A tu per tu con l’autore
Amy, what a pleasure and an honor to have you here, thank you. You’ve called this novel (“a world-classy whodunit”, to quote Stephen King!) “a leap in the dark”: why? Can you tell us where the idea came from and what the writing process was like?
Listen for the Lie was very different than the YA novels I’d written in the past, which were all science-fiction or fantasy. Tackling an adult thriller felt like a big leap of faith, because I knew I’d be starting over with a brand new readership.
The idea came from several different places, but especially my love of true crime podcasts (like Serial), as well as my desire to write a novel that would be great as an audiobook. I also have long been obsessed with the way media depicts women’s friendships (especially how women are often pitted against each other), and I really wanted to explore that in a book. All of those ideas came together to make Listen for the Lie.
After several successful YA novels, with Listen for the lie you landed in adult fiction: how can you describe the experience? Did you notice any differences, both in story planning and style, and in your relationship with the reader community?
Much of writing YA and adult fiction is the same, but I definitely felt free to let loose and be a little wild while writing Listen for the Lie. There’s a lot more cursing in my adult book! And the depictions of abuse in the book are something I wasn’t comfortable exploring in YA. The nuance around Lucy’s situation felt very adult.
In terms of plotting, I find mysteries very difficult to plot, so that’s been a real challenge!
Lucy is an extraordinary character, very believable and complex: how did she come about? What were your sources of inspiration?
I was very inspired by the television series Fleabag. I watched it not long before I started writing, so I had that sort of dark sense of humor in mind all along. I also often say that Lucy is a lot like me, just way cooler. I think we have a similar sense of humor. I often want to make jokes in dark moments, so I gave that trait to Lucy as well. I also grew up watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which balanced humor with darker themes very well, and it influenced me a lot over the years.
The novel tackles very sensitive issues (for example, narcissism, gaslighting and the manipulation of truth), with a fresh and ironic style: how did you manage to maintain this balance?
It took a lot of rewriting. I worked on the book for about two years before anyone even saw it, and I pretty much rewrote the entire first draft. With each draft, I would go in and add more layers to the story. I knew from the start that I wanted to tell a story about abuse and women’s friendships, so every scene was written with that in mind.
It’s also a story of returns and assessments, a reflection on betrayed expectations and adolescent dreams that often turned into something else…
Yes! I wanted to write a book about a woman who “got it all,” but it turned out to not be what she wanted at all. Lucy gets married at 22, she buys a big beautiful house in a cute town, she has a handsome husband…all of that looks great from the outside, but from the inside it’s terrible. I liked the idea of exploring what came after “perfect.”
We could call it a “transmedia” novel: it’s perfect as a book, but it would be great as a podcast (!) o a TV series too… Will be there any news about?
Hopefully soon! Universal has optioned it for television, and they’re working on it right now. I think it would make a great TV series, so I’m hopeful that it all works out and we get to see it some day.
A voice resonates in Lucy’s head, telling her how to kill… time: does this happen to writers too? So, are there some new characters currently inhabiting your mind and itching to have their own story?
Always! There are always people in my head, usually telling jokes. But they’re definitely doing some killing as well! I’m finishing up work on my second adult thriller, and the third one is already taking shape, with the characters getting louder every day!
Thanks again for joining us, and greetings from Italy!
A cura di
Francesca Mogavero
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