In the Forests of the Night critics. The title refers William Blake's poem "The Tyger", which appears in the beginning of the book. Atwater-Rhodes' second book, "Demon in My View", was published in 2000 when she was 16 and is the sequel to "In the Forests of the Night". "Persistence of Memory", published in 2008, makes mention and appearance of the main character's brother. According to Atwater-Rhodes' official site, The Den of Shadows, "In the Forests of the Night" is one of seven novels that she had finished writing and is only the first she ever published. The inspiration for the novel came from an assignment
Blues in the Night cell. As usual with Mercer, the composer wrote the music first, then Mercer wrote the words. Arlen said, The whole thing just poured out. And I knew in my guts, without even thinking what Johnny would write for a lyric, that this was strong, strong, strong! When Mercer wrote "Blues in the Night", I went over his lyric and I started to hum it over his desk. It sounded marvelous once I got to the second stanza but that first twelve was weak tea. On the third or fourth page of his work sheets I saw some lines—one of them