The time it was about Fragments of the Lost

Posted November 1, 2017 by Stacee in Blog Tours, Giveaways, Interviews | 5 Comments

I’ve been a fan of Megan Miranda’s since the beginning.  I love her YA books and her adult books {All the Missing Girls was one of my top 5 books of 2016} and when the blog tour sign up came for Fragments of the Lost, I couldn’t type fast enough.

Before we get to Megan’s interview, let’s check out the book!

Title: Fragments of the Lost
Author: Megan Miranda
Pages: 384
Pub Date: 11/14/17
Publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers
Find it: PRH | Indiebound | B&N | Amazon | Goodreads

Jessa Whitworth knew she didn’t belong in her ex-boyfriend Caleb’s room. But she couldn’t deny that she was everywhere—in his photos, his neatly folded T-shirts, even the butterfly necklace in his jeans pocket…the one she gave him for safe keeping on that day.

His mother asked her to pack up his things—even though she blames Jessa for his accident. How could she say no? And maybe, just maybe, it will help her work through the guilt she feels about their final moments together.

But as Jessa begins to box up the pieces of Caleb’s life, they trigger memories that make Jessa realize their past relationship may not be exactly as she remembered. And she starts to question whether she really knew Caleb at all.

Each fragment of his life reveals a new clue that propels Jessa to search for the truth about Caleb’s accident. What really happened on the storm-swept bridge?

Sounds good, right?

1. Please give the elevator pitch for Fragments of the Lost.

A girl packing away her ex-boyfriend’s room discovers that the truth she believed about their relationship, and the events leading up to his death, might all be a lie.

2. What sparked the idea?

We moved a few years ago and went through the process of cleaning out our house, deciding what could be tossed and what we needed to keep. But somewhere in the moving chaos, we forgot about the existence of a couple of boxes left behind in a storage unit. Going through these boxes so much later, I was reminded of the power of physical objects in recalling such vivid memories. The spark of the idea for FRAGMENTS OF THE LOST first came to me then, wondering what sort of story you could tell from the memories of objects left behind.

3. Why do you love Jessa and why should we root for her?

For much of high school, Jessa believes she’s been viewed always in relation to someone else—either as Julian’s younger sister, or as Caleb’s girlfriend. Going through Caleb’s room becomes so much more than uncovering Caleb’s story—it becomes a mission to uncover her own as well. Jessa is a character who pushes her own boundaries, not only in what other people think she’s capable of, but what she has always believed about herself as well.

4. The story is told partly in fragments from the items Jessa finds in Caleb’s room and the memory attached to them. How did that change the way you wrote and edited the story?

This was how I began writing the story, putting myself in Jessa’s mind, discovering the pieces alongside her. I found that I was basically mapping out two stories at once: the memories of the past that each fragment triggers; and the week in the present, where Jessa is unspooling the mystery, piecing those fragments back together. During the editing process, I used a lot of multi-colored spreadsheets to keep track of the timing of both, and the perception of each memory as Jessa gained new information.

5. What was the weirdest thing you googled while researching?

Haha, well, the true weirdest things would probably be spoilers, but I ended up googling a bunch of high school sports season schedules to help track the timelines. It probably seemed weird to anyone who was in my office who saw printed out high school baseball and lacrosse schedules for random schools in New Jersey.

6. Without spoilers, what was your favorite scene to write?

The very last one. :)

7. How is writing YA different than writing adult?

The only way I approach them differently is in thinking about who the narrator is, and filtering the story through that perspective. In YA, often times a character is experiencing something for the first time, so there is often this immediacy that comes with that perspective. In the adult perspective, a character would instead by filtering the events through all of their past experiences. But other than that, I find the processes very similar—I’m just following a different character on their journey.

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Megan Miranda is the New York Times bestselling author of ALL THE MISSING GIRLS. She has also written several books for young adults, including FRACTURE, HYSTERIA, VENGEANCE, SOULPRINT, and THE SAFEST LIES. She grew up in New Jersey, graduated from MIT, and lives in North Carolina with her husband and two children. THE PERFECT STRANGER (4/11/17) is her second novel of psychological suspense.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads

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Huge thanks to Rockstar Book Tours for the invite and to Megan for taking the time. Make sure you’re checking out the rest of the blog tour and keep scrolling for a giveaway!!

**Good Luck!!**

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5 responses to “The time it was about Fragments of the Lost

  1. danielle hammelef

    Thanks for the interview! I love to read mysteries and you’ve got me wanting to find out the secrets behind the accident. Can’t wait to read this.

  2. Yesss, I love Megan too. <3 SO MUCH. Her books are so good. Sigh. I'm so happy that you are such a huge fan of her too :) And this interview was so awesome. Eee. I loved that final scene too; SO MUCH :D I need a sequel, just for that ;)

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