We chat with author Adrienne Rivera about My Fair Monster, which follows an ADHD beauty queen and a grumpy special effects artist who team up to enter a monster costume contest. Hijinks, spooky season activities, and romantic activities ensue!
Hi, Adrienne! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hi! I’m Adrienne! I both write and consume YA romcoms as much as possible. When I’m not doing that, I enjoy horror novels and movies, shopping for kitschy home décor, playing board games and video games, and developing obsessions with various internet famous animals (right now, I’m all about the hyrax). Also, cats. Always cats.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I don’t remember ever not loving books. My mother is also a big reader and read to me pretty much from birth until I was big enough to read for myself. I’ve always written, whether it be stories, bad poetry, ongoing sagas co-authored by my younger sister, or ill-advised forays into very public online journaling. When I started college, majoring in creative writing was a given. Then I was lucky enough to continue studying writing in graduate school. Basically, I started writing as a little kid and never stopped.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: A Little Golden Book called Katie the Kitten by Kathryn and Byron Jackson that I used to make my parents read to me daily. I was so proud when I was able to read it myself.
- The one that made you want to become an author: The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. I loved the movie when I was little, but when I realized it was a book and read it, that was it.
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Pizza Girl by Jean Kyong Fraizer. I gobbled it up immediately when it came out in 2020 and I’ve thought about it probably every week since.
Your debut novel, My Fair Monster, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Funny, cute, Halloween, pageantry, messy
What can readers expect?
My Fair Monster is a Halloween romcom. So even though it’s about horror movies and the kids that love them, it’s also sweet and heartfelt and full of romantic moments between the two characters as the main character, Corie, cracks her way through Everett’s grumpy exterior. But beyond that, it’s about following your dreams and the impact that struggling with undiagnosed neurodiversion can have on you’re your life, goals, and the people around you. And of course, it’s about self-acceptance too.
Where did the inspiration for My Fair Monster come from?
I used to live on the same street as a guy who made masks in his garage. Every day I’d drive past his house and see him working on something terrifyingly cool (@evillejs on Instagram, but be aware, there is gore!). As a horror lover, I was fascinated. Then it hit me that maybe the opposite of horror was beauty and the idea started taking shape.
And the ADHD aspect? For my main character Corie, when it came to writing her, I wanted to write about some of the struggles I faced growing up. Difficulty completing tasks even when I wanted to, forgetting obligations, letting people down, and struggling with feeling like I was either being way to much or nowhere near enough. I thought I was writing a story about personal accountability. But then, when my agent and I were preparing the manuscript for submission to editors, she was like “This character clearly has ADHD. Why don’t you just call it what it is?” So Corie got her diagnosis, which I think became the heart of the book. And then after a trip to the doctor, I got my diagnosis too.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
Corie might be my favourite character I’ve ever written. I loved the dichotomy of her love of pageantry and horror and figuring out ways I could mash those two things together. I really wanted to create a character with big dreams who also learned to accept the parts of her that sometimes made those big dreams seem impossible. Plus, with her, I was able to exercise my deep desire to inject as many jokes as possible into each chapter.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
Horror and romcoms don’t naturally mesh! It was such a fun challenge to take something that isn’t inherently romantic, like a bloody fake eyeball, and turn it into a cute moments that reflect Corie and Everett’s mutual interest in horror. One way I tried to boost spooky season vibes was to try to describe settings the way you might in a horror novel. You’ll find that quite a few chapters set the scene in a way that might make it seem like the characters are walking into something scary, only for it to turn out that they’re going to the movies or to a Halloween fundraiser.
Another fun task I assigned myself was giving each chapter a scary movie (or scary movie-adjacent) chapter title!
This is your debut novel! What was the road to becoming a published author like for you?
I’ve been writing for pretty much forever. I majored in creative writing in college and went on to get my MFA in fiction. So for a long time, my focus was literary short stories. Classmates pointed out my tendency to focus on romantic relationships in my stories and how often the main characters were teenagers, but I kept plugging away without seeing the signs that maybe I should switch it up. I published some of my short stories, but never found much traction with them. It wasn’t until I realized my heart was actually in writing YA romance that I started to really make progress. I was writing more than I ever had before and connecting more with the stories I wrote. I queried a couple of novels before My Fair Monster and while those obviously didn’t work out since this is my debut, the positive response I got from agents showed me I was where I was supposed to be. Getting a spot in round eight of the now-defunct Author Mentor Match solidified that even more. My Fair Monster is my fifth novel. I signed with my agent in February 2024. We went on submission in April and by May, we’d sold My Fair Monster to Page Street YA. After years of work, when it finally happened for me, it happened all at once. Now, my debut month is here and I still haven’t fully digested the fact that my oldest dream has come true.
What’s next for you?
I recently finished something cute and new that my agent and I hope to submit soon, so hopefully that project will be able to find it’s way into the world. I also have another Halloween romcom I hope to release at some point.
Lastly, what books have you enjoyed reading this year? Are there any you’re looking forward to picking up?
Oh, I could talk forever about this. I’ll try to control myself.
In the YA space, I recently read and loved Love Off the Record by Samantha Markum and The Someday Daughter by Ellen O’Clover. I also listened to the audiobook for America’s Not-So-Sweetheart by Blair Hanson and that was fantastic.
For comics, I really liked Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy by Faith Erin Hicks and The Summer Hikaru Died by Mokumo Ren, though I haven’t had the chance to watch the anime yet. The Kiss Bet by Ingrid Ochoa, originally a Webtoon, has a couple of volumes out in print now too. Highly recommend.
And for general fiction, Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone wrecked me in the best possible way. I also loved You Between the Lines by Katie Naymon and The Favorites by Layne Fargo.
I can’t wait to read Katabasis by R.F. Kuang. These books aren’t out yet but I’m anxiously awaiting Hazelthorn by C.G. Drews, Oxford Blood by Rachael Davis-Feathersone, Audrey Lane Stirs the Pot by Alexis Hall, Midnight on the Celestial by Julia Alexandra, and She’s a Knockout by Britney Brouwer. And I don’t know if Cat Sebastian is ever releasing another Midcentury in NYC novel, but if she does, I’ll be the first one in line.
