This Is All Your Fault // Blog Tour

Author: Aminah Mae Safi
Published On: October 13, 2020
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Genre: YA, Contemporary
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Synopsis:

Set over the course of one day, Aminah Mae Safi’s This Is All Your Fault is a smart and voice-driven YA novel that follows three young women determined to save their indie bookstore.

Rinn Olivera is finally going to tell her longtime crush AJ that she’s in love with him.

Daniella Korres writes poetry for her own account, but nobody knows it’s her.

Imogen Azar is just trying to make it through the day.

When Rinn, Daniella, and Imogen clock into work at Wild Nights Bookstore on the first day of summer, they’re expecting the hours to drift by the way they always do. Instead, they have to deal with the news that the bookstore is closing. Before the day is out, there’ll be shaved heads, a diva author, and a very large shipment of Air Jordans to contend with.

And it will take all three of them working together if they have any chance to save Wild Nights Bookstore.

Hey, friends! Today is an exciting day because I’m on the This Is All Your Fault Blog Tour!! This book is about a group of teens working at a local indie bookshop in (home sweet home) Chicago, and I loved every second of it!

I was lucky enough to be chosen to ask Aminah Mae Safi a few questions, and boy did she come through! I grinned all through reading these. I hope you enjoy them, too!

Hi Aminah! Thanks so much for joining me on my blog today. To start off, tell us a little more about This Is All Your Fault . What’s it about?

This Is All Your Fault follows three girls as they try to save their dying, beloved Chicagoland indie over the course of twenty four hours. So it’s about fighting the good fight and getting in the ring even when you think you’re likely to lose the fight. It’s also about girl gangs and friendship and the moment where you start to see someone through new eyes.

What were the challenges of writing from three different unique female perspectives? Did you find writing one more enjoyable than any of the others, or were they all about equal?

They were all different enough that I really did find them each enjoyable in their own way. The nice part about writing from three POVs was that you never got stuck in any one character’s head for too long. So there was a good amount of variety.

I’d say the frustration points between switching was when, say, you thought of a really good metaphor for expression what was going on, but in the wrong character’s head. So if I thought of a great Imogen way of saying something but I was in Rinn’s head, I had to let it go. I did not love that.

What was your favorite part about writing this story?

I loved writing in three POVs, funny enough. I loved the way everyone saw the story a little differently.

I also loved writing all of the side characters. Getting to populate the bookstore filled with regulars was so much fun. I remember trying to write a character that was irritating, but by the end, I even kind of loved him popping up in the story and ruining the day. It was a rich tapestry of people to get to work within and I am really happy that I got to dig into so many different characters.

I’m actually from Chicago, and I loved seeing the little geographical elements sprinkled throughout! Was there any inspiration behind the Wild Nights bookstore location? How did you come to choose Chicago as your setting?

Oh how fun! I love to hear that. So, I was thinking of the no cell phone policy at Myopic Books in Wicker Park. I was also thinking about their lower lighting situation. But I was also inspired by one of my favorite bookstores here in LA, The Last Bookstore, and all their wild on-site art installations. So those were the two core drivers of the set piece that is Wild Nights Bookstore and Emporium.

I lived in Chicago for a year and it was, up until 2020, one of the hardest years of my life. I think I always knew I’d have to go back and examine that through fiction. But I hadn’t been ready until this book. So the book about getting in the ring and fighting, even when you think you might have already lost, well it’s set in the city that took away all of my pretenses and stripped away all the BS I had built up around myself.

I’m sure that’s no accident.

Tell us about your ideal writing spot – where are you, what are you drinking, listening to, etc?

Man, if I’m lucky I’m just at my desk jamming and I don’t need any music to get into the zone. But if I’m not, I sometimes write from bed with my headphones one. If I’m really struggling, I’ve got on Pzizz for focus. And back when we could go outside, I used to change it up by going to the coffee shop and interacting with people for a little bit while I worked.

And last but not least, if Daniella, Rinn and Imogen all had to agree on a place to get dinner, where would they end up?

LOL. Wow truly an excellent question and one that would probably take at least twenty minutes of debate to decide. I think Rinn would make them go to The Chicago Diner, for their delightful milkshakes.

Aminah Mae Safi is a Muslim-American writer. Safi was the winner of the We Need Diverse Books short story contest, and that story appeared in the anthology Fresh Ink. She lives in Los Angeles, California, with her partner and cat. This Is All Your Fault is her third novel, following Not the Girls You’re Looking For and Tell Me How You Really Feel.

Enter below for a change to win a finished copy of This is All Your Fault by Aminah Mae Safi. This giveaway is open to US residents only, and will run from October 12th – October 19th at 12:00 AM CST. Enter to win by clicking the button below.

Thanks for tuning in, my friends, and happy reading!