Gas! Gas! Gas!: Jessica Goodman
The bestselling author's fifth young adult thriller, The Meadowbrook Murders, debuts today!
Prefer to listen to the interview? Click the above!
Jessica Goodman is on a hot streak. Since 2020, she’s been pumping out riveting young adult thrillers that fans have been devouring in one sitting. Her tales of high school drama mixed with murder, lies, secrets, and deceit have piled up into a stack of New York Times and USA Today bestsellers—plus a Netflix series on the way.
Today, Jessica debuts her fifth novel, The Meadowbrook Murders, which has already received rave reviews from the book world’s hottest names. Here, the former magazine editor (and my dear friend and fellow Cosmopolitan alumna) shares how her childhood obsession with reading and a college fiction class led to a shelf full of her own hardcovers. If you have big author dreams, pay attention to Jess’s advice.
Jess, it's a thrill to get to interview you as I've watched your career explode since we worked together at Cosmopolitan. You’ve published one book after another in rapid succession and they're all so. Damn. Good. I'd love for you to run us through your career journey to date.
I started my career in journalism. My first job was at HuffPost, where I was a true celebrity blogger in the trenches writing about stories like what Katy Perry wore to the mall.
Then, I moved to the pop culture/entertainment space reporting as a digital news editor for both books and music at Entertainment Weekly. I really liked reporting on the publishing industry—I got to see what actually went into publishing a book from reading press releases and early copies and reporting on book deals. I've always been a huge reader. I grew up with a book on me no matter what and was obsessed with novels from a very young age.
I was a creative writing major in college and took a young adult fiction class. The point of the class was to come out of it with 50 pages and an outline of a novel. I had so much fun and a really supportive professor who wrote in the margins of my final project, “I can't wait to see you publish this one day.” I kind of forgot about it when I went on to my career. I thought being a professional writer was journalism, and I loved it.
When I was at Entertainment Weekly, I got the idea of wanting to write and publish a book because I saw so many other authors do it week after week. It felt feasible. So, I pulled out that novel from college and started tweaking it to see if it could become something bigger.
Next, I moved over to Cosmopolitan, where my work-life balance was so much better than it had been. I felt like I had spare time to dive into finishing this novel. I also learned that there was this rich tradition of, not just magazine editors publishing novels, but specifically, book authors at Cosmo. Jessica Knoll had written Luckiest Girl Alive when she was at Cosmo. John Searles, a wonderful novelist [and our former colleague], was a longtime editor, and Kate White, who was one of the previous Editors-in-Chief, was also a very successful novelist.
I thought maybe I could join that wonderful line of novelists. I remember reading an interview with Jessica Knoll about what it took for her to finish her novel while she was at Cosmo, and it involved a lot of setting aside time before and after work and being really disciplined about writing.
I took that to heart. I started writing almost every morning—7 a.m. to 9 a.m. was my sweet spot. I did that for about a year, then felt confident enough to hook up with query agents. From there, I met my agent, and we sold my books. Ever since, I’ve just never stopped writing.
In 2020, I'd been at Cosmo for four years and published my first book, They Wish They Were Us, in August. In June 2021, I quit Cosmo a month before my second book, They’ll Never Catch Us, came out, and I had already finished writing my third, The Counselors.[Jessica’s fourth book, The Legacies, was published in July 2023.]
I went full-time freelance in 2021. I think a lot of people think that means that I just quit my job and was only writing novels, but that’s not really how it works.
For a lot of reasons, you can only be a full-time novelist if you are like really, really, really successful. For me, it hasn’t been the case—especially in those first few years, I was still doing a lot of editing and freelance work for Cosmo and other magazines.
I also took up jobs writing Instagram captions for fashion brands, doing some editorial projects, and basically anything I could get my hands on that paid money. Did it take me away from the creative aspects of novel writing? No. So, since then, I've done all sorts of copywriting projects.
I've also been able to develop some of my books for TV, which is really exciting. I'm working on the adaptation of my second book, They'll Never Catch Us, with Netflix and helping to write the script.
I'm also still writing for Marie Claire, Cosmo, and other women's magazines, and picking up odd jobs here and there. It's an interesting, fun little life I’ve got going on.
I love how you’ve found a way to keep writing front and center. That’s a dream for many people.
It's amazing. But, it's interesting to notice what I miss about being an editor. Specifically, I love collaboration and teamwork. I love being in meetings where everybody's on the same page; you're brainstorming and excited about the next issue.
I think that's why I like TV writing. I have a co-writer who I'm working with on this Netflix project and a lot of producers are involved. It’s a collaborative effort that I enjoy, whereas novel writing is so singular. I have an editor and an agent, but, like, I'm really by myself with my dog most of the time, thinking, How am I going to fix this?
When you're working with a team, you feel like your responsibilities are a little bit more divvied up. You have a backstop and someone to just ask, “Hey, is this a bad idea?” And they can say, “Yeah, it is, but here's another way to think about it.”
Your novels are young adult thrillers, and all of them take place in high schools, prep schools, or summer camps. They have similar themes, too: lies, secrets, murder, jealousy, friendship, and sisterhood. What about that time period in life is attractive for you to focus on?
Most of my protagonists are 17 or 18 years old. When you’re that age, everything is so high stakes. The fight you get in with your best friend is the worst fight of all time and your life is ending. I don't say that to make light or fun of those feelings, because that’s the truth. If you break up with someone, life will never be the same again.
It’s really fun to play in that sandbox of emotions and get into the mind of a teenager, trying to remember what it was like to feel so passionate about everything because it matters so, so deeply.
And yes, all of my books deal with a dead body. A murder. That’s interesting to me from a storytelling and plot perspective. I love to read thrillers or a whodunit and try to figure things out.
But, what I'm most interested in is the relationships of these teenagers—specifically the female friendships and what’s driving them. Often, it's a sense of trying to find your people, right? Trying to find who understands you, makes you feel seen, and helps you realize that life is bigger than what you thought it was in your hometown. When you’re a late teen, your mind is expanding so much—you're getting ready to either go to college or embark on a post-high school life, and that looks really different for everyone. But, the universal thing is that it’s a world expander.
You're going through this period of trying to hold on to everything that you know so deeply from growing up; Your whole childhood is about to end, but you're also excited about what's going to happen next. I find that time to be very inspiring emotionally.
How much inspiration are you pulling from your own life?
There were definitely a few things in my first book that felt pretty true to my high school experience—not like a murder or secret society (thankfully, I was never involved in any crimes). It's set at a prep school on Long Island and there were a few fun details that I pulled from personal experience. I'm still very close with my high school friends and for the road rally scene, I had one of them send me a photo of the road rally list from when we were teens, which was really funny.
The Counselors is about a sleepaway camp and I went to one, which was very formative for my identity. I'm still really good friends with all of those girls too (we have a very robust and active text chain). When I was working on that book, I remember reaching out to them and asking, “Guys, what are some very specific ‘us’ camp things that will feel true to this world?”
I think that really grounds me in fleshing out a world: having details that are true to life. A small example is, every night at our camp, one of the directors would drive around in a golf cart at 9 p.m. with two to four campers who were “chosen” that night because it was their birthday or something special. It was called “Cookie Patrol,” and they would deliver a late-night snack to every single cabin. When you put these little traditions in a story, they make you feel like you're in a real world.
My new book is called The Meadowbrook Murders and is set at a boarding school. My mom went to a boarding school and last year, we went to her reunion together. It was amazing to walk around campus, have her point out specific things, and tell me, ”This is how it was done when I was here.” During a golf cart tour with a recent graduate, we were asking a million questions about things that I could use in my book.
Who will enjoy reading The Meadowbrook Murders?
In the online book world, there are all these tropes that people get into. I've written a few of what we like to call “dark academia” books, and this is definitely one of them. Everything happens in Meadowbrook Academy or the very small surrounding town—it's almost a claustrophobic environment full of uniforms and red brick turret buildings. Not gothic, but Hogwarts-esque, where everybody is in really close proximity and the stakes are high academically. There's a murder, so if you like dark academia, this book is definitely for you.
Even though my books are about teens and are marketed as young adult, I do think that there is crossover appeal for adults. A lot of adults like YA books because they're fast-paced, engaging, and often written in the first person, so you're in the heads of the characters. I think YA provides an easy escape for adult women, specifically, who are interested in books that might make them nostalgic about high school or grateful that they're not in those years.
I hear a lot, “Oh my god, I read your book in a day!” Or, “I finished it in one beach day.”
Some authors are like, “I spent so long on this,” but to me, that's the biggest compliment. You just want to get through it and see whodunit. Or, it’s so fast-paced that you can't put it down. That's a huge compliment.
Yes,I speed through your books because I want to figure out what happened. Thrillers aren’t what I usually gravitate toward, but reading yours has opened my world to how much I actually enjoy them.
If you’ve enjoyed any books by Karen McManus or Kathleen Glasgow, you'll definitely resonate with my books. Kara Thomas is another author I love who writes amazing young adult and adult thrillers.
And, there’s nothing better than books by Lucy Foley, who’s one of my favorite thriller authors. Tana French and Ruth Ware, too. Gone Girl is my favorite book (I think it's probably a lot of people's), and that’s a huge tome, right? I've read it three or four times, and I'll probably read it again. Andrea Bartz also writes amazing thrillers. There are just some people who, when they hit, they really hit.
Yes, well, I think yours is really gonna hit! You’re gearing up for promotion now. What does it feel like to go on book tours and meet fans?
It's interesting. My first book came out in August 2020 and everything was digital that year because of COVID, so I've only done a few in-person events in my career. This is the first year that I'm going on tour. I have five events to promote The Meadowbrook Murders the week it comes out, and then I'm doing two or three festivals this spring.
I'm really excited to meet readers and hear from them. Hopefully, people show up! You never know. I'm excited to connect with people who have been in my DMs or commented on my posts.
The amazing thing about my young adult readers is that they met me in 2020 when they were around 13; now, they're probably 17 or 18. Ideally, if they’ve enjoyed most of my books, I've been with them through their whole high school experience. And the YA reader changes—you kind of have to keep winning them over because they age out of the group fast. Luckily, there have been a few readers who've come to multiple events over the years and it's always so nice to see them.
it's an interesting space being an author. I'm not famous. I’m certainly not a celebrity by any means. So, I do remember the people who come back. It's an enormous gift to have anybody read your book and tell you how they interpreted it. I don't take that for granted.
How do your family and husband feel about you already having five books and supporting you throughout this journey?
I think they're just super excited and happy for me. My husband thinks it's wonderful. The main question is always just like, “Where are we going to get health insurance?”
My parents are delighted and know that reading has always been such a huge part of my life. I think it's very heartening for them to see that what I loved as a kid is now something I’m doing as a job.
We definitely come from a culture that says, “You know, maybe you should choose a safe profession, like a doctor or an accountant.” To do something creative seemed a bit scary to me in the beginning, but to actually make it my career has been wonderful and very gratifying in a lot of ways.
What does it look like when your book gets picked up by Netflix? Are you on set?
I think a lot of people assume it happens overnight because you see a Deadline announcement or a casting call, but my co-writer and I have been developing the show pitch for They'll Never Catch Us since March 2021—a few months before the book came out. Producers didn’t sign on until at least a year or more later. Then, right as we were preparing to go out to streamers and distributors, the writer’s strike happened, so we were delayed. Netflix didn’t sign on until 2024.
What we've been doing since is just working on the pilot script and working with Netflix to get the pilot in the best shape we can. Then, we'll go from there. It's a long and wonderful winding road of development, but it's been really amazing to learn this new skill of screenwriting. It's very different than novel writing and certainly very different from journalism, non-fiction, or magazine writing. I'm really enjoying myself.
Looking back at your career, what are you most proud of?
I think I'm most proud of the period of my life when I was working at Cosmo full-time and writing They Wish They Were Us with no guarantee that I would get an agent or it would sell.
I remember thinking, You are so crazy-delusional and arrogant to think that something will happen. But I just kept telling myself, “If you don't do this, you're going to regret it.”
I wanted to write a novel, and if I wasn't going to get my butt in the chair to actually get the words on the page, no one was going to do it for me. I'm really proud that I was able to tough it out—it took me almost three years to actually write the book. One year, I wrote every day, and to be able to do that and not get in my head about, Well, what if nothing happens and I wasted all this time?, was great. I mean, I thought those things, but I did it anyway. I don't know where I'd be right now if I hadn’t.
A lot of hopeful writers ask about that initial period. Yes, you can get down on yourself, and there's no guarantee that you’re not wasting your time. But, for me, I was 27 or 28. I had no real responsibilities—I didn't have a kid or a mortgage or anything to do besides hang out with my boyfriend and friends. For many people who have more responsibilities, obviously, it's a lot harder. But, I've never regretted that period for a second. I never think about the parties I missed out on, you know?
What’s some advice you’d give to those who'd love to follow in your footsteps?
Set aside real time to work on whatever project it is that you're hoping to do that's not your day job. That doesn't mean just thinking about it in your head. Literally put blocks in your calendar, whether it’s that 7 to 9 a.m. morning block, 5 to 7 p.m. at night, or three hours every weekend. Then, actually follow through. It's hard, especially with social media and the news. I even find myself straying from my blocks, but when I'm able to stick to them, I feel so good about myself.
I'm not a big accountability buddy-type person, but I do think that talking about the projects that I want to do makes me feel like there's a fire under my butt to do them. I've said it out loud, so I want it to come true. I remember once I started talking about my book, I was like, “Oh shit, I gotta do this!”
It's also cool to see you share your process on Instagram, which is eye-opening for someone who wants to get into book publishing.
It's still really hard. I just handed in my second draft of my sixth book. On the first draft, I was like, “This is great! My editor is gonna love it, woohoo! The second draft is gonna be no big deal.”
The edits I got back were very much like “I think we need a complete rewrite.” Once I took in those notes, I realized there was a lot that was wrong and I did need to rewrite it. So, it never gets easy. With every book, you think, How do I do this again? But you have to trust that you'll find your way.
Another piece of advice is to surround yourself with people who want to lift you up and support your goals and are also working on creative endeavors of their own. Being able to open up to you guys at Cosmo, who I was spending 40 hours a week with, was an incredible thing. No one was like, “Why? Shouldn't you be focused on this?” So, surround yourself with people who think what you're doing is great and want you to succeed.
I can't believe you're already working on a sixth! What you've been able to accomplish is so inspiring, and you've got even more in store. How can we support you?
Definitely order The Meadowbrook Murders if any of this sounds interesting to you. If you’re in New York, Clifton, New Jersey, Philadelphia, St. Louis, or Los Angeles, I will be on tour from February 3rd to 7th. All of the dates are on goodmanjessica.com or on my Instagram. It would be great to see you out there!