We chat with K.J. Reilly about her new release Four for the Road, which is described as The Perks of Being a Wallflower meets The End of the F***ing World and follows four unlikely friends dealing with the messy side of grief who embark on a road trip to Graceland.
Hi, K.J.! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I’m the author of the YA book Four For The Road, as well as my debut YA novel, Words We Don’t Say, which came out in 2018. They both have male narrators, so I’m currently writing a book with a female narrator to even the score! I’m super shy and introspective—which is probably a writer thing. I love gardening and cycling—both of which are solitary activities as well, so that kind of fits. I also love music—classic rock, hip hop and rap, and I’m happiest when baking bread—so I probably should be running a bakery. At least that way I wouldn’t have to eat all the bread myself! I also have a weird obsession with blueberries and pears. I literally eat blueberries every day, and collect pictures of pears. I have no idea why.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
I’ve always loved books and writing, even as a young child. I worked in business writing as a researcher for big ad agencies then as a ghostwriter for nonfiction books before I settled on writing fiction for teens. As important as books are throughout our lives, I feel they have the biggest impact on us when we’re young. The books that impacted me the most were the books I read before college, and my hope is that I can write books that can have that same kind of eyes-wide-open, life changing impact I felt.
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!
Okay, first book I remember reading: Are You My Mother? by P. D. Eastman
Book that made me want to be a writer: Every book I’ve ever read! But . . . if I had to pick one, it would be a short story. Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart. I read that obsessively as a teen.
Book I can’t stop thinking about: Four For The Road, for obvious reasons!
Your new novel, Four for the Road, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
The. Darkest. Uplifting. Grief. Book.
What can readers expect?
If I accomplished what I set out to do, readers can expect an enormously intense emotional roller-coaster ride. A reading experience that will leave them feeling both heartbroken and heartful; crushed and hopeful; tearful and laughing. I hope Four For The Road will make readers feel compassion and empathy and profound grief, but ultimately light hearted and empowered. Very empowered. We are all flawed and contradictory and human. We have to forgive ourselves and survive. We often don’t think that we can do that, but we can.
Where did the inspiration for Four for the Road come from?
I wanted to explore what happens when a really good kid ends up in a really bad place. I wanted to see how someone might experience a feeling of loss and grief when it’s combined with guilt and anger and the desire for revenge. It seemed relevant to much of what we are experiencing in the world today; a lot of grief and loss and injustice we don’t know how to deal with.
Can you tell us a bit about the challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?
Probably the greatest challenge for most writers is self-doubt. Writing a book requires a giant time and energy commitment and you have to put yourself out there creatively. That’s not always easy to do. To get up every day and face your computer knowing the book may not sell or editors may not like it. You have to push past that self-doubt and find the discipline to commit to something creative and acknowledge that it also needs to be commercially viable in order to exist in the outside world.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I loved the intense emotional scenes that explore Asher’s most private thoughts—we’re witnessing the deep, dark thoughts of someone who has fallen apart. As a writer, it was intimidating to put that on paper in raw honest form, but these scenes became some of my favorites. Those and the moments of real connection Asher makes with Henry and Will and Sloane. The defining moments that connect us to another human being are interesting. I wanted to give readers a real person—someone who is giving us access to his most private thoughts. That’s intimidating to do as a writer, but ultimately very satisfying.
Were there any ‘must-haves’ you wanted to incorporate when it came to writing your novel, such as tropes, topics, characteristics etc?
Authenticity of heart. That, and fully dimensional characters. Take Asher, we have to like him, and yet he tells us that he killed his mom, he’s setting out to murder someone, and he’s catfished a girl. That should make him inherently unlikeable—and yet it doesn’t. We have empathy. That had to be established by creating a situation that is relatable and showing Asher as a complete human being; one with both a bad and a good side.
What’s the best and the worst writing advice you have received?
Worst advice – Follow the rules of conventional grammar. Use simple, digestible sentences. Plot matters over voice. Be proper! Outline!
Best advice — People don’t think or speak in complete sentences. We ramble. Stumble. Have incomplete thoughts, so write like that. Don’t outline. Let the story be defined by the characters. Voice is everything. Find honest words.
What’s next for you?
I’m super excited about my next book! It’s YA fiction that’s part thriller, part romance, and part speculative. There’s a 17-year-old female narrator who sees no future for herself until a new girl comes to town and changes everything in the biggest possible sense. In fact, she rips the sky wide open. The book is titled Sixteen Minutes and there’s a love triangle and a mystery to solve and suspense in the form of a life-or-death deadline. But at its core, it’s about love and loss and family, and what matters to us in this life. It’s a book that I hope with be transformational for readers.
Lastly, do you have any 2022 book recommendations for our readers? Any you’re looking forward to in 2023?
I’m a lagger, not a leader, when it comes to fiction, meaning I’m focused more on what I haven’t caught up to yet, rather than what’s new. But in YA, I am looking forward to reading All my Rage by Sabaa Tahir, The Weight of Blood by Tiffany Jackson, and in middle grade, Two Degrees by Alan Gratz. I’ll also be reading poetry by Mary Oliver, which is not new but she’s universally loved and poetry doesn’t take a big-time commitment. And I’ve recently been re-reading some of the classics like Farenheight 451, Animal Farm, and Wuthering Heights—again not new, but still powerful. And I’ll be checking out any new books from Adam Silvera, Neal Shusterman, Krystal Sutherland and Chuck Klosterman. Favorite books include A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly, I was Amelia Earhart by Jane Mendelsohn, The Hours by Michael Cunningham, Bang by Barry Lyga, and Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz. These are timeless treasures and personal favorites that are good any year!
