The Nerd Daily recently had the pleasure of welcoming back Sophie Gonzales, author of such novels as Only Mostly Devastated, Perfect on Paper, and the upcoming Never Ever Getting Back Together! We got to ask Sophie all our burning questions surrounding her new novel, gaslighting, championing queer relationships through reinventing romcom tropes and so much more!
Hi, Sophie! Thanks for joining us again. How has life been treating you this past year?
As always, thank you for having me! It’s been a whirlwind year, editing Never Ever Getting Back Together and writing two new novels! I’ll tell you more about those later, but it’s been a lot of fun.
Lightning round: Tell us one thing that never fails to make you smile, one goal you have for the upcoming year and a compliment you’ll never get tired of hearing (and giving)!
Meeting a new kitten; sell my next book; “it’s really interesting to debate with you”.
Now, tell us about Never Ever Getting Back Together! What can readers expect?
Never Ever Getting Back Together is a YA rom-com about Maya Bailey, who agrees to re-date her cheating ex-boyfriend on a reality TV show in order to get revenge on him for breaking her heart, and Skye Kaplan, the unintentional “other woman”, who teams up with Maya to take him down.
Your novels always have a cinematic feel to it, Never Ever Getting Back Together perhaps even more so because of its reality TV show setting. If this story were to be adapted, which scene would you be most excited to see on the big screen?
Oh thank you!! Probably the concert scene, because I love music, and I want to hear the made up band Jordy loves listening to!
You also have a talent for putting a fresh spin on beloved romcom tropes! Where do you draw inspiration for your stories from?
Usually book ideas just come to me, but Never Ever Getting Back Together was inspired by me wanting to write about reality TV (after having been involved in it a couple of times myself), and also the media’s obsession with the love lives of teen celebrities. That, plus a teen dating show that came out last year, made me want to combine all of these ideas into a rom-com!
Never Ever Getting Back Together has a plethora of epic elements – a reality TV show setting, a sapphic romance, a villain you’d love to slap some sense into, so much banter and a whole lot of twists – that work together seamlessly. What, in your opinion, makes a novel truly stand out?
For me, a novel will stand out if it can make my expression change. If I’m laughing, or crying, or frowning in fear, I know I’m invested. (Eye-rolling does not count).
The novel also features a sapphic ‘frenemies’ romance that is filled with misunderstandings and misplaced resentment, but also a lot of camaraderie and heart. Did Maya and Skye’s story come easily to you or were there scenes that were tough to get down on paper?
It was tough to write their story given the timeline of the show! Usually when I write a book, I’ll be able to focus on the relationship and build moments around that, but with a reality show, by nature, you have to stretch the timeline out and check back in after longer gaps. Otherwise, your readers are going to be wondering why we didn’t see the third or fourth week challenges, or why this reality show only filmed for two weeks! So it was a careful balancing act of trying to show the changing feelings and growth between scenes that were often days and days apart. I definitely had my most fun with Maya and Skye when they were antagonising each other, though. There’s a lot of passion involved in being completely distracted by someone’s presence!
Never Ever Getting Back Together also has a character named Jordy that is basically the personification of gaslighting, someone you can’t help but love to hate. What inspired Jordy’s character and, without spoiling too much, did you have a favourite scene that included him?
Jordy is . . . both fictional and non-fictional. He’s an amalgamation of my horror stories, and my friend’s horror stories. The people I’ve met and wondered “was that for real?”. The men I’ve begged my friends not to give a second chance to. I had a lot of material, fortunately (unfortunately?). My favourite Jordy scene was definitely the plot twist during the final final episode, because it showed that he’d been paying more attention than Maya or Skye gave him credit for.
If you could trade places with any of your characters for a day, who would you choose and why?
I would be Ruben Montez from If This Gets Out, because I would die to perform in front of a sold-out stadium!
With Never Ever Getting Back Together releasing soon, are you already working on another project?
Yes! So I’m finishing up my rewrite of my next book, which I’ll address in the next question. But I’m also working on something dark and speculative that’s, as of right now, unsold. I’m super excited and passionate about it, though, so wish me luck!
Last but not least, do you have any 2023 releases our readers should keep on their radar?
Yes! My next book, The Perfect Guy Doesn’t Exist, is a YA sapphic rom-com about a fanfic writer who accidentally wishes her fanfic character to life, but discovers that the things she thought were so romantic in books are . . . less so, in real life.
