while keeping aspects of a thriller. It leans heavily on themes surrounding food, girlhood, queerness, and assimilation. And it’s been really fun to write because it’s got some dark comedy thrown in as well. I can’t wait to share more about it soon!
FICTION
Monster in the Mirror
By Janasha Prabhu
Sourcebooks Landmark
Published October 20, 2026
