First of all, I would like to express that Seven Ways We Lie is truly a masterpiece, and I am blown away every time I return for a reread. The characters are distinct yet relatable in a way that feels both raw and devastatingly human. Secondly, I was wondering: if you are familiar, which MBTI and/or Enneagram types would you assign to the Seven?
hi oh my goodness - i don't know how i didn't see this until now, i am truly sorry for the delay. thank you so much for your kind words - i feel softer and softer toward those characters as i age farther and farther from them (and from myself at the time). am thrilled you have connected with them. <3
i don't know much about Enneagrams - i forget what my own is, in fact - but I can make a good-faith effort at MBTI typing them :) under the cut!
Olivia: ESFP. Because I'm not a HUGE mbti person, I tend to guess at types by doing each individual letter, then looking it up to see how I did overall! I love that warmth, high energy, and humor immediately showed up for this one. Olivia all over. I think she's also quite a detail-oriented and results-driven person which is what pushes me toward sensing rather than intuition.
Kat: INFJ. had some difficulty choosing between judging and perceiving for kat. ultimately, though, i don't think she's flexible enough to make sense as an INFP. she's very reactive, but i do think she has strict ideas of worldview and plans accordingly, which feels more J to me?
Juniper: ISFP. juni is all about ~the interior~ for me. what is moving under her surface? there's a pragmatism and in-the-moment vibe to her that pushes me toward Sensing. was sort of torn between isfp and istp for her but i think she is ultimately very much guided by what she feels at any given time.
Claire: ENTJ. maybe the easiest of all of them. gregarious and needing social engagement, constantly draws lines between two ideas (which feeds into her wounded feelings when she recognizes patterns she dislikes), and makes decisions based on prior thoughts and evaluations (with a single crucial exception).
Valentine: INTJ. no, okay, i take it back, this was the easiest one. lol.
Lucas: ENFP. i like that lucas is valentine's total opposite except for the intuition! this seems to make sense to me on a larger scale. they balance each other with lots of contrasts, but are still able to share a sense of the bigger picture.
Matt: ISFJ. haha, sort of the reverse of olivia for this one, where i looked up the type after selecting letters and saw, "ISFJs are industrious caretakers ... motivated to provide for others and protect them from the perils of life." which initially seems very wrong for a guy whose main struggle throughout the book is getting himself to act. BUT i do think that he is happiest once he DOES allow himself to indulge those instincts - taking care of his little brother, caring about and supporting olivia. man, i miss writing this boy.
thank u for the fun ask and again for making my day!! <3
omg hii!! I'm a big fan of your novel 7WWL and I was just wondering if you have made music playlists for the characters? And if you haven't what type of music do you think each of the characters listen to?
hello dear anon!! thank you for reading 7WWL, i’m so glad you liked it! i have not made playlists for each of the characters, but i do have this general mood playlist for the book overall.
here are some random headcanons about each character’s music taste:
kat listens to hip-hop almost exclusively (anderson paak and chance are favorites). also, occasionally, metal. she does not listen to musical theatre and IN FACT gets very irritated when people assume she does.
it will take her ~10 years to grow out of her feelings that musical theatre isn’t “real theatre”
and then she will finally admit to herself that she does really like the song “What You Own” from Rent
olivia likes garage rock, cheesy oldies, and any song that will embarrass claire when they roll the windows down in juniper’s car.
juniper i see as an indie-darling listener... julien baker, sufjan stevens, fka twigs, phoebe bridgers.
claire is very involved in listening to classical music, much to juniper’s chagrin. juni absolutely forbids claire from playing anything related to her violin pieces.
matt is the only one whose music taste is mentioned in the book, i think? he is Very Secretive about his music taste because he listens to a lot of bratty punk pop.
valentine alternates between six different ambient playlists and hates it when songs have words because he is trying to concentrate, thank you.
lucas, unlike kat, does listen to musical theatre.
also, he unironically enjoys songs that are sort of memes. like country roads and despacito and wagon wheel.
Seven Ways We Lie sequel called Eight Ways We Lie where it turns out there's a super secret eighth deadly sin called "Juggling On-Fire Chainsaws" and it's the same kids from 7wwl but they meet a new guy who juggles on-fire chainsaws too much send ask
I just finished 7wwl (ended up reading your books in reverse order of publication) and I cannot Believe that you were in high school/college when you wrote/revised it. I myself am only a year younger than you and none of my writing has been as fully realised! I am in awe of your talent and absolutely cannot wait for your next book
ahhh anon thank you so much! this is so kind. 7wwl is very funny to me because i'm almost certain i would never attempt something like that book now. seven different first-person present-tense POVs? was i a masochist???? anyway, i'm really excited for this next book and can't wait to share it. i wish you all the best and much joy in your own writing!
So, I was thinking about Valentine the other day... and I was just wondering how he’s doing. Is he drinking water? Talking to another human being once in awhile? Lost all of his faith in humanity over the 2020 events that have occurred thus far?
oh, anon, my heart is warm... i love to think of Valentine...
i think in a 2020-like situation he would be doing all right except for recurring feelings of nihilism. i picture a lot of closing his laptop hard halfway through news articles with a disgusted look on his face.
having spent so much of his life as a loner, i think he’s prepped for social isolation... he probably has a weekly catchup with Lucas on the phone which mostly involves Valentine sipping coffee while Lucas releases his pent-up extroversion. and i like to think that somewhere along the way, Kat has strongarmed him into trying one (1) or two (2) video games that ... despite Valentine’s omnipresent disinterest in fiction and especially sci-fi ... are sort of fun. not that he would ever admit that to Kat or anyone else. anyway, so they probably play together remotely every so often, and he constantly, loudly complains about scientific aspects of the worldbuilding, and Kat just laughs.
i also like to think that valentine has an easier relationship with his parents once he’s out in the world. like, he’s a self-conscious character, but not an anxious one - i think independence and leaving town and working in a lab would be a huge relief for him. imo, despite becoming less solitary, he’d still retain lingering feelings of discomfort with the idea of relying on people - so he’d become competence and efficiency all the way down. but once he feels he’s “earned” his adulthood, and that the playing field is level, he’s less insecure about talking to his parents.
