Check out our interview with Emma Barry, the author of "You, Me, & The Conspiracy."
What was your inspiration behind your most recent book?
In 2019, I was in the car, and an image popped into my head: a woman in an archive turns the page of a manuscript and finds a coded message written by a Founding Father. As I began imagining who she could be and what might happen next, I realized I was plotting a book similar to the action-adventure romances I had grown up watching: Indiana Jones (numbers 1 and 3 only!), Romancing the Stone, The Mummy, and especially National Treasure.
What does Reading Rainbow mean to you?
Choosing to read books that reflect the full texture and diversity of our world, and in particular, books that feature LGBTIA+ characters living their lives, falling in love, and helping to take down shadowy historical conspiracies.
Why do you feel representation of a variety of people is so important when it comes to writing books?
If you’ve been around bookish spaces, you’ve probably run into Rudine Sims Bishop’s theory of books as mirrors, windows, and sliding doors. She’s talking about children’s literature, about how kids deserve to see their own lives on the page but also need books that invite them to experience the world in other people’s shoes. I would argue that the same concept applies to books for grown-ups: books can help us develop empathy and broaden our worlds, but only if we step outside of our own identity some of the time.
Tell us a little more about the book and why you decided to write it.
In eighth grade, I asked my history teacher why the American Revolution didn’t go farther. Why didn’t it end slavery, and why didn’t it grant women the right to vote? “It was because of the French Revolution,” she told me. “That one just went too far.” That never made any sense to me, which is probably why when I started to write You, Me, & the Conspiracy, I invented a plot that runs parallel to real history. It’s a tongue in cheek way of understanding what I think really happened and what’s still happening. But you get that version with a lot of fun, sexy adventure.
What can fans expect from your book?
It’s like National Treasure with more kissing or The Da Vinci Code with more real history. I wanted it to be a blast to read but also to be grounded in the real fights we’re having about what American history means and who gets to tell it.
What's up next for you in the bookish world?
I just turned in the second book in the series, and all I can tell you is that the conspiracy isn’t licked yet. We have a new couple + some of the same friends, but now we’re uncovering the truth about Abraham Lincoln and the Pinkertons. I hope readers will love it!
