Today I'm super excited to be interviewing author Amy Reed about her upcoming novel, Beautiful. Which is Now Available!
What inspired Beautiful?
A lot of it was inspired by my experience starting a new school in seventh grade. I remember feeling so lonely and insecure being the new kid in a new school in a new town.
Beautiful takes that to the extreme, exploring the consequences of what can happen when someone's willing to do anything to fit in.
Do you see yourself in any of the characters?
Luckily, I don't see much of myself in Alex
. But yes, I very much identify with Cassie. I felt just as lost at her age, just as confused and scared. I remember being faced with difficult decisions I knew I was not ready to make, of having a hard time distinguishing between what I believed and what other people wanted me to do.
How did you feel when Beautiful turned into book form?? Was you like YES YES! i did it, then do a little happy dance or was you in total shock. i know it had to be emotional from the beginning to finishing that last page.
Writing it was extremely emotional, but in some ways I had been preparing for it for years so I was very focused and determined to see it through to the end. When my agent called me and told me Simon Pulse loved it and wanted to publish it, I think I screamed. It was a dream come true. It still doesn't quite seem real, even after holding the actual book in my hands. It's amazing to put so much of your heart into something, then see it recognized and released to the world. But I'm a little nervous about how much people are going to read into it. I'm open about it being based on my experiences, but it is still very much a work of fiction. I've already had to remind my mom a million times not to refer to Cassie as "you."
Was there anything you found particularly challenging when you wrote Beautiful?
I was really torn about how much Cassie and Sarah needed to suffer, and how much detail to include. It's important to me that all sensitive subject matter serve an important narrative purpose. I don't want to write gratuitous sex, drugs, or violence that's only meant to shock the reader. But the unfortunate truth is, the things that happen in
Beautiful do happen in real life. As an adult, I think it's irresponsible to hide the truth from teenagers, even if it's something we wish they didn't have to know. If we expect teens to make the right decisions, we have to be upfront about what some of those decisions might be. I hope that by reading
Beautiful, readers will have their eyes opened and ultimately feel empowered to make healthy decisions and ask for help when they need it.
What who/what has influenced you most in life?
There are so many answers to that question. But since we're on the topic, I think the time period portrayed in
Beautiful was one of the most influential of my life. I learned the hard way what can happen when you sacrifice your own well-being and self-respect in order to fit in. The pain that resulted taught me to put myself first and to listen to that little voice inside that always knows what the right choice is. It also helped me realize that being true to myself is my highest priority.
When teens read your novel what do you want them to take with them/learn after reading it?
I want teens to realize how important their choices are. Like I said before, I hope teens feel empowered to make the right decisions for themselves, even if it means going against what they think is popular. I also hope that they can feel safe to ask for help if they're in a dangerous situation. Even if you think it's too late, even if you're afraid of getting in trouble, there is always help out there. You do not have to do it alone.
Thanks Amy for the awesome interview! High School is tough with all the peer pressure and everything. I can totally relate.
Author:P.C. and Kristin Cast
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 9780312360269
Publication Date:
Ages: Young Adult
Pages:320