Q&A with Brittney Morris

 

Photo by Kariba Jack Photography

 

 

Brittney Morris is the author of the new young adult novel This Book Might Be About Zinnia. Her other books include the YA novel SLAY. She lives in Philadelphia.

 

Q: What inspired you to write This Book Might Be About Zinnia, and how did you create your characters Zinnia and Tuesday?

 

A: This story began as a passing notion that it would be fun to read about a teenager following clues in a bestselling novel to track down her birth mother, and it quickly evolved into an examination of motherhood, daughterhood, how they parallel and mirror each other, how one can influence the other, and my own relationship with motherhood and daughterhood.

 

Tuesday lives a life steeped in adversity—financial, racial, parental, and physical. Zinnia lives a largely carefree life—she has two parents who love her dearly and can afford to send her to Harvard, their alma mater, and who have a trust fund waiting for her when she graduates, she excels in school, has friends, is popular, and is conventionally beautiful.

 

And yet, in both of their timelines, the struggle of daughterhood and motherhood is very real, in very different ways.

 

Q: The Kirkus Review of the novel called it a “compelling, introspective journey into identity and the power of familial love.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I do always hope my books are compelling—that’s a wonderful thing to hear. It’s certainly introspective, examining daughterhood and motherhood, perfectionism, mental illness, and the pressure to be the perfect daughter and the perfect mother, and how they often mirror and feed into each other.

 

In my own childhood, I was frequently screamed at, chastised, and made to feel unworthy of love unless I danced to my parents’ music perfectly. I swore I’d be a better parent one day.

 

But this means I have a propensity to pressure myself to be the perfect mother, and it would be easy to project that perfectionism onto my child, which would ironically perpetuate the cycle. I’m careful to keep that at bay, but the struggle is real and ongoing. 

 

Q: The story alternates between 2024 and 2006--did you write the novel in the order in which it appears, or did you focus more on one storyline before turning to the other?

 

A: I wrote the whole novel in the order in which it appears because I wanted to highlight moments of juxtaposition between what it was like growing up in 2006 vs. growing up today.

 

Zinnia scrolls through thousands of songs available to stream anytime, while Tuesday carries a Walkman with her favorite CD inside. Zinnia is bombarded by societal expectations from all sides in a constant barrage of social media posts, texts, notifications, and phone use, while Tuesday flips her phone closed, logs out of MSN live chat, and shuts out the world in a second.

 

Each timeline carries its benefits and challenges for both Tuesday and Zinnia, in daughterhood and motherhood.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the novel?

 

A: My eternal hope for my readers is that they read what I’ve written and feel something. Anything. It’s especially wonderful if they feel something new or unexpected, or see something from a new perspective.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Next up is my first adult novel – a vampire romcom, and a YA sequel to one of my previous releases. Details on both coming soon!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I talk a lot in This Book Might Be About Zinnia about the notion of letting go of things or people that don’t support or serve you. I just want to emphasize how important that is. 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Brittney Morris.