Alexene Farol Follmuth and Harper Cline Discuss My Mechanical Romance
*This interview does not contain any spoilers for the book, and while it does discuss different plotlines and plot devices, no specific information is spoiled in regards to the story itself.
The name Olivie Blake has become a sensation on social media apps like TikTok and Instagram, with books such as The Atlas Six and Alone With You in the Ether known for their incredible prose and less-than-loveable characters. The New York Times bestseller turns to a teen audience under her birth name in her debut YA, My Mechanical Romance.
Regrettably, I did not ask a question on the connection between the title and smash-hit My Chemical Romance.
Our conversation started off by discussing what she wanted to accomplish with the novel’s main characters, Teo and Bel. “When I was determining how to write for YA, I wanted to impart a little bit more wisdom than I usually do when I write for people who are, you know, allegedly fully formed. I wanted to pay attention to when something feels right, what kind of space [the characters] should allow each other, how much freedom you should have to be yourself- a good balance between being influenced by the person that you’re with and having separate lives.” Most of the story focuses on Teo, an all-star soccer player and captain of the robotics team, and Bel, an artistic new kid pushed into the ultra-competitive world of elite private school, learning from their blooming relationship. “In that sense, it is definitely imagination- what would a healthy relationship look like at that age? Certainly, I was not having healthy relationships. I was a bit of a serial dater [laughs].”
I’m sure all readers have had moments when they just can’t put up with characters anymore. Something they do, something they say, all building up into one catastrophic moment where the book has to be turned away. On creating feelings for characters that readers don’t hate, Alexene says, “When thinking of what do you want to accomplish with this story, it always comes back to how reading fiction can almost give us the tools for empathy.” Key to most 2000s and 2010s publishing was the not-like-other-girls trope, a device that Bel, one of the two girls in the robotics club, could have easily fit into. One of the key plot lines for me was the relationship between Neelam (the other girl in robotics) and Bel, not as a friendship, but as a relationship of accountability and motivation. “I came of age in the 2000s when the messaging was very much girls are your rivals, the rise of the manic pixie dream girl. There are a lot of scenarios when that’s what Bel would be. I wanted her to really rejoice in the similarities she had, to feel supported.”
Much of the storyline relies on the complex layers of identity each character has, whether that be in regards to their gender, race, socio-economic situation, or familial relationships. MMR is set in the San Fernando Valley, and for our non-LA readers, the Valley can mean either rich-rich or not so much. Bel moves from a school that prioritizes students actually graduating to a school that doesn’t understand college if not Ivy League. “For her to go from this more depressed economic area to now a private school where she’s overwhelmed by how many people are pushing her, trying to give her options… it involves a lot of different players. It was dependent on her being given the resources.” Then a small tangent on public school funding (I’m an LAUSD girl through and through, don’t get me wrong) and how monetary positions truly impact schooling- “[i]t is all about money. It is all about taxpayer money. The quality of the school is highly, highly dependent on who lives in that area.”
Seeing an interracial relationship between two people of color is always a spark of joy for me. Romantic media rarely takes the time to dive into the intricacies of mixed relationships without making it seem like tokenization. As a writer of color- don’t let my last name fool you- I love seeing diversity woven into stories instead of being plopped on top for brownie points. On the mixed experience, Alexene commented “Being biracial is its own identity. It’s this sort of feeling that you’re not really anything, caught in between, people seeing you one way and seeing yourself in another way. Pointing to them makes it feel even more other. One of my favorite compliments of this book is that the diversity doesn’t feel forced, and I think that part of it is that I’m not a white author. I’m not trying to represent anyone, I’m just seeing the world as it is.”
So much of this book is comforting and validating to my own experiences with race, as I know it is and will be with many other readers. The quips are relatable without being forced, diversity adds to the story without being a cherry on top. “A lot of this comes from my experience growing up. People who want to see it are going to see it, who see themselves in it are going to see it, and people who don’t, just sort of, whatever.”
While both Bel and Teo are from immigrant households, they come from different cultures and different economic backgrounds. Bel is part Filipino and raised by her divorced mom who’s a nurse, and Teo is part Mexican and raised in a house built by his tech superstar dad. Each has images they need to live up to in their families. “I didn’t want Teo to be another rich white boy that has a tragic backstory, we’ve seen that done many, many times. I wanted to give him a reason to be really critical of himself, and I felt like that was most realized with an immigrant parent. That sort of climbing up from the bottom mentality. [Bel’s] mom is a very different kind of immigrant. Her mom is a healthcare professional, more in the service field. She just wants her kids to do better than she did. It’s the same pressure but approached in, I think, two realistically different ways.”
Romance is (usually) all about the star-struck lovers who stay together for the rest of their days. Does Alexene Farol Follmuth believe Teo and Bel would stay together after the book ends? Would they fight through and end up together, into adulthood? “This [revisiting Bel and Teo as college students] would never happen because Holiday House is a children’s publisher, but I don’t know. Who even are you at eighteen? Most of who you are is undetermined. But I like to think that because they are willing to sort of change with each other, it could work. That’s the important thing. We talk about having strong female characters, but how do you make a good love interest? You show that they can love.”
Read My Mechanical Romance everywhere books are available. For more on Alexene Farol Follmuth, visit her website, https://www.alexenefarolfollmuth.com/ .
