New York Times bestselling author Rachel Cohn shares her thoughts and inspirations behind BETA, a fantastic new novel tracing the path of a teenage clone experiencing a strange new world for the very first time.

YOUNG ADULT: What made you decide to start writing?
RACHEL COHN: I started writing to stave off schizophrenia.  I had to do something with all the voices in my head!

YA: Tell us a little bit about your latest work.
RC: BETA is a sci-fi story about a 16-year-old girl who is a clone, replicated from a recently deceased human teenager.  She was manufactured to serve as a companion on a luxury island bio-engineered to perfection for the world’s wealthiest people.  She is not supposed to have feelings, but she comes to realize that she has very real and very dangerous feelings that threaten her life.  This is the first in a 4-book series. 

YA: What are some of the qualities in your latest work that set it/you apart from what’s currently out there on the young adult market?
RC: While the book might be classified as sci-fi or dystopian, I think of it first and foremost as a character study.  Elysia, the narrator, is a completely new being, with no life experience to drawn on.  She has to figure everything out literally for the first time, through the filter of being (supposedly) emotionless.  Her voice is very intimate, and her observations are all based on information from her “chip” that may or may not be true. 

YA: Can you describe the path to getting this work published? What were the challenges? What was easy about it? RC: This is my 12th published book so the challenge wasn’t so much about getting it published, but in developing a larger, more fantastical world than I’ve previously written.  It was also a huge challenge to write the voice of a being who is only weeks old, though in the body of a 16 year old girl.  Trying to give crucial information to the reader that the narrator couldn’t possibly know was super hard–but also, the most rewarding challenge I’ve ever had as a writer.   YA: What were your specific science fiction influences for this book? Both films and literature or more of one? RC: I grew up watching Star Trek (classic) and Star Trek: The Next Generation, both rather obsessively.  These shows totally inspired me to write my own characters set in a future world, but with inter-personal problems that felt relatable to any time.


YA: If you could cast the Dream Film Adaptation of your work, who would you cast? 
RC: When I wrote Elysia, I could totally picture Elle Fanning playing her.  But I really have no idea about the other characters.  I’d love to hear everyone else’s casting thoughts! 


YA: Do you have pursuits outside of young adult fiction?
RC: Caffeination, yoga, cats. And cat videos.  Way too many of those.