Two exes must revisit their past after their siblings start dating in this rom-com perfect for fans of Sandhya Menon and Morgan Matson.
We chat with author Farah Naz Rishi about her new YA book release, It All Comes Back To You, along with book recommendations, writing, and more!
Hi, Farah! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hi! Hope you’re all doing safe and well in these, uh, fire-and-brimstone times. I’m Farah, a Pakistani-American author and voice actor. My first book, I HOPE YOU GET THIS MESSAGE, is a story about an impending alien invasion and follows three characters’ lives before the End of Days. My second book, IT ALL COMES BACK TO YOU, is a romcom/coming of age story about two exes who discover that their older siblings are planning on getting married, and are now forced to reunite after years of silence.
When I’m not attempting to write books, I’m voice acting and playing far too many video games (which I justify by calling it research).
When did you first discover your love for writing?
Oh, I was late to the writing game. I dabbled in fanfiction and poetry in high school, but I never really took writing seriously until law school. I used writing as a way to escape the stress the stress and find a creative outlet, but then I couldn’t…stop. It brought me more than comfort. It brought me meaning. I realized I wanted to spend the rest of my life writing stories to (hopefully) comfort others, too.
This is all to say: there is no deadline or age limit to start writing.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
The first book I remember reading was a book of fairytales my Dad gave me (when I must have been only six or seven) called The Treasury of Virtues. I’m fairly certain my little brother drew all over it and I cried for days. No, I’m still not over it.
The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud was the book that made me want to be an author. That voice! It felt like Jonathan Stroud had so much fun writing it.
Sabriel by Garth Nix. I feel like this one’s pretty self-explanatory but that book was incredible. Haunting, even. And what a cast of characters! Touchstone will forever have a place in my heart.
Your latest novel, It All Comes Back to You, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Messy, dramatic, heartfelt, vulnerable, and (a whole lot of) misunderstandings.
What can readers expect?
If you want a story about perfect people who are perfectly in love, this isn’t it. Kiran and Deen are flawed characters who are carrying a ton of emotional baggage; their story is an emotional trainwreck waiting to happen. Yes, they’ll make some questionable decisions—even bad ones. But there’s a lot of love in them, and, not so secretly, between them. And everything they do is the name of protecting the ones they love the most. They just need a little help—and time—breaking those walls and finally letting go.
Along the way, their story is replete with desi and Muslim cultural references, video games, dancing, (hopefully) funny banter, and, unsurprisingly, hopefulness for a better future. Hope, I’ve realized, tends to be recurring theme of mine.
Where did the inspiration for It All Comes Back to You come from?
My first introduction to romcoms was the movie You’ve Got Mail, and my absolute favorite romance is Pride & Prejudice, so I wanted to write a kind of mishmash of those two stories. Hence why we have these online video game transcripts between Kiran and Deen, and the fiery Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan banter between them.
Can you tell us about any challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?
This was my second book, so I had to deal with the pain and discomfort of starting an entire story from scratch. I kept thinking I’d completely forgotten how to write. And this idea was so different from my first book. I mean, it was a complete genre shift, and I’d never written a romcom before. It took me a really long time just to start writing because I felt so lost.
It wasn’t until I started reading a ton of fanfiction on a late-night whim that I remembered why I loved certain stories so much. You can tell the writer wrote completely unhinged; it’s like they wrote whatever the hell they wanted, whatever they thought would be fun, rules be damned. So I approached writing this book like fanfiction instead of a book, and somehow, that shifted my entire perspective.
Write unhinged! Even if your ideas sound bonkers. If you’re having fun writing it, your readers will have fun reading it.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I adored writing Vinny, who’s Deen’s best friend and foil, and Asher, who’s Kiran’s best friend and moral compass. Vinny is a sweet, earnest boy who I wrote like a typical Jersey Shore boy (but wholly unproblematic), like Joey from The Circle. His interactions with Deen were so fun to write. As for Asher, he’s just wonderfully deadpan, almost cold, but he cares deeply for Kiran and her family. I love characters with that kind of dimensionality.
Your debut novel I Hope You Get This Message published in 2019. Has your writing process or anything else changed at all between these releases?
I don’t know how else to say it, but: I stopped caring. About the rules of writing, about what will sell, about what people will think. My only rule is to make sure I don’t write anything that hurts people. Everything else is fair game. I’m no longer afraid to experiment or write about things that made me nervous in the past.
As a result, I’ve never loved writing more than I do now. It’s awesome.
What’s next for you?
Another romcom. And this will be my most personal one yet. I’m very excited.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
I’m reading The Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan and loving it. I also just read The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary and I think that belongs on my Favorite Reads shelf. Ugh. I love romance so very much.
