Macavity Award-winning LC Rosen is the author of “Camp” and “Lavender House,” both of which were honored as “The Best Book of the Year” by Buzzfeed and Forbes Magazine. Inspired by Jane Austen’s “Emma,” he has dived back into the world of romcoms with his modern-day book: “Emmett.”
The book follows handsome, clever and rich Emmett Woodhouse, who lives comfortably with little to distress or vex him in all his eighteen years. He knows he’s blessed, which is why he tries to give back. From charity work to letting annoying classmates sit at his lunch table, he knows it’s important to be nice. And recently, he’s found a new way of giving back: matchmaking. He set up his best friend Taylor with her new boyfriend, and it’s gone perfectly.
So when his occasional friend-with-benefits Harrison starts saying he wants a boyfriend (something Emmett definitely does NOT want to be), he decides to try and find Harrison the perfect man at their private school, Highbury Academy.
As someone who has seen what loss can do, due to his mother’s death, Emmett knows dating is bound to end in a disaster. But the lines Emmett tries to draw are more porous than he thinks, and as he tries to find Harrison the perfect match, he learns that he has no idea what he’s doing when it comes to love.
As a Jane Austen lover myself, I had to fangirl over the hype of retelling some of her class stories in this interview and ask LC what reading romcoms can teach us even as we grow older.
What made you decide to use “Emma” by Jane Austen as your inspiration?
A lot of things! I think the initial impulse was the Austen quote about [when] writing Emma, about writing a character no one would love but her. I love that mentality. So I always had that idea in my mind – writing a take on “Emma,” but remembering to make the protagonist just the worst.
Do you have a favorite Jane Austen book? If so, what is it and why?
I think it varies with my mood. I do love “Emma,” though, because she’s so wonderful and so terrible all at the same time. For the same reason, I love “Northanger Abbey,” though Catherine is terrible in different ways. I just love how much Austen was willing to write these deeply flawed characters and make them funny. But then there’s also “Persuasion,” which is a much more adult, more intense read. Yes, Anne is flawed, but it’s a different sort of tone, a much sadder novel in many ways, and one I think as you get older, you relate to more and more.
Emmett seems to focus on being nice and helping others. Is there anything you learned more about yourself when writing his character?
I’m never sure if I learn more about myself through writing these other character or just learn to love more of myself. Like, I know that as a teenager I was a condescending know-it-all, writing “Emmett” didn’t make me realize that. Hell, I’m still a condescending know-it-all at times. But writing him did make me sort of love teen me a little more, and forgive teen me for being, at times, the worst.
How does writing historical mysteries differ from writing teen romcoms?
Contemporary teen rom-coms require way less research! But seriously, they’re very different for obvious reasons, and the mindset and tone are totally different, and I love switching between them… but I do think there’s something “Emmett” and “The Bell in the Fog” have in common, which is an emphasis on community, on queer community, and how your queer family can help you through the rough stuff.
How does your queer Jane Austen inspired book differ from other authors’ such as Rachael Lippincott who write Austen retellings? What can readers look forward to?
Well, the Lippincott book has time travel, I believe. “Emmett” definitely doesn’t have that. It’s purely contemporary, and I think shares just as much DNA (if not more) with Clueless as it does with “Emma.” It’s got that Bridgerton romance hyperreality happening, where when people kiss, flowers fall from the sky and there’s always a string quartet playing a cover of a pop song somewhere nearby. But it also has Emmett commenting on the falling flowers and getting kind of annoyed with them. So it’s silly and romantic and fun, I hope.
What do you think romcoms teach us? What do you hope “Emmett” will teach readers?
I hope “Emmett” teaches readers that love and relationships (especially queer ones) are messy, and that you gotta love the messiness instead of trying to control it. I think rom-coms, in general, can show us all these different ways of being in love, and how love is complicated but worth it. I think with YA, we have to be careful – I’m always wary of telling young folks whose lives are just beginning that they can and should meet the love of their life immediately – but when done right, YA shows folks that love is something that grows, not an ending, and it’s all about finding someone you can grow with.
Thank you so much LC Rosen for answering my questions! I agree there is definitely something alluring about Jane Austen writing flawed characters (I personally love “Northanger Abbey”). Wishing you much success on “Emmett!”
I’d also like to thank Cheryl Lew from Little Brown Books at the Hachette Book Group for sending me a copy of Lev’s work and thinking of me when it comes to these interviews. Always a pleasure to work in the genre I constantly read, and I can’t wait for many more!