Why did you choose an all-girls boarding school as the setting? Did you attend either? What do you think are the pros and cons of an all-girls environment? Part of me still wishes I'd gone with one of the others. I also wrote alternate endings with different killers.

It had something of a happily ever after, believe it or not. I did actually write a different original ending, and it changed during the editorial process. How did you decide on the ending and were you ever considering a different one? The Dear Valentine incident was inspired by a time I was broken up with the day before Valentine's Day, and I still had a Valentine's Day rose from the person who broke my heart delivered to me in front of everyone at my locker the next day. It's hard to remember what I was inspired by at this point, but in conversations with my editor, I remembered that when I was in college, there had been a murder near campus on Halloween night, and I have to believe that was at least a subconscious inspiration. I started writing People Like Us in 2016. When did you start writing People Like Us, and what inspired you? After finishing the book in a single sitting, I reached out to Dana and had the chance to interview her. Because at Bates Academy, the truth is something you make.not something that happened.ĭebut author Dana Mele has written a taut, sophisticated suspense novel that will keep readers guessing until the very end.What’s better than drama, revenge, and murder, all in a boarding school setting? Dana Mele’s young adult thriller People Like Us has it all, plus an addictive plot with a shocking twist.

But if Kay's finally backed into a corner, she'll do what it takes to survive.

The dead girl has left Kay a computer-coded scavenger hunt, which, as it unravels, begins to implicate suspect after suspect, until Kay herself is in the crosshairs of a murder investigation. But when a girl's body is found in the lake, Kay's carefully constructed life begins to topple. Now she's a star soccer player whose group of gorgeous friends run their private school with effortless popularity and acerbic wit. Kay Donovan may have skeletons in her closet, but the past is past, and she's reinvented herself entirely. 'In People Like Us, Dana Mele delivers the Gossip Girl meets Pretty Little Liars young adult novel you've been waiting for.'- Bustle 'Mean Girls meets Donna Tartt's The Secret History with a little bit of Riverdale mixed in.

People like us dana mele