We chat with author Jenna Satterthwaite about Made for You, which is a twist-filled debut that deftly explores the exhilarating point where artificial intelligence, reality TV and bone-chilling murder mystery meet.
Hi, Jenna! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Sure! I grew up in Spain. I just turned 41. I have a massive new scar on my left eyebrow from falling over my 6-year-old at a rollerskating rink a couple weeks ago while we were in Wisconsin celebrating my birthday. I live in Chicago with my husband and our 3 kids. I’m the family breadwinner, my husband is a stay-at-home dad (who is absolutely magnificent at it), and I’ve worked at a beverage company for the past 15 years (!!!). This January, I also launched a new career as a literary agent. I feel like it took me longer than many to find my passion, but authoring and agenting are IT, and even though I’m insanely busy between the 3 jobs and the 3 kids and all the Other Life Stuff, I feel SO lucky to have found something I love AND gotten the chance to do it. Though I’ll probably never quit the day job because, you know, health insurance.
I should also mention that I’m a hardcore nerd: my husband Adam and I met living in the Honors Community dorm at Indiana University our freshman year, when we were babies of 18. We fell in love while staying up all night to talk religion, philosophy, and do dorm-floor read-throughs of Shakespeare. A surprising amount of couples emerged from the Honors Community who are married to this day, and we like to joke that none of us ever would have met romantic partners unless the university administration threw all of us nerds in together (though I’m sure many other nerds are very socially and romantically versed, we… were not).
Also, you should probably know that I would eat sushi every single day if I could afford to, I taught myself how to twerk as a grief-processing tool during my sister’s cancer journey, and I’ve been writing for nearly 10 years, so I know a thing or two about rejection (*waves at publishing*). And I always, always try to write primarily for my own enjoyment.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
When I was 9, I wrote my first novel Cry Baby in a flower-covered journal. I recorded these thoughts in my journal (original excerpt):
Dad said maybe I could get my story “Cry-Baby” published, and he wasn’t joking either. I suppose I could get it published . . . Actually, I think it’s very possible. Many kids my age have gotten books published. Maybe I could. And anyway, why not? Dad knows a writer (not personally), but he knows of a writer who they pay by the word. I’m not sure how much though. I wish I did , so I could have an idea how much, how rich he is. Not that I’ll ever be payed that much but. . . I wish they did pay me that much, but then again I don’t want to be famouse either. That surely would not be fun. Imagine people visiting you every second of the day, while you were so very hard trying to write? Ugh!!! The very idea of that is disgusting.
So as you can see, my goal was to be rich but not famous. Also, the writer Dad “knew” was, ehem, Charles Dickens.
Ever since I learned how to write in kindergarten, I haven’t stopped—novels were my first love, then short stories, poetry, journaling, blogging in my 20s, and then in my 30s I made my first “grown up” attempt at writing a novel. That first one was terrible, and the second one wasn’t much better, but that’s okay. I caught the bug and I haven’t stopped since.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.
- The one that made you want to become an author: Probably a combination of Little Women and Anne of Green Gables. Again, my authorial dreams started very, very young!
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Ooooh there are many, but I’ll pick This is How You Lose the Time War. Its originality and literary-propulsive blend blew me away.
Your debut novel, Made for You, is out July 2nd! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Murder, AI, fantasy, twisty, mystery.
What can readers expect?
For one, to be surprised, I hope. Based on early reviews, the twists seem to be landing (yay) and catching people off guard in a good way. That’s great to see. Also, I worked in a lot of my own questions about life as I wrote the book, so I hope there will be some thought-provoking moments on questions of AI, personhood, discrimination, purpose, and some fun philosophical questions like, what makes identity? Is it a core essence that’s inalterable, or is it our choices that shape us and define us? We fiction writers are lucky because we don’t have to actually answer the questions we pose. Our job is to just turn the prism and show as many facets of a question as we can—which is the fun part. Sometimes I pity non fiction writers, who actually have to come up with a ‘final word’ on something! No idea how they do it.
Where did the inspiration for Made for You come from?
I was taking a walk during my work break, along the Chicago river, in March 2022. I’d been watching the new season of Love is Blind on Netflix and I’d just finished reading The Ones We’re Meant to Find by Joan He (highly recommend) which had put Bots that are indistinguishable from humans on my mind. As I walked, ideas collided, and I thought “oooh, what if a robot that looked exactly like a human competed on a reality TV show?” It was a no brainer to add murder.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I can’t reveal some of my favorite moments without spoling it, so what I’ll say is that this book was very cathartic for me to write. My youngest sister was dying of cancer as I wrote it (she died right as the book was going out on submission to editors, summer 2022), and though the initial idea for the book came from a place of pure escapist fun, it really turned into a place for me to process my grief, my questions about purpose and pain and the isolation that intense suffering brings. During the cancer years leading up to writing Made for You, I was deconstructing a lot of the assumptions I’d made about life/existence/God from the Christian point of view, and that definitely came out as I explored Julia’s relationship to Andy, her creator. This started as a fun book—and I think it IS a fun book still—but it’s also my grief book and does go to some dark places. But in a light way! Kind of. I keep describing it as “suspense candy,” and I think that in spite of the heavy themes, it’s still mostly a frothy, light, murdery page-turner.
This is your debut published novel! What was the road to becoming a published author like for you?
I’ll put it succinctly (because I really could write a novel about this)—I’ve been writing for 10 years. I spent 4 ½ years of those 10 querying as I tried to find an agent. I finally signed with Lauren Bieker (FinePrint). Yay! Then we spent another 4 years trying to sell 6 different books (a young adult mystery, a women’s fiction, an epic fantasy… you name it, I wrote it!). Made for You was the one that finally stuck… though I still have hopes for the others! At this point, I’ve written 12 books. Once, I tallied up my rejections between agents and editors and it came to something like 800. The fun part of that is, I have developed extremely thick skin, and have found that bad reader reviews (so far) have zero effect on me. Which… seems like a silver lining?
Even though it’s been such a long journey, my agent Lauren always said that once we sold the 1st, more would follow, and she was right. My next book, Beach Bodies, will be out Summer 2025 with Transworld/PRH UK, and my third book The New Year’s Party will be out with Mira/HarperCollins October 2025.
What’s next for you?
Edits for The New Year’s Party, which is a very fun locked room more traditional mystery that I’m so excited to get out there… possibly further edits for Beach Bodies… and then, writing my next book! I have some ideas, but I haven’t put any words to the page yet. In the past, this would have made me panic, but I’ve learned in my decade of writing that while I draft really fast (I wrote Made for You in under 2 months), I need long breaks between projects. That drafting process is really intense, and I can’t sustain that level of focus and work all year round, or I wouldn’t do anything else. Like, you know, snuggle my kids. Or hang out with my husband. Or have friends. Which, as it turns out, is VERY important.
Lastly, what books have you enjoyed so far this year and are there any that you can’t wait to get your hands on?
Ooooh, yes! I’d love to give a shout-out to Nathan Gower’s The Act of Disappearing which just released 5/28—his writing is to-die-for gorgeous, his characters are deep and complex, and I SO appreciated the nuanced discussion on womanhood, motherhood and mental illness, all wrapped up in a super compelling, page-turner of a mystery. No idea how he did it. I’m also really excited to read Beth Kander’s adult debut I Made it Out Of Clay. I mean, check out this one-liner: “a Jewish woman creates a golem in a moment of desperation and unearths the greatest fear she’s ever faced.” Like, WHAT? YES. I also can’t help but notice that in my book, I have a male creator (Andy) making a perfect woman (Julia), and in her book there’s kind of the opposite—a female creator making a man/golem out of desperation that turns into her greatest fear. I can’t wait to read it with that comparative thematic eye, because I’m super super curious what she’s going to do with it! Also, late to the game here, but I am devouring Layne Fargo’s They Never Learn. It’s a ruthless knife of a book. Hot dang, Layne can WRITE.
