The Proust Questionnaire is one of the most famous series of questions asked in interviews and used for self-reflection. According to Vanity Fair, “The Proust Questionnaire has its origins in a parlor game popularized (though not devised) by Marcel Proust, the French essayist and novelist, who believed that, in answering these questions, an individual reveals his or her true nature.” Proust Your Protagonist is a series that interviews authors writing from the POV of their lead characters to answer the Proust Questionnaire.

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Lirien is the lead of the YA fantasy standalone Son of the Siren, written by Kristina Elyse Butke. He is the illegitimate child of the King of Ardeth and a mysterious siren woman, and half-brother to the Queen of Ardeth’s human children. He has a strange appearance due to his siren heritage, and has inherited a beautiful voice and strong singing ability thanks to his mother. He is a loner and a dreamer, wanting to explore the world but simultaneously afraid to leave the beach outside of his tower, as a terrible curse follows him if he strays too far from the sea. His only solace is the love he feels for his siblings, who love him equally in return.

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What is your greatest fear?

That I’ll wake up and find everyone I love walking into the sea to their death. It’s not rational, I know, but…my mother is very powerful, and that’s how my father died.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

Weakness. I feel like I’m not strong enough to handle anything that would be a challenge to me. It’s probably because I’m cooped up in my tower all the time. I’m glad I can see my brother and sisters and play with them when I can, and I am able to walk along the shore and swim in the sea, but…my life is otherwise empty. Should anything troubling try to fill it, I worry I won’t be up to the task due to my lack of strength.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Cruelty. I don’t know if I can talk about her…but…well, let’s just say that there is someone who treats me coldly. She looks at me like I’m something only barely tolerable. I suppose she hasn’t been outright callous to me, but the denial of her kindness, the sheer lack of acknowledgement…it is unnecessarily cruel.

Which living person do you most admire?

May I choose three? Nina, Sorin, and Sonalie. I know they’re my family and they’re all still so young, but each of them have wonderful things about them. Nina has been training for it all her life, but there’s something about her that tells me she’ll be a great queen when the time comes. My brother Sorin is just an endless ball of energy and an absolute delight, and Sonalie, though shy, is really devoted and works so hard at her music lessons with me. I love them all so much.

What is your greatest extravagance?

I have a leather-bound atlas from decades ago that’s pretty old and worn, but it has beautiful maps in it and stories of all the interesting places on the continent–my kingdom of Ardeth, of course, but also unmappable places like the walking forest of Elythia. I’ve had this book ever since I was a boy, and while I can’t leave my home, the atlas shows me what I’m missing, and lets me dream of possibilities I otherwise don’t have.

What is your current state of mind?

I’m troubled, honestly. There’s this melody that’s been in my head ever since I heard it, and it’s incessantly playing in the back of my mind. I have the most overwhelming urge to sing it, but I sang it once before, not understanding its power, and the most terrible things happened. Yet the compulsion to keep singing is there. I sometimes think I am cursed by my siren heritage.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

I’ve never really thought about this before. May we go on to the next one?

On what occasion do you lie?

Ah…I don’t consider myself a liar. I don’t really lie. I might have omitted selected information here or there in my life, but I’m quite an open person and find dishonesty repulsive.

What do you most dislike about your appearance?

My eyes. The color startles people so much. They’re orange, like my mother’s. If I were poetic, I’d say they look like the setting sun, but in all actuality they’re just garish, bright, and unnerving. A few people I’ve met said they’re beautiful, but…I don’t know. They frighten people more often. They’re clearly inhuman.

Which living person do you most despise?

I’ve talked about her already. She is a frozen, closed-off woman…but now that she’s under the siren spell, she has become obsessed with me. I cannot free myself from her and the way she treats me just makes me hate it all the more. Bewitched or not, I don’t think I can forgive her for the way she has treated me.

What is the quality you most like in a man?

I like it when a man is not afraid to be nurturing. My father tried his best with me, but I reminded him too much of his past, and his affair with my mother, so he was more standoffish than anything. But I least I knew he loved me, in his own way. He did make certain of that.

What is the quality you most like in a woman?

Cleverness. There’s this young woman I know–well, she’s more than a woman, she’s a fae fox–and she loves sharing riddles and rhymes. She turned the explanation of the antidote to the curse into a rhyme to help me remember it, and it worked. She is a master of the turn of phrase. You should ask her for a dirty little ditty.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

I’ve been saying “stop it” more than I like lately.

What or who is the greatest love of your life?

It should come as no surprise, but it’s Kitra.

When and where were you happiest?

I absolutely love reading to my brother and sisters when they’re in bed. They’re so cute when they curl up against me like little cats. It’s a sweet, peaceful moment.

Which talent would you most like to have?

I wish I had more outdoor talents–the kind meant for survival. I still can’t make a fire properly, let alone cook.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I just wish my world could be wider. Then I’d have more understanding than I do now.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Getting Sonalie to come out of her shell enough to let me teach her singing. She’s a budding soprano, for certain.

If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?

I’m torn on this. One the one hand, I don’t want to come back at all. On the other hand, I debate between coming back as a full-blooded human, or being something else otherworldly, like a fae fox. I think as long as I can be with my loved ones, I’ll come back in any form that would allow it.

Where would you most like to live?

If it meant I was no longer cursed, I wouldn’t mind living in my aunts’ kingdom, Asherin, or Kitra’s home, Elythia. But I know I would miss the sea…so we’d have to make some trips.

What is your most treasured possession?

The lyre my father gave me.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Seeing anything bad happen to my loved ones, especially my family.

What is your favorite occupation?

I’m certain people would guess singing, but I actually enjoy playing instruments more.

What is your most marked characteristic?

I wish I could say that it was something intangible but valued, like “bravery,” or “devotion,” but in truth it’s my appearance. It’s the first thing that people notice about me, and what they speak about most often.

What do you most value in your friends?

I like that I can be myself around them. That, and they are the most loyal people I know. I truly feel like they will always be there for me when they can be.

Who are your favorite writers?

There’s a poet from one hundred years ago named Smythion who wrote a book of verses about the wandering woods of Elythia and its fabled creatures, and about all things magical in our world. The book is called The Color of the Stars. I never knew what the title meant in relation to the book’s contents, but I always liked Smythion’s writing.

Who is your hero of fiction?

She’s from a recent story I heard, but her name is Terinelle and she forged the mystical sword known as Alibrandr. Alibrandr is so sharp it can rend the heavens and slice the air to pieces.

Which historical figure do you most identify with?

This is going to sound incredibly narcissistic, but I do not identify with anyone in history. As far as I know, there is no one in history who has been like me.

Who are your heroes in real life?

I’m going to say my father. He’s the reason why I wasn’t thrown back into the sea as an infant. He chose to let me live, and raised me as his own child as much as he was able. That has to be heroic, right?

What are your favorite names?

I really like my sister’s name “Sonalie.” It’s pretty unique.

What is it that you most dislike?

I mentioned this before, but I cannot stand cruelty.

What is your greatest regret?

That I ever sang the siren song. I should have known what I was getting myself into, and how great the cost would be.

How would you like to die?

I would like to be peacefully asleep next to the love of my life.

What is your motto?

“I’ll do whatever it takes for those I love.”

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Son of the Siren is available on eBook and Kindle Unlimited at Amazon, and available in print online wherever books are sold. It is also available as an audiobook from Audible and narrated by J. Kindred. Get your copy today!

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