Authors Interviewing Characters: Jess Lourey

THE VERDANT CAGE

The Wall was built to keep them safe. Or so they thought.

For as long as seventeen-year-old apothecary Rose Allgood can remember, the towering stone Wall surrounding Noah’s Valley has protected her people. No one leaves. No one fights. And no one questions why.

But their paradise has been hiding its thorns. When Rose’s mother becomes the Valley’s first murder victim and her twin brother is swiftly condemned, she alone is searching for the real killer. Determined to find the truth, she follows a trail of hidden messages, forbidden knowledge, and whispers of a past no one dares to remember.

The deeper she digs, the more certain Rose becomes that her mother’s death was no accident. That the Wall isn’t just keeping something out.

It’s keeping something in.

Fans of The Hunger Games, The Grace Year, and The Maze Runner will devour The Verdant Cage―a chilling dystopian thriller about what it takes to rebel when you discover your entire world is a lie.

An Interview with Rose Allgood of Noah’s Valley

Rose Allgood, the protagonist of The Verdant Cage, greets me in the greenhouse inside Noah’s Valley, her community surrounded by an impassable wall. The air is thick with the scent of herbs—mint, valerian, wild bergamot—and she moves between the plants with the practiced ease of someone who’s spent her entire life among them. At seventeen, Rose is about to transition from her life’s work as an Apothecary to her assigned role as a Guardian’s wife, but today, she’s agreed to talk about the skills that have defined her since childhood.

Jess: Thank you for taking time before your wedding ceremony to speak with me. I understand you’ve been training as an Apothecary since you were very young?

Rose Allgood: Yes. Gran—my grandmother—started teaching me and my twin brother Jonas young. We’d go out gathering chamomile blossoms and wild lettuce, learning which plants heal and which harm. Every Apothecary in Noah’s Valley learns the same way, generation after generation. It’s in our blood, you could say.

Jess: Can you tell us about some of the plants you work with?

RA: Oh, there are so many. [She gestures around the greenhouse, her face brightening.] St. John’s wort for melancholy, black cohosh for women’s ailments. We harvest foxglove for heart conditions—digitalis extract, though you must be incredibly careful with the dosage. Wild willow bark and wild lettuce make an excellent painkilling tincture. And the hops over there [she points to vines climbing the wall] are useful for sleep troubles, though they’re aggressive growers. 

Jess: That’s fascinating. What’s it like growing medicinal plants here in what used to be southeastern Minnesota, inside the Wall?

RA: [She pauses, her hand moving unconsciously to twist the skin between her thumb and pointer finger.] Our Founders built Noah’s Valley with everything we’d need to survive—limestone caves, freshwater springs, dense forests. They stocked our land with every plant and animal we could require. The Wall protects us, and we’re incredibly fortunate. The Wall made us whole, as the saying goes.

Jess: It sounds idyllic. What’s daily life like for an Apothecary in the Valley?

RA: The bell rings three times at dawn, and the village comes to life. Cobblers and Coopers start hammering, Bakers pull bread from their clay ovens when we’re lucky enough to have it, Farmers lead horses to the fields. Everyone has their assigned House and role. The Apothecaries spend our mornings tending plants, making tinctures and poultices, preparing for whatever injuries or illnesses the day might bring. My aunt Florence and uncle Richard handle most of the complex cases, though mom taught me well before she… [She trails off, then straightens.] We treat everything from training injuries to childbirth complications. Every Apothecary knows that the urgent eclipses the eventual.

Jess: And your father? What does he do?

RA: [Her expression clouds.] My father was killed by an animal attack when I was five. A mountain lion, they said. He was… he was bringing a body to the Elders for burial when it happened. [She takes a breath.] My mother always told us after that to follow the rules absolutely, to never draw attention to ourselves. She said that’s how we’d stay safe. 

Jess: Did it work?

RA: [She’s quiet for a moment.] For over a decade. Then, eight months ago, we had more animal attacks—two Guardians killed. After that came the curfew, the whipping posts, food rationing. And there’s been this illness—the Vex. We quarantined the outbreak zone, but we still don’t know the cause. [She meets my eyes.] We’ve been watching for signs of it constantly. Everyone’s on edge.

Jess: It sounds like there’s more danger inside your walled community than most people realize.

RA: [She hesitates, and I notice her hand moving to her pocket, where she seems to be gripping something—a small vial, perhaps.] The lullaby we sing to children tells them about the monsters Beyond, the beasts that yearn to tear us apart. But inside the Wall, we’re safe. [Her voice drops.] Though lately, I’ve been wondering… My brother Jonas, he saw something recently. Something in the Record Keeper vault that disturbed him. He told me we’re not what we think. 

Jess: What do you mean?

RA: [I can see she’s uncomfortable.] I don’t know exactly. He didn’t get to finish telling me. But there’s this feeling I can’t shake. Like there are things about the Valley, about why we’re really inside the Wall, that we’ve never been told. 

Jess: That’s a troubling thought.

RA: [She looks back at me, and there’s something in her eyes—fear, yes, but also a kind of defiance.] There’s something coming. I can feel it. Something that’s going to change everything we thought we knew about Noah’s Valley. About who we are. About why the Founders really put us here.

• • •

Rose Allgood’s wedding ceremony was scheduled for that afternoon. This interview was conducted just hours before her life—and the lives of everyone in Noah’s Valley—would change forever.

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Jess Lourey has reached over a million readers, has been twice nominated for both an Edgar & Goodreads Choice award, and has won the  International Thriller Award and the Minnesota Book Award. Her electrifying YA dystopian thriller THE VERDANT CAGE releases April 7, 2026.

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: Interviews, On Writing