Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Realistic Fiction, High School, Chick Lit, Theatre, Fiction
Synopsis:
Stereotypes, sexuality, and destructive rumors collide in this smart YA novel for fans of Sara Zarr’s Story of a Girl, Siobhan Vivian’s The List, and E. Lockhart’s The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks.
When Rebecca Rivers lands the lead in her school’s production of The Crucible, she gets to change roles in real life, too. She casts off her old reputation, grows close with her four rowdy cast-mates, and kisses the extremely handsome Charlie Lamb onstage. Even Mr. McFadden, the play’s critical director, can find no fault with Rebecca.
Though “The Essential Five” vow never to date each other, Rebecca can’t help her feelings for Charlie, leaving her both conflicted and lovestruck. But the on and off-stage drama of the cast is eclipsed by a life-altering accusation that threatens to destroy everything…even if some of it is just make believe.
When I was in high school, I spent a lot of time writing, but I
almost never wrote fiction. I knew that I wanted to be a novelist
someday, but whenever I tried to bestow my ideas upon a made-up person
with a made-up life, my sentences became stiff and stilted and bad. So
instead of writing stories, I wrote epic letters to my best friend,
long-winded diary entries, and notes to my mother—which I left on the
kitchen counter, because texting was not yet a thing.
I don’t
think I understood that these daily records were practice for the books I
would eventually write, until I discovered my local library’s copy of
Feeling Sorry For Celia by Jaclyn Moriarty. Told entirely in letters,
notes, and mysterious messages from organizations such as “The Society
of People Who Are Definitely Going to Fail High School (and Most
Probably Life as Well)”, Feeling Sorry For Celia stars a protagonist,
Elizabeth Clarry, who, to me, feels entirely non-fictional. Reading the
book, it’s hard to remember that Elizabeth is not a real person, and I
think that’s because the novel’s form allows us to see Elizabeth’s life
in high definition. We read the notes in which her mother begs her to
wear “seven pairs of stockings,” to which Elizabeth retorts: “You have
some kind of body temperature problem.” A scolding message from “The
Association of Teenagers” shows us the embarrassing details of
Elizabeth’s bedroom (Little Mermaid duvet cover), and in letters between
Elizabeth and her mandatory pen-pal from a rival school, we hear all
about gratuitous homework assignments and adventures on public
transportation.
Like It Never Happened is not an epistolary
novel, but I do think that a lot of its humor is rooted in the
particulars of Rebecca’s world—tiny exchanges and observations. And the
result, I hope, is a level of authenticity that’s totally Jaclyn
Moriarty-inspired.
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith is
another novel that I first picked up when I was about fourteen, and one
that I re-read shortly before writing the first draft of Like It Never
Happened. I Capture the Castle is about seventeen-year-old Cassandra,
who lives a very isolated life in a dilapidated English castle with her
depressed dad, eccentric stepmother, and older sister. When two
unmarried brothers inherit the property and become the family’s new
landlords, Cassandra watches her older sister puzzle over which guy
would make the best husband. Cassandra doesn’t anticipate falling for
Simon, the man who becomes her sister’s boyfriend, or the extent to
which her feelings will grow even after Simon and Rose are engaged.
I
Capture the Castle is one of my favorite depictions of a character
falling for someone who’s off limits—particularly because it shows that
Cassandra’s feelings for Simon don’t stem from instant physical
attraction, but from the conversations they have when they’re alone.
Dodie Smith’s novel is messy, full of people who are in love with the
wrong people and totally unsure of when they crossed that line. The
relationships in Like It Never Happened are similarly painted in shades
of grey. Ultimately, I think my novel is about Rebecca’s struggle to
identify the line between friendship and love—the same question
addressed with such heart and complexity in I Capture the Castle.
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Emily Adrian was born in 1989 in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon. After graduating from Portland State University, she moved to Toronto, Ontario, where she worked as a receptionist while secretly writing books.Emily currently lives in Toronto with her husband and their dog named Hank. Like It Never Happened is her debut novel.
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