The B&n Ya Podcast

Gretchen McNeil is the author of YA books including the Agatha Christie-inspired Ten; the Don't Get Mad series, coming soon to the BBC and Netflix; and the #MurderTrending series, continuing this month with #MurderFunding, an anarchic horror comedy about a reality TV show gone disturbingly wrong. We talked to McNeil about what really scares her, how her performer's past influenced her writing, and being the teen with all the bad ideas.

Today our special guest is Derek Millman, author of the new novel Swipe Right for Murder. Millman burst onto the YA scene last year with his darkly funny debut Scream All Night, set in an off-kilter world of B-movie monsters. Swipe Right for Murder is part classic noir story, part 2019 coming of age, and absolutely page turning throughout. Millman sat down with B&N's Melissa Albert to talk about his obsessions, inspirations and the stories that have fed his one-of-a-kind imagination. 

I'm not Dying with You Tonight is the story of two high school seniors who find themselves thrown together when a fight at a sporting event ignites into widespread violence of a kind that's become heartbreakingly familiar.  As events spiral out of control, Lena and Campbell — who are most certainly not friends — will need each other to make it through the night, get to safety and pick up the pieces.  It's a propulsive story that unfolds over the course of hours, but the conversations that readers are going to want to have — about racism, prejudice and reality, and what it means to cross seemingly enormous divides between us — are going to go on for a long time.  We were so lucky to have authors Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal with us to talk about their enthralling debut — they dropped into the studio just as I'm Not Dying With You Tonight hit bookshelves everywhere.

If we had to name two things we're maybe most obsessed with on the B&N YA Podcast, they would be amazing debuts, and fascinating twists on classic tales. So we're thrilled today to have as our guest Erin A. Craig, whose brilliantly conceived debut novel House of Salt and Sorrows is coming next week — a story that mingles eerie atmosphere, a tantalizing mystery, and a twist, of course, on one of the most haunting and beguiling of classic fairy stories, The Twelve Dancing Princesses. House of Salt and Sorrow hits bookshelves on August 6th, and in the run up to its arrival, Craig spoke with B&N's Melissa Albert about how her background stage-managing lavish productions helped spark her writer's imagination.

For six books and counting, author Serena Valentino has enraptured readers with her stunning upendings of the tales of favorite heroes and villains in her Disney Villains series, reimagining beloved tales like Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and The Little Mermaid. The golden thread that linked these stories? Her mischievous, troublemaking trio, The Odd Sisters, who finally get to share their version of things in their very own edition of the series. B&N Teen Blog editor Sona Charaipotra, author of Symptoms of a Heartbreak, talked to Valentino about the new book, whether she was intimidated at reimagining beloved Disney faves, how she maps and connects her sprawling world, and which of the Odd Sister is most like her.

TK

Rory Power’s debut novel, Wilder Girls, is a dark, razor-sharp thriller set in an island boarding school beset by a gruesome plague. With elements of body horror, slow-burn love story, and dystopian, it’s the August pick for the B&N YA Book Club. Melissa Albert talked to Power about messy emotions, inventing a plague, and what led up to writing her first book.

In Astrid Scholte's inventive and beguiling mashup of murder mystery and fantasy, Four Dead Queens, the world of Quadara is a carefully divided realm in which technology and nature, commerce and beauty, reason and emotion are carefully sorted out among four wildly different regions, each with its own queen representing her people's unique character. Teenage thief Keralie Corrington is drawn into an intrigue that threatens to overturn the balance at the heart of this world — and Keralie's cunning and professional skill may be crucial to untangling a deadly conspiracy — if she can survive the ordeal. We talked with Astrid Schulte by phone about her approach to worldbuilding, the Stephen Spielberg film that inspired her career, and how she went about pursuing her goal of writing in her words, a fantasy version of Agatha Christie. 

Claire LeGrand is the author of YA and middle grade books including The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, feminist horror novel Sawkill Girls, and Furyborn, the epic, bestselling fantasy series she dreamed about for years before she wrote it. It's the story of two powerful women, separated by centuries, who will succumb to or defy a very dark destiny. We talked to LeGrand about book two in the series, Kingsbane, subversive writing, and how she worldbuilds.

Sarah Dessen is a YA queen, the beloved author of over a dozen contemporary YA novels exploring themes of loss, first love, assault, family ties, and all the confusing, heartbreaking, thrilling moments when things change forever for her young protagonists. Her new book, The Rest of the Story, centers on a lakefront town divided between the working-class families who live there year round, and the wealthy families who just summer there, and the girl whose fraught family history straddles both. We talked to Dessen about her teen years, her long career, and how the YA landscape has changed since her debut.

Since the release of her bestselling debut, When Dimple Met Rishi, Sandhya Menon has been writing funny, heart-tugging romcoms centering Indian American characters, exploring modern arranged marriage, first love and first heartbreak, memorable meet-cutes, and self-acceptance. To celebrate her third book, There's Something About Sweetie, we talked with Menon about body positivity, finding the time to write, and her own teen love story.

Since 2010 author and designer Hafsah Faisal has been writing about books on her blog Icy Books, and now she's celebrating the launch of her own Arabian culture inspired fantasy debut. We Hunt the Flame is about a girl who braves an enchanted darkness to keep her people alive, a prince who kills on behalf of his father, and their unexpectedly shared quest to bring magic back to their world. Faisal joined Melissa Albert for a chat about inspired design, great fantasy maps and the spark that became We Hunt the Flame.

Days after they got engaged in front of a joyous bookstore audience, I sat down with Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy to talk about their inclusive fantasy/sci-fi series starter Once & Future, pitched as queer King Arthur in space. The authors talked about their cowriting adventures, falling in love, and taking creative and personal leaps of faith.

Jennifer Donnelly is the author of historical fiction including Printz honoree A Northern Light, and fantasy novels that travel under the sea, into the Beast's magical library, and now into the small country village of Stepsister. Her latest follows Cinderella's so-called ugly stepsister, whose life becomes a battlefield between Fate and Chance: one of whom wants her to march quietly to her predetermined end, the other determined to help her defy it. We talked to Donnelly about fractured fairy tales, her life as a storyteller, and weird historical research.

Every week, Christine Riccio tells hundreds of thousands of people what to read next on her booktube channel PolandBananasBooks—and now, she's promoting her own bestselling debut novel. Again, But Better tells a story of study abroad, second chances, and decisions that change your life with a magical twist, and it's Barnes & Noble's very first pick for the newly launched YA Book Club. We talked to Riccio about her fandoms, debut noveling, and being a book crusader.

Julie Buxbaum is the author of warm, funny, feelsy adult and YA novels, including YA debut Tell Me Three Things, a story of anonymous letters, displacement, and first love, and her new book, Hope and Other Punch Lines, about unwanted fame and the personal fallout of a national tragedy, set over the course of one long, life-changing summer. We talked to Buxbaum about hard questions, the click that happens when you know a story is right, and feeling like you’re just playing at being a grownup.

Maurene Goo writes warm, funny romantic comedies with irresistible hooks and fabulous supporting casts, about type-A K-Drama obsessives, K-pop stars, LA prankster girls, and heart-lifting love stories. We talked to her about going to K-Pop school, owning your guilty pleasures, and new book Somewhere Only We Know.

Today on the B&N YA Podcast, Elizabeth Acevedo joins us to talk about her forthcoming novel With the Fire on High, the story of a high-school girl balancing motherhood, her care for her beloved grandmother, and her ambitions to take her culinary talents to new heights. It's a marvel of a follow-up to The Poet X, her National Book Award-winning novel in verse.  She talks with Melissa Albert about food, identity, memory, reading and much more.

Emily A. Duncan is a youth services librarian and YA author whose Russian-inspired fantasy debut, Wicked Saints, centers on a cruel prince, a boy turned monster, and a girl with a pantheon of gods whispering in her head. This buzzy first novel inspired fan art before it even released, and has since hit the bestseller list. We talked to Duncan about fanfic, fairy tales, and pantsing her way through two books and counting.

Danielle Paige has revisited the story of Dorothy Gale, gone dark retelling the Snow Queen, and now, with Mera: Tidebreaker, tells the tale of Aquaman's partner in crime as a teen girl fighting for what's right and falling in love for the first time.  We talked to Paige about writing her first graphic novel, playing with canon, and what she learned in soap opera school.