Growing up, high school friendships were everything – but so was one’s reputation. So when a group of friends get blamed for an attack on a cheerleader, they can only rely on each other to help clear their names.
That’s the plot of the new YA novel “Pride or Die.” Author CL Montblanc says the book centers around the main character, Eleanora.
“She is an anxious, plant-loving, crocheting lesbian character who is the leader of her school’s LGBTQ Club. And in the club with her are her friends, Lene, Tyler and Noah,” they said.
“ All of them just kind of want to have this safe space at their school,” Montblanc continued. “They go to school in Texas and in an area where it’s not such a great environment and there’s a lot of bullies and the school administration is also full of bullies. And so their motivation really is to keep their club together while there are outside forces trying to fight against them.”
Montblanc, who was raised in Texas, used a bit of their upbringing to set the scenes. However, since it’s fiction, the moments they pulled from are made to be more hyperbolic.
“ I grew up in Texas and, minus things like the weather, really loved it here,” they said. “It definitely became a large part of who I am. And a lot of the book does reflect my experiences growing up in Texas, although it’s definitely more exaggerated and satirical. But I do think it provides a really great setting for a coming-of-age story about queer kids.”
Montblanc wasn’t going for any famous friend group referenced, but they do see how the book’s characters could be reminiscent of one specific mystery-solving gang.
“ I was not taking inspiration from other famous groups, but I do get the ‘Scooby-Doo’ comparison a lot,” Montblanc said.
Instead, with the group being made of the school’s LGBTQ club, they used club roles to round out the personalities of the group.
“The club has a class president, so that person’s probably gonna be, you know, if they’re in charge, maybe they’re a bit bossy, maybe they take on a lot of responsibility, etc.,” Monblanc said. “And so I thought of a VP and then a treasurer and kind of formed the characters around that.”
They also took note of sitcom structures and classic tropes in comedy.
“What type of personalities go well together? You know, there’s always like a straight man – who in my book I wanted to make neither straight nor man, ’cause I thought that was funny,” they said. “And then like the goofball and then all those classic dynamics, putting them together just to have that fun dynamic of very distinct characters.”
Montblanc says they were really inspired by the young adult, contemporary coming-of-age comedies.
“ You’ll see a lot of like romcoms where it’s just kids who get to have fun. But I wanted to add my own spin on that,” Montblanc said, noting that popular murder-mystery comedies like “Knives Out” and “Only Murders In The Building” were popular when they were writing the book.
“There’s not a lot of young adult, mystery, comedy books, Montblanc said. “I just saw a lot of potential there for hijinks, because when you start adding murder and crime into the mix, there’s a lot of antics to be had.”
