Guest post by Loveboat Forever author Abigail Hing Wen
Abigail Hing Wen is the New York Times and indie bestselling author of the Loveboat series. Her first novel, Loveboat, Taipei, has been adapted into the Paramount+ original movie Love in Taipei. She holds a BA from Harvard, a JD from Columbia Law School, and an MFA from the Vermont School of Fine Arts and, like some of her characters, is obsessed with musicals and dancing. When she’s not writing stories or listening to her favorite scores, she is busy working in artificial intelligence in Silicon Valley, where she lives with her family. You can learn more about her at abigailhingwen.com.
The Loveboat, Taipei universe, encompassing three standalone novels and a feature film, didn’t start as a planned story-verse. It evolved from a novel about the untold story of Loveboat, an actual summer program in Taipei that I attended after my freshman year of college. The program was created as a cultural immersion experience for Asian youth, but came with a sharp twist of revelry, rebellion and romance.
A contemporary young adult novel isn’t what usually comes to mind when people think of a story-verse. Loveboat wasn’t a sprawling high fantasy, and yet, the story expanded: “Loveboat, Taipei” (January 2020) led to a companion novel, “Loveboat Reunion” (January 2022), the film adaptation “Love in Taipei” (August 2023) and a third novel, “Loveboat Forever” (November 2023). I have since learned that I have a knack for creating universes, and when I take a step back to study this one, I see three defining characteristics that helped build out this storyverse:
- High Concept: The secret Loveboat program itself.
- Setting: The multifaceted city of Taipei, from night markets to cultural landmarks.
- A Vast Cast: With infinite journeys to take.
High Concept
The high concept was apparent — the actual summer cultural program with an astonishing track record of heartbreak and true love. Romance abounding, that led the program to be nicknamed Love Boat, after the 1970s American TV show.
And the reputation for rebellion! For years, I would run into Loveboat alumni — or friends of alumni — and we would laugh about the antics that took place there. Sneaking out clubbing. Snake blood sake. Glamour shots. The 80 guys who broke into an antique shop and were sent home.
At one such gathering, it dawned on me that this was a young adult novel: full of possibilities for wonderful and terrible firsts — first time away from home, first crush, first kiss.
Setting
The Chien Tan school complex gave the characters an intimate place to call home, and they also had the incredible city of Taipei and entire island of Taiwan to explore. The night markets sizzled with grilled meats, the palace museum housed incredible treasures including a stone carved like a serving of meat, the blue waters and high cliffs of the Taroko Gorge served as a beautiful backdrop for budding romances and friendships.
The main criticism of the first novel was that it didn’t include enough of this setting. And I completely agree, and am so glad that the film could capture the beauty of Taipei that words could not.
A Vast Cast
By far the most important ingredient of a story-verse is its cast of fully-fleshed out characters with infinite adventures for them to undertake.
First, I had to find the right viewpoint character. I had an overwhelming number of options to sort through. Thousands of youth have attended Loveboat since the 1960s. So I “auditioned” dozens of characters, working through their potential arcs on a trip like this. I even wrote the first twenty-six drafts from five points of view: Ever, Rick, Sophie and Xavier, with a few chapters from Jenna. At 120K words, the tome was too shallow, and I finally realized it was too much story for one novel.
So I scrapped it, and rewrote it entirely from Ever’s point of view. As the girl from Ohio running away from her cultural heritage,Ever had the most to grow from an experience like Loveboat. Since I knew my other characters so well by this point, I was able to weave their arcs into her storyline.
But I still had plenty of story left, especially Xavier’s story, with his fraught relationship with his father, who headed up a Taiwanese empire. Xavier could barely read, and was the black sheep in an extremely high performing family and among the prodigies of Loveboat. And so Loveboat Reunion was born, in which his father forces him to repeat senior year of high school, before he receives the trust fund his mother left him—and the freedom it represented.
Meanwhile, Ever’s boy-crazed roommate, Sophie Ha, swears off boys and doubles down to become the best CS student Dartmouth has ever seen. But her professor dismisses her fashion AI app. So she and Xavier team up to take back control of their own lives, and find themselves headed back to Loveboat on a wild, unexpected reunion.
At the end of Loveboat Reunion, my editor flagged a line from Sophie: “Loveboat Forever!” “Title for the next book?” my editor asked with a smile. And so, Loveboat Forever, following Ever’s younger sister six years later, was born.
With Loveboat Forever, I faced the challenge of sending another Wong sister on a similar trip, but of course, it would need to be uniquely her own. They are different girls, despite growing up in the same family. Pearl is the younger child. I’m the eldest in my family, like Ever, Rick and Sophie. And I have to admit, I felt like Pearl had it easy! Ever paved the way with their parents, so that Pearl could pursue her passions for music. But I also loved that Pearl is emotionally healthy in a way Ever wasn’t at her age. And that Pearl is a natural leader, with a good relationship with their mom, unlike Ever. Pearl spent hours in the car driving to music competitions and performances with her mom, and that’s how they bonded.
I loved unfolding Pearl’s journey against the backdrop of her older sister’s experiences. Pearl saw Ever’s transformation from duckling to swan, and when she arrives at Loveboat, Pearl is immediately swept away by her own Boy Wonder.
But from there, their paths diverge.
The final key to building out this story-verse is the supporting cast, who reflect the vast diversity in the community.
My favorite side characters included the Gang of Five, a group of guys who over the course of the first novel, take back their own narrative. Marc Bell-Leong, their leader, returns to Loveboat as the new Dragon.
In Loveboat Forever, Pearl’s besties Hollis and Iris, are the children of Loveboat alum, third generation who are comfortable with their heritage.
The supporting characters showcase a diversity of interests, personalities and immigrant backgrounds. They are dancers and football players, studying everything from political science to computer science. They are slackers as well as overachievers, who make good and bad choices, fall in love, get their hearts broken, pick themselves back up and keep on moving forward as better human beings.
Conclusion
From a single novel to a sprawling universe of books and film, Loveboat gave me the opportunity to weave together a tapestry of unique journeys, set against the vibrant backdrop of Taipei. As readers and viewers of all backgrounds come alongside Ever, Sophie, Xavier, Pearl, and their host of friends, my hope is that they all see themselves in some ways, and know that they too can be and are the heroes of their own stories.
