Adi Alsaid, author of NEVER ALWAYS SOMETIMES, on Clichés, Road Trips and Friendship

Fresh Fiction Reviewer Samantha Randolph sits down with Adi Alsaid, author of NEVER ALWAYS SOMETIMES to talk clichés, road trips, and friendship.

Samantha: Thank you so much for stopping by Fresh Fiction! We are thrilled to have you. NEVER ALWAYS SOMETIMES revolves around the "Nevers" list, an attempt made by Dave and Julia to avoid being high school clichés. Is there a specific cliché you avoided or even wholly supported growing up?

Adi: I definitely wanted to distance myself from a lot of my peers when I was in high school. There wasn’t a specific cliché I avoided, it was more like a general feeling that I didn’t want to be the same as everyone else. However, I also constantly longed to be closer to people, to be a part of the festivities, whatever the festivities were, real or imagined.

Samantha: Both of your books involve road trips, particularly characters discovering something new during them, either about themselves or with someone else. What draws you to writing these trips, and have you been on any memorable ones yourself?

Adi: I’ve been on a few memorable road trips. I’ve always been a fan of traveling, and from the first car I owned in college, I had the urge to go on road trips. From overnight drives to California (including a first date), to a two week drive from Vegas to Seattle and down the Pacific Coast Highway, to two cross country road trips, and maybe all of it started on a post-high school trip to Israel. It wasn’t a road trip, and though it played a big role in my coming-of- age, the change in me happened subtly. But it was enough to plant the belief that travel brings about self-discovery. Or maybe other books and movies had already planted that idea and my time in Israel and the ensuing collegiate road trips only confirmed it.

The drive to write about road trips (pun intended) is probably just an effect of this belief, but it’s also because I feel physical journeys make for great stories. There’s almost always an identifiable goal, an often breathless tone, a slew of entertaining characters, and instantly interesting settings.

Samantha: In NEVER ALWAYS SOMETIMES, Dave has a particular way of noticing the small details around him, while Julia always attempts to spot the unusual or extraordinary, as her mother encourages. Do you think their different views are part of what makes them such strong friends?

Adi: Sure!

It’s funny how sometimes readers pick up on things in an author’s book that the author wasn’t even consciously aware of. Obviously I wanted Dave and Julia, despite their closeness, to have different personalities. But I hadn’t thought of it in the terms you phrased them, and when I read the question I went, “Huh! Interesting.”

I wanted Dave and Julia to have a strong connection, to each be similar enough to have certain tastes and ideas in common, but to have different personality traits to admire in the other. And I think you pointed out one of these differences really well. Stealing that. Thanks!

Samantha: When I read NEVER ALWAYS SOMETIMES, I loved the secondary characters, especially Gretchen and Brett. Is there any secondary character you enjoyed writing about the most?

Adi: Thanks! Mr. Marroney was obviously fun to write, but most cartoonish characters usually are. I really enjoyed writing Gretchen. You see her a lot through Dave’s eyes, so there’s obviously some rose-tinted glasses happening, but I love how she turned out. The third party that enters into a two person relationship can often be seen as the villain, and maybe some readers will see her as such, but it was fun to have her be a sweet, good character, and to see Dave’s crush developing.

Samantha: Can you give us any hints at what you're working on next?

Adi: At the moment I’m writing this, no. But maybe by the time it posts I’ll have released some info! I’m fairly secretive about things I’m working on until they’re done, or until they’re official. That can be a bit of a clue, but head on over to my social media and see if I’m talking about it yet.

Samantha: On the reading side, what are the last three books you read that you loved?

Adi: Ooh. I’m in the middle of JITTERBUG PERFUME, which I am loving. The graphic novel DAYTRIPPER by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba was an incredible reading experience. And MORE HAPPY THAN NOT by Adam Silvera has been one of my favorite YA reads this year.

About Adi Alsaid

Adi Alsaid was born and raised in Mexico. He currently lives in Mexico City, where he writes and coaches basketball.

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About NEVER ALWAYS SOMETIMES

Never date your best friend

Always be original

Sometimes rules are meant to be broken

Best friends Dave and Julia were determined to never be cliché high school kids— the ones who sit at the same lunch table every day, dissecting the drama from homeroom and plotting their campaigns for prom king and queen. They even wrote their own Never List of everything they vowed they'd never, ever do in high school.

Some of the rules have been easy to follow, like #5, never die your hair a color of the rainbow, or #7, never hook up with a teacher. But Dave has a secret: he's broken rule #8, never pine silently after someone for the entirety of high school. It's either that or break rule #10, never date your best friend. Dave has loved Julia for as long as he can remember.

Julia is beautiful, wild and impetuous. So when she suggests they do every Never on the list, Dave is happy to play along. He even dyes his hair an unfortunate shade of green. It starts as a joke, but then a funny thing happens: Dave and Julia discover that by skipping the clichés, they've actually been missing out on high school. And maybe even on love.