Interview with Kit Frick for I Killed Zoe Spanos

I Killed Zoe Spanos

by Kit Frick
Publisher: McElderry Books
Release Date: June 30th 2020
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Thriller, Mystery


Synopsis:

“The YA thriller of the summer.” —Bustle

For fans of Sadie and Serial, this gripping thriller follows two teens whose lives become inextricably linked when one confesses to murder and the other becomes determined to uncover the real truth no matter the cost.

What happened to Zoe won’t stay buried…

When Anna Cicconi arrives to the small Hamptons village of Herron Mills for a summer nanny gig, she has high hopes for a fresh start. What she finds instead is a community on edge after the disappearance of Zoe Spanos, a local girl who has been missing since New Year’s Eve. Anna bears an eerie resemblance to Zoe, and her mere presence in town stirs up still-raw feelings about the unsolved case. As Anna delves deeper into the mystery, stepping further and further into Zoe’s life, she becomes increasingly convinced that she and Zoe are connected—and that she knows what happened to her.

Two months later, Zoe’s body is found in a nearby lake, and Anna is charged with manslaughter. But Anna’s confession is riddled with holes, and Martina Green, teen host of the Missing Zoe podcast, isn’t satisfied. Did Anna really kill Zoe? And if not, can Martina’s podcast uncover the truth?

Inspired by Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, Kit Frick weaves a thrilling story of psychological suspense that twists and turns until the final page.

Can you briefly describe I KILLED ZOE SPANOS and its characters?

Think YA Rebecca set in the Hamptons. When Anna Cicconi confesses to playing a role in the death of local teen Zoe Spanos, she’s charged with manslaughter and concealing a body. But Anna’s confession is riddled with holes, and Martina Green, teen host of the Missing Zoe podcast, isn’t satisfied. Did Anna really kill Zoe? And if not, can Martina’s podcast uncover the truth?

In its most boiled-down form, Martina is our detective and Anna is our unreliable narrator / possible villain. But spoiler alert—it’s not that simple!

Who would you say is your favourite character from the story and why?

I have a special place in my heart for the story’s minor characters like Kaylee, Anna’s best friend from home; Paisley, her eight-year-old babysitting charge; and Aster, Zoe’s younger sister and Martina’s best friend. Sometimes the secondary characters are the most fun to write.

How did the story occur to you? Did you find inspiration anywhere?

When the idea for I Killed Zoe Spanos was bouncing around in my head, I’d recently re-read Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca for the fourth (fifth?) time and couldn’t help wondering: What if Rebecca de Winter had gone missing today, in the age of Serial and The Vanished and Bear Brook and all the other excellent true crime podcasts that have sprung up over the last five years? Then I landed on the Hamptons setting—the American equivalent of the tony English seaside town in Rebecca—and I Killed Zoe Spanos evolved from there.

If you could choose one song to describe your book, which one would it be?

Sia’s “Chandelier.” Anna comes to Herron Mills in part to escape her “party girl” past and make a fresh start—but of course nothing goes as planned. I think she’d relate quite a bit to the girl in Sia’s high-flying anthem.

If your book was going to be made into a movie, who would play your characters?

The only piece of “dream casting” I have worked out is the part of Caden Talbot, the boy next door at Windermere. I always see Jordan Fisher in my head when I picture Caden!

What drink and place do you think will go with your book to have a perfect book date?

I Killed Zoe Spanos comes complete with its own mocktail: the Lemon Spritz! Think lemonade and seltzer; add a splash of rum to make it adult. :) Best consumed poolside or at the beach, of course.

Can you recommend your readers any other books in case they are left hungry for more once they finish I KILLED ZOE SPANOS?

For more YA thrillers featuring podcasts, check out Sadie by Courtney Summers on the slim chance you haven’t already, as well as I Hope You’re Listening by Tom Ryan (coming in October 2020) and Holly Jackson’s Good Girl, Bad Blood (which I’m hoping will be coming to the US soon!). On the adult side, I highly recommend Elizabeth Little’s Pretty as a Picture, Denise Mina’s Conviction, and Kathleen Barber’s Are You Sleeping (re-released in paperback and developed for TV as Truth Be Told) all of which feature (fictional) true crime podcasts woven into the narrative.

What would you say is the most difficult part of writing a book?

Endings! Many writers despair of the “murky middle,” but it’s endings that give me the most trouble. Not because I don’t know where I’m writing toward, because I generally do, but because getting all the necessary information to the reader in a mystery novel in a way that is both organic and surprising is a real challenge. It takes many drafts to get it just right.

What’s next for you?

My next book is still a secret! (Ssh.) I hope to be able to spill some details soon.

Kit Frick is a novelist, poet, and MacDowell Colony fellow from Pittsburgh, PA. She studied creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College and received her MFA from Syracuse University. When she isn’t putting complicated characters in impossible situations, Kit edits poetry and literary fiction for a small press and edits for private clients. She is the author of the young adult novels See All the Stars and All Eyes on Us, both from Simon & Schuster / Margaret K. McElderry Books, as well as the poetry collection A Small Rising Up in the Lungs from New American Press. Her third YA thriller, I Killed Zoe Spanos, will release on June 2, 2020.

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Interview with Lillian Clark for Half Life

Half Life

by Lillian Clark
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Release Date: June 9th 2020

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction

Synopsis:

An overachiever enrolls in an experimental clone study to prove that two (of her own) heads are better than one in this fast-paced, near-future adventure that's Black Mirror meets Becky Albertalli.

There aren't enough hours in the day for Lucille--perfectionist, overachiever--to do everything she has to do, and there certainly aren't enough hours to hang out with friends, fall in love, get in trouble--all the teenage things she knows she should want to be doing instead of preparing for a flawless future. So when she sees an ad for Life2: Do more. Be more, she's intrigued.

The company is looking for beta testers to enroll in an experimental clone program, and in the aftermath of a series of disappointments, Lucille is feeling reckless enough to jump in. At first, it's perfect: her clone, Lucy, is exactly what she needed to make her life manageable and have time for a social life. But it doesn't take long for Lucy to become more Lucy and less Lucille, and Lucille is forced to stop looking at Lucy as a reflection and start seeing her as a window--a glimpse at someone else living her own life, but better. Lucy does what she really wants to, not what she thinks she should want to, and Lucille is left wondering how much she was even a part of the perfect life she'd constructed for herself. Lucille wanted Lucy to help her relationships with everyone else, but how can she do that without first rectifying her relationship with herself?

Can you briefly describe HALF LIFE and its characters?

Hi Patri! Thank you so much for having me!

Half Life, pitched as Black Mirror meets Becky Albertalli, follows Lucille Harper, an ambitious young woman who struggles with a constant worry that she isn’t measuring up. As her life falls apart—broken friendship, unrequited crush, divorcing parents—she’s approached by a mysterious company offering her the “opportunity of a lifetime.” She signs up to be a beta tester for an adult human cloning program and things get…interesting, to say the least.

Beyond Lucille, we have Lucy (the clone), Cass (the childhood best friend), Bode (the crush), Marco (the new crush), Dr. Thompson (the lead scientist at Life Squared), and Isobel (a mystery), alongside a small host of others.

Who would you say is your favourite character from the story and why?

This is tough! I love all of my characters for different reasons, but I think I’m the teensiest bit more partial to Lucy. And Isobel. They were really interesting and challenging to write. I also have a very special place in my heart for Lucille.

How did the story occur to you? Did you find inspiration anywhere?

Originally, I pitched the idea for Half Life as a YA re-telling of the 1990s movie Multiplicity, but the longer I worked on it, I realized the comedy-plus-tightening-spiral-of-hijinks just wasn’t working. So, instead, I took that core of a person spread too thin getting a clone to help manage her busy life and layered in a mess of bigger themes like the subjectivity of truth and the (unachievable and often directly opposed) expectations society places on young women.

If you could choose one song to describe your book, which one would it be?

I actually have the perfect answer for this!! I love thinking about a single song that sums up how I want my books to make people feel, and so I already have one picked out: “I See You” by MISSIO. (If anyone is curious, the song for my debut Immoral Code is “Trees” by twentyone pilots!)

If your book was going to be made into a movie, who would play your characters?

Lucille and Lucy are so solidly the focus of the whole book that I’ll just cast them, and I think Kaitlyn Dever could pull it off magnificently.

Can you recommend your readers any other books in case they are left hungry for more once they finish HALF LIFE?

Not so humbly (haha) my debut Immoral Code! If you like Half Life, I feel pretty confident that you’ll also like that. As for books not by me, I’ll forever recommend books by Shaun David Hutchinson and Caleb Roehrig. Caleb has a new title coming out in July, The Fell of Dark, and it’s magnificent. VAMPIRES! Need I say more?

What would you say is the most difficult part of writing a book?

ALL OF IT. (Kidding, well, sort of.) This book was a struggle. Most authors seem to feel the same about second books. It’s difficult to write something under contract for the first time, usually on tight deadlines, while also promoting your debut. But more specifically, it took me three full drafts to get to the heart of Lucille’s character. I kept chasing false threads. But once I found the core of her, I fell in love with her story and this book.

What’s next for you?

Right now I’m working on a few projects, but none with any solid plans for release. I’ve been revamping my first, formerly-shelved manuscript about a young woman who’s stolen by a megalomaniac in another world, and a second manuscript that follows a high school couple deciding whether or not to break up before college…then they get sucked into a revolving door of alternate universes (I clearly adore portal fantasies, haha). I hope to have more news soon!

Lillian Clark, a graduate of the University of Wyoming, grew up riding horses, climbing trees, and going on grand imaginary adventures in the small-town West. She's worked as a lifeguard, a camp counselor, and a Zamboni driver, but found her eternal love working as a bookseller at an independent bookstore. Now living in Teton Valley, Idaho with her husband, son, and two giant dogs, she spends her time reading almost anything and writing books for teens.

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Interview with Amanda Sellet for By The Book

By the Book

by Amanda Sellet
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Release Date: May 12th 2020

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Synopsis:

Mary Porter-Malcolm has prepared for high school in the one way she knows how: an extensive review of classic literature to help navigate the friendships, romantic liaisons, and overall drama she has come to expect from such an “esteemed” institution. Her love of literature even inspires her to imagine herself the heroine of a nineteenth-century novel. Not the sort who makes poor life choices and ends up dying of consumption while still in her teens, but the noble, virtuous, quick-witted type.

When some new friends seem in danger of falling for the same tricks employed since the days of Austen and Tolstoy, Mary swoops in to create the Scoundrel Survival Guide, using archetypes of literature’s debonair bad boys to signal red flags. But despite her best efforts, she soon finds herself unable to listen to her own good advice and falling for a supposed cad—the same one she warned her friends away from. Without a convenient rain-swept moor to flee to, Mary is forced to admit that real life doesn’t follow the same rules as fiction and that if she wants a happy ending, she’s going to have to write it herself.

Can you briefly describe BY THE BOOK and its characters?

When bookish Mary Porter-Malcolm transfers to a crowded public high school her sophomore year, she stumbles into a new group of friends who rely on her extensive knowledge of classic literature to help them sidestep scoundrels and other social catastrophes – including the dangerously debonair Alex Ritter. 

Who would you say is your favourite character from the story and why?

If I could get away with claiming “Mary’s family” as a single character, that would be my answer, because I love sibling (and parent) banter. Otherwise I’ll confess to a sneaking fondness for Lydia, the boldest and most outspoken of Mary’s new friends. She’s a lot like my high school BFF, who is still my best friend (mumble-mumble) years later. 

How did the story occur to you? Did you find inspiration anywhere?

I had been working on a dark, sad, speculative story for several years when I finally accepted that I wasn’t ready to write that particular book. To console myself, I decided my next project would be something fun and funny and light, and rather than dealing with complex magic and twisted backstories, it would fall squarely into my wheelhouse: book-loving nerds. From there I just kept adding more of my favorite things, like a big, quirky family; a small town full of eccentric secondary characters; lots of food descriptions; and silly puns. 

What drink and place do you think will go with your book to have a perfect book date?

I vote tea and scones on a nice squishy sofa, since Mary (like so many lovers of Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters) is a bit of an Anglophile, and this is a very cozy book. 

Can you recommend your readers any other books in case they are left hungry for more once they finish BY THE BOOK?

ORDINARY GIRLS by Blair Thornburgh; WE ARE THE PERFECT GIRL by Ariel Kaplan; FIRST & THEN by Emma Mills; and TECHNICALLY, YOU STARTED IT by Lana Wood Johnson. All four of those are funny, romantic YA contemporaries that riff on classic lit. 

What would you say is the most difficult part of writing a book?

While contemplating this answer I checked Instagram, popped over to Goodreads, had a cup of jasmine tea, caught up with my Slack conversations, replied to a text, skimmed my Twitter notifications and dealt with an attention-starved cat. So I’m going to have to go with PROCRASTINATION! 

What’s next for you?

I’m working on another funny and romantic YA contemporary with literary underpinnings, loosely tied to BY THE BOOK. Unlike Mary, the heroine of this one has no problem speaking her mind, so the tone is more salty than sweet.

Debut author Amanda Sellet had a previous career in journalism, during which she wrote book reviews for The Washington Post, personal essays for NPR, and music and movie coverage for VH1. These days she lives in Kansas with her archaeologist husband and their daughter.

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