Today we are very excited to share an interview with author Sonia Patel!
Read on to learn more about the author, the book, and a giveaway!
Meet the Author: Sonia Patel
Sonia Patel writes out of her experience as a first-generation Indian American born in New York and raised in Hawaii, an experience lushly and brilliantly explored in her debut novel, Rani Patel in Full Effect. Rani received four starred reviews and was a Morris Award finalist and a YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults and Kirkus Reviews’ Best Teen Books selection. Her subsequent young adult novels, Jaya and Rasa: A Love Story and Bloody Seoul, both received the In the Margins Book Award. Her short story, “Nothing Feels No Pain,” appears in the YA anthology Ab(solutely) Normal. As a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist trained at Stanford University and the University of Hawaii, Patel has spent over twenty years providing individual and family psychotherapy to children, adolescents, and their families. She lives in Honolulu with her husband, and they have two adult children in college.
About the Book: GITA DESAI IS NOT HERE TO SHUT UP
From Morris Award finalist Sonia Patel comes a sharply written YA about a girl grappling with a dark, painful secret from her past, perfect for fans of All My Rage and The Way I Used to Be.
It’s eighteen-year-old Gita Desai’s first year at Stanford, and the fact that she’s here and not already married off by her traditional Gujarati parents is a miracle. She’s determined to death-grip her good-girl, model student rep all the way to med school, which means no social life or standing out in any way. Should be easy: If there’s one thing she’s learned from her family, it’s how to chup-re—to “shut up,” fade into the background. But when childhood memories of her aunt’s desertion and her then-uncle’s best friend resurface, Gita ends up ditching the books night after night in favor of partying and hooking up with strangers. Still, nothing can stop the little voice growing louder and louder inside her that says something is wrong. . . . And the only way she can burst forward is to stop shutting up about the past.
~Author Chat~
YABC: What gave you the inspiration to write this book?
GITA was inspired by my own experiences in college and the experiences of teen girls and new adult women I’ve treated in my psychiatric practice, in terms of addressing toxic hookup culture, boundary-setting, and the long-term fallout of chronic childhood incest/sexual abuse (as opposed to circumscribed sexual abuse).
YABC: Who is your favorite character in the book?
Gita! She’s funny, hardworking, loves her brother and friends, and her path to turning her poor decisions into healthy ones is realistic in being excruciating and frustrating.
YABC: What scene in the book are you most proud of, and why?
I’m most proud of the hookup scenes that uber-realistically show Gita’s textbook mute language of chronic childhood sexual abuse—her inability to set boundaries with men who treat her as a sexual object.
YABC: What came first, the concept, landscape, characters, or something else?
The concept! I wanted to write the book I needed as a teen!
YABC: If you could only write one genre for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
Definitely realistic YA! Validation of real life adversity, struggle, and dysfunction is the first step to agency and empowerment, and sometimes a realistic book might be the only validation a young person has!
YABC: How do you keep your ‘voice’ true to the age category you are writing within?
I’ve spent over twenty years listening to, speaking with, and guiding young and new adult patients, so this realistic YA voice of flaws, struggle, and resilience comes easily to me. That and I always try to channel my younger self when I’m writing.
YABC: What can readers expect to find in your books?
Emotional pain, humor, and slow and imperfect self-reflection and growth.
YABC: What is your favorite snack when writing?
Roasted and salted pistachios or cashews!
YABC: If you were able to meet them, would you be friends with your main character?
I would love to be friends with Gita, she is flawed, funny, and just beginning to find her strength and voice beyond her unconscious and learned “survivor mode.”
YABC: What’s up next for you?
A realistic YA with a male protagonist, most likely in verse!
YABC: Is there anything that you would like to add?
Thank you for this opportunity to share!
Title: GITA DESAI IS NOT HERE TO SHUT UP
Author: Sonia Patel
Release Date: September 10, 2024
Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers
ISBN-10: 0593463188
ISBN-13: 9780593463185
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Age Range: 14 and up
~ Giveaway Details ~
Three (3) winners will receive a copy of GITA DESAI IS NOT HERE TO SHUT UP (Sonia Patel) ~US Only!
*Click the Rafflecopter link below to enter the giveaway*
