Emma Grey Revisits the Past to Move Forward  

This article contains topics of abuse. 

Between the racks of chic blazers and designer denim, book lovers ditched shopping to gather for an afternoon of storytelling and conversation in a clothing store.

Veronica Beard Chicago, a boutique 0.2 miles from Loyola’s Water Tower Campus, hosted a discussion Feb. 6 with Emma Grey, the author of “Pictures of You.” 

After visiting Houston, Dallas, Boston and New York, Grey ended the last leg of the tour in Chicago. Grey said she wanted a relaxed afternoon to give readers a glimpse into her thoughts on writing “Pictures of You” and her 2023 book, “The Last Love Note.”

Joined by her daughter Hannah Robertson, who’s conducting research on dating app violence for her PhD, Grey engaged with attendees about her writing process, recurring themes in her work and the critical conversations surrounding coercive relationships. 

Accompanying Grey was Anne Messitte, a Zibby Books publisher. Messitte said the company is dedicated to uplifting women’s voices in fiction by giving them a platform to tell a story not read before 

“It’s important for women’s voices to be heard in general in all parts of life,” Grey said. “We’re seeing it all the time — women’s voices being dabbled down and shut out. Men just get so much airtime and women look at relationships differently, and what I think is really important as a female writer is to write men who are strong, loving, beautiful, caring people.”

Sara Stech, manager of Veronica Beard Chicago, said the store is designed by women for women, to support women in all their endeavors. Stech said the store’s philanthropic mission makes it unique because many events are driven by women-led initiatives, like Grey’s tour. 

“Pictures of You” follows protagonist Evie as she wakes up with transient amnesia as her 16-year-old self. Grey said she made the decision to parallel her own reflections on adolescence.

“I have a real affinity with my 16-year-old self,” Grey said. “I remember that’s when I first fell in love and all of those tumultuous feelings associated with that.”

Grey, who calls herself a visual thinker, said the novel’s motif of photography symbolizes fragmented memories — snippets of moments that flood the mind. In the book, Evie and her friend Drew start a photography project called  “Pictures of You” to help her reconnect with the world she’s forgotten and recover lost memories. 

“Not only are they taking pictures of each other, but they’re remembering pictures of each other and of themselves,” Grey said. “The amnesia element lent itself to the montage of images that eventually fall into place.”

Set against the backdrop of Jervis Bay, Australia, the novel also draws on Grey’s personal experiences with grief after her husband Jeff died in 2016. 

“Ever since my husband died, I’ve been drawn to the beach,” Grey said. “I started to measure my process through loss by my visits there.”

Grey said she visited New York after Jeff died, fulfilling a goal he never got a chance to do. It was in a New York coffee shop — desk #390 —where she began writing “The Last Love Note,” a novel inspired by her loss. 

“Every book I now want to start by just at least symbolically sitting there,” Grey said. “I hadn’t realized just how fragile I was back in 2017 until I retraced my steps six years later, having gone through all that loss and recovery and done so much work on it.”

In the “Last Love Note,” Grey said she wanted to heal through the voice of the protagonist Kate, pulling from personal experiences to make her writing more emotional and her exploration of trauma more visceral.

In “Pictures of You,” themes of grief evolve into a critical examination of coercive control — a topic drawn from Robertson’s research on dating app violence and Australia’s recent criminalization of this behavior. Grey said she used the help of her daughter to give women a safe space to heal. 

Robertson said storylines in “Pictures of You” revolve around a website that features private photos of girls without their consent, drawing similarities to a real-life scandal in Australia surrounding elite private schools.

Robertson said books like “Pictures of You” bring awareness to abusive relationships that may not be noticeable. Grey said her goals when discussing this topic are to reach readers of all ages and to show coercive relationships don’t discriminate by age, gender or socioeconomic status. 

“I thought I was writing for a younger audience, but this is a subject that is unfortunately relevant for women of every generation,” Grey said. “I’ve spoken to women in their 50s navigating post-divorce dating who recognize these patterns, and even readers who see their parents’ marriages reflected in the book.”

Robertson said many people say if a woman is smart, she can simply leave an unhealthy relationship. But to Robertson, leaving is the hard part. 

“Pictures of You” dismantles the common misconception leaving a coercive relationship is simple. Evie was a highly regarded professional, but characters didn’t ask why she didn’t leave.

“People don’t realize that the moment a woman decides to leave is when she’s most at risk,” Robertson said. “It’s not something we’re very good at talking about, especially because many don’t recognize what they’re experiencing until they have hindsight.”

The novel contrasts Evie’s coercive relationship with Oliver to her healthy one with Drew. Grey said through amnesia, Evie sees her toxic love from an outside perspective, allowing her to heal. Grey’s portrayal empowers women to recognize their own strength in shaping their futures.

“To revisit her at all these different ages gave us a glimpse into what had happened in the intervening years, and we could see that she was a little less of herself every time,” Grey said. “She’d become more insulated and her friends had drifted off a little bit more.” 

Grey’s upcoming book, “Start at the End,” set to be released in 2026, revisits themes of grief, loss and hope through different creative mediums. Inspired by Grey’s survivor’s guilt — asking,  “what if it had been me who died?” — the book retraces those thoughts, and focuses on the characters professional work and how it drives their narrative.

To Grey, writing is both a personal chronicle of growth and a bridge to those who seek connection in their struggles. For her, storytelling is a way to remind women they’re not alone. 

“It’s important for us to feel like we’re not the only one going through anything,” Grey said. “I’ve had so many people get in touch with me in the last years about grief and telling me their own stories. I like to write the book that I needed when I was younger.”