We Didn’t Ask for
This
by Adi Alsaid
On Sale: April 7,
2020
Inkyard Press
Young Adult
978-1335146762; 1335146768
$18.99 USD
352 pages
About
the Book
From
Adi Alsaid, the acclaimed author of Let's Get Lost, Never
Sometimes Always, and North of Happy
Every
year, lock-in night changes lives. This year, it might just change the world.
Central
International School's annual lock-in is legendary -- and for six students,
this year's lock-in is the answer to their dreams. The chance to finally win
the contest. Kiss the guy. Make a friend. Become the star of a story that will
be passed down from student to student for years to come.
But
then a group of students, led by Marisa Cuevas, stage an eco-protest and chain
themselves to the doors, vowing to keep everyone trapped inside until their
list of demands is met. While some students rally to the cause, others are
devastated as they watch their plans fall apart. And Marisa, once so certain of
her goals, must now decide just how far she'll go to attain them.
Q&A with Adi Alsaid
Q: What's your favorite thing about Marisa Cuevas?
A: Her willingness to fight for what she believes in.
Q: I love the juxtaposition of a lock-in against a political protest. What was the most challenging part of threading those two very different pieces together?
A: Honestly, it was the logistics of actually keeping the students locked in. The political protest wouldn’t work without it, nor would the plot. So I had to find a whole lot of justifications that felt reasonable within the story. Other than that, one of my goals was to show, embodied in different characters, all the ways people react to political protests, and to make them feel like actual people, not just symbols.
Q: What do you most hope that readers take away from the story?
A: Getting others to care about what you care about is hard, but you’re allowed to try, and it’s possible to succeed.
Q: What inspired you to write this book?
A: I’ve been wanting to write a book that felt like my favorite book, Bel Canto, for a while now. So the very initial inspiration was a group of characters all stuck in the same place for an extended period of time. Then, to make it feel more YA, I thought of The Breakfast Club, but instead of cliques, just bring people with different passions together. Then, because of my increasing awareness over the last few years about environmental issues, combined with the fact that I was traveling and seeing those issues play out around the world, I brought in the fight for climate change.
Q: Is there a character that you found challenging to write? Why?
A: All my characters come easily to me. The challenge is working to get them right in revisions. Jordi Marcos, a sort of villain in the story, was one that was hard to get right, in order to make his actions feel justified. I also have a queer Muslim character in Amira, and I had to work—and had the fortune of being guided by a great sensitivity reader—to not make her representation be harmful.
Q: How does a typical writing day look like for you?
A: Assuming this means not in the time of COVID-19. I wake up and go straight to a coffee shop, where I work/avoid looking at my phone for about 3 hours or so. Then I usually have lunch, take a break by watching a movie, running errands, or something in that vein. Then another work session in the afternoon or late evening at another coffee shop or perhaps a bar, followed by cooking dinner. During deadline times there’s also usually a late night session at home.
Q: What are your current reading?
A: I’m about to finish The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy, listening to The Art of Logic in an Illogical World by Eugenia Chang, and my next read will probably be Incendiary by Zoraida Cordova.
Q: Is there something secret you can share with us about anything in the book or your experience writing it?
A: I don’t know about secret, but I’ll say that I had the unique experience of traveling the world while writing it. So, many of its words were written in the communal areas of hostels, on airplanes, trains, on an island in Fiji, and in many, many coffee shops.
About the Author
Adi Alsaid was born and raised in Mexico City. He attended
college at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He's now back in Mexico City,
where he writes, coaches basketball, and makes every dish he eats as spicy as
possible. In addition to Mexico, he's lived in Tel Aviv, Las Vegas and
Monterey, California. His books include Let's Get Lost, Never Always Sometimes,
and North of Happy. Visit Adi online at www.SomewhereOverTheSun.com, or on
Twitter: @AdiAlsaid.
Social Links:
Facebook: @adialsaidauthor
Twitter: @adialsaid
Instagram: @uhhdee
Buy Links:
Books-A-Million: https://www.booksamillion.com/p/We-Didnt-Ask-This/Adi-Alsaid/9781335146762?id=7833509719461
Google
Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/We_Didn_t_Ask_for_This?id=LGSSDwAAQBAJ&hl=en_US
