Something Certain, Maybe

Something Certain, Maybe is a powerful novel about first love, friendships and embracing the uncertainty of an unknowable future, from Sara Barnard, winner of the YA Book Prize.

Rosie is ready for her life to begin, because nothing says new life like going to university. After years of waiting and working hard, she’s finally on the road that will secure her future.

Except university turns out to be not what she hoped or imagined, and although she’s not exactly unhappy – really – she might be a little bit worried that she doesn’t really like her course much. Or her flatmates. Or, really . . . anything? But it’s normal to be homesick (right?) and everything will have settled in a month or two, and it’s totally fine that her friends seem so much happier than she is, and that the doctors don’t seem to know what’s wrong with her mother.

And then she meets Jade, and everything starts to look a little brighter. At least, it does if she’s only looking at Jade. But is first love enough when everything else is falling apart?

Macmillan

This is the 3rd outing with Rosie and her best friends Caddy and Suze. I thought Beautiful Broken Things was great, all those years ago before I put photos in tweets…

…adored Fierce Fragile Hearts

…and Something Certain, Maybe was no disappointment…

…so I’m very pleased to be sharing a Q&A with Sara Barnard as part of her blog tour today, A-Level results day!

  • Rosie’s voice is so authentic, as are all your characters, do you eavesdrop on lots of teenagers?

Thank you! I don’t usually eavesdrop on real teenagers, no! The voices of my characters always just come through very clearly to me. My biggest piece of advice for writers writing teenage voices is to not actively try to make them sound like teenagers. Just trust their natural voice.

  • When you wrote ‘Fierce Fragile Things’ were you already planning ‘Something Certain, Maybe’?

Not at all! I wish I had been, because it would have made Something Certain, Maybe much easier to write! One of the most difficult parts of writing this book was making sure it fitted alongside FFH. There are a lot of things I would probably have done differently with FFH if I’d known there’d be another book set over the same period. So maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t know, because I love FFH a lot!

  • Which of the 3 girls came to you first, and who was the hardest to write?

Suzanne, and she came along quite a lot earlier than Caddy or Rosie. I wouldn’t say any one of them is particularly hard for me to write, because I could write all of them all day long and be very happy! But if I had to pick one out of the three, it would probably be Rosie, for reasons that are more to do with her book being the third one than her as a character.  

  • What kind of reaction have you had from teen readers?

Readers generally tend to respond to the friendship between the three girls, though I get the most messages about Suzanne! With Something Certain, Maybe in particular, I’ve been struck by how many people in their 20s and older who have got in touch to say how much the story of a disappointing university experience resonated with them, and how they wished they’d had the book when they were at university. I had hoped to put something on the page that doesn’t really get talked abou, so it means a lot that it has resonated with people in this way. 

  • What kind of reader engagement event, in schools or libraries or elsewhere, do you enjoy most?

YALC is always my favourite, but generally literary festivals are always a joy. There’s something about all those people choosing to be there out of a shared love of books. They’re such engaged audiences and there are usually some great questions. 

  • Have you finished writing about Caddy, Suze, & Rosie or do you think you could be tempted to write about them in their 20s?

I would love to write them in their 20s! I have written bits and pieces of them a little older. But I can’t imagine it would ever be something that would have a life outside of my laptop, sadly! 

  • What are you reading and who would you recommend it to? 

I am very late to the party, but I’m currently reading Life After Life. It is just as brilliant as everyone always said it was. I’d recommend it to everyone who likes reading.

  • What are you working on at the moment?

I’m editing my next YA book, Where the Light Goes, which will be out next year! 

Check out the rest of the tour. Thank you to Macmillan for organising!
Every single one of these books is brilliant.

About Caroline Fielding

Chartered School Librarian, CILIP YLG London Chair, Bea-keeper

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