Charlene Thomas is the author of the new young adult novel It's You Every Time. Her other books include Streetlight People.
Q: What inspired you to write It’s You Every Time, and how did you create your characters Marcus and Sydney?
A: It’s You Every Time is one of those stories that was just meant to be written. At the time, I was at the very early stages of my first experience with profound grief—my dad had passed unexpectedly at the end of 2022, just a couple months after my debut novel had released.
Then, in the early part of 2023, an editor at Scholastic who had read my debut reached out to my agent hoping we might be able to find a way of working together. She shared with me an idea she had for a love story, and—desperate to try and process my own feelings—I proposed it be a grief story as well. After all, one can’t exist without the other.
So, that was the impetus of the story—two teens who are working through their own grief (while trapped in a time loop!) and fall in love in the process.
In a lot of ways, it’s a book about fate—the big ways that we’re protected in the moments when we don’t even realize it—and I think that’s also really fitting, considering the fact that writing this book really has felt like fate for me.
Q: The writer Ann Liang called the book a “beautiful, deeply moving exploration of fate, grief, and love.” What do you think of that description?
A: Ann is so incredible at what she does and it’s such an honor to have received her praise for this book. I think her description is right on—this is a book about a lot of things, but at its core, it’s a story about grief, fate, and love.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: Yes! I did know how it was going to end. I almost always know how a story is going to end before I start writing it—the end, and how I hope it makes people feel, is usually one of the first things that pops into my mind when I’m about to start something new.
I always love when a story wraps up in an unexpectedly powerful way, and I try my best to create something similar with my own books.
Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: We actually weren’t sure what the title for this story would be when my editor and I first started working together. We were tentatively calling it Should Tomorrow Come, but we always knew that didn’t feel exactly right.
It was actually the marketing team at Scholastic that proposed It’s You Every Time, and we all just fell in love with it. It’s sweet, but it’s also really meaningful when you see these teens stuck in the same day, and especially once you reach the ending.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m working on two things right now! Neither of which I can say too much about just yet. The first thing is a genre-bendy YA that I’m referring to as “sunshine horror” and takes place at a glitzy, sinister all-girls summer camp. The second is another YA romance that I really think fans of It’s You Every Time will love.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Yes! While It’s You Every Time is my first YA romance, it’s actually my third published novel—and I’d love to invite you to check out the others.
My debut, Seton Girls, released in 2022 and centers a prestigious prep school with an undefeated football team and the group of girls who have to decide what to do once they discover their sinister secret.
And my sophomore novel, Streetlight People, released in 2024 and is a very twisty story about a small town with strong class divisions and the everyday girl who wins the power time travel at their annual Halloween carnival, revealing secrets about hometown that are darker than she ever dreamt imaginable. Both are available now!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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