Joelle Charonneau discusses Need and which sites inspired her to write her new young adult thriller.

About ‘Need’

A new social networking site takes Kaylee Dunham’s high school by storm, and even she can’t resist the question, “What do you need?”

For most of the students, their needs range from a longer vacation to concert tickets, but Kaylee’s needs are much more dire: She needs a kidney for her brother, or he’ll die.

The site starts off simple and innocent enough, but soon thoughtless pranks turn into deadly requirements. How far will these students go to get what they think they need out of life? The answer to that question is more frightening than anyone wants to admit. Read our review.

Interview with Joelle Charbonneau

What social media sites inspired the concept for NEED?

A combination of things inspired NEED. Facebook and the number of times I’ve seen my friends click on free giveaways only to find themselves hacked was one of the inspirations. As was the way many of the people I know post things on Facebook that they would never say to anyone in real life. Also, a lot of the research I did on SnapChat and sites like Yik Yak and Whisper fed into the concept for the social media site I created for Need.

Has writing this book made you more cautious about sharing information on social media?

I’ve always been pretty cautious about what I share on social media, mostly because I can’t imagine why anyone would want to know certain things about me. But now, I am far more cautious. I’ve read all the privacy and terms and conditions of the sites I belong to and really dissected them to figure out what rights I’m giving up to the site when I post. Needless to say, I’m far more reluctant to share certain things now that I understand what information the site is claiming the right to use and how they can use it.

Do you think our society could reach the point of no return we see many characters get to in Need?

I sound a little like a crazy conspiracy theorist with this answer, but I do think we could get to the point of no return on social media. I’ve watched people draw lines in the sand about what they think is acceptable online behavior or what they are willing to do themselves. But after a while they nudge the line either consciously or unconsciously based on other things they’ve seen people do. A great case in point is Facebook Messenger. So many people shared the warning articles about the kind of privacy rights a person using messenger would be giving up when the app was first introduced. Lots of those people vowed to never use it. But little by little, their resolve chipped away until they finally caved. When you ask those people, they say they know it’s not ideal and they don’t like the idea of Messenger and what things about them it tracks, but they’re willing to live with it because it’s convenient. And hey — everyone else is doing it. Every time we compromise what we’re willing to live with, we get closer to being able to justify our behavior on a site like NEED.

The Testing trilogy also explores government corruption and Big Brother tendencies. How did writing that series help you with this novel?

I think writing a story like The Testing, with so many characters all being influenced by the government, made me feel brave enough to delve into something set in our current world — again with a large cast of characters. It was a challenge to not just use things I see every day as a jumping off point for a futuristic story, but to take those things and try to decide what could happen tomorrow if someone with ill intent created a social media site. Setting something in modern day is way harder in many respects because you have certain rules you have to follow in order for the story to be believable. Had I not written The Testing series first, I might not have believed I could pull off a story like Need. Here’s hoping readers think I did!

How difficult was it putting the pieces together for the large puzzle NEED ended up becoming? It seems as though no one was without blame by the end of the story. They each played their part in the destruction, whether directly or indirectly.

Since I don’t outline before I start writing, putting the pieces together was a huge challenge. I often didn’t know I needed a piece until I wrote something else and realized something was missing to make the picture complete. But as difficult as it often was (I might have gnawed on my nails a great deal…shhh…don’t tell my mother!), I was so fascinated at delving into each personality and figuring out how these people could all justify their participation and at what point would they finally reach the moment where they no longer could move the line they drew in the sand.

This is meant to be a standalone novel, but do you see yourself ever exploring this genre, these themes, or this subject of social media in future books?

It is a standalone, but I think privacy, the Internet and what we are willing to justify doing in order to get things we think we need are themes that will live on in the future. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if I find myself drawn to writing about those ideas again. I always write to find out what I think about something and I have lots of questions still about where the Internet will take us and how much we are willing to mold our own morality around it.

What other YA thrillers would you recommend to those who loved your book?

Oh — tough question because there are so many great books out there. Um…well, it’s more on the horror front, but I would totally recommend Hotel Ruby by Suzanne Young. It is totally thrilling. So are Michelle Gagnon’s Don’t Turn Around and the others in that series.

What sort of projects are you working on now?

Currently, I’m working on another stand-alone thriller set in modern times that I’ve pitched as Die Hard meets The Breakfast Club. (Sounds crazy, right? But it works…I promise!) I’m also toying around with a fantasy thriller. Fingers crossed the stories come together!

Need by Joelle Charbonneau is available now. You can add it to your Goodreads list or purchase it on Amazon or IndieBound.