Exclusive Interview: Pop-Cultualist Chats with Christine Riccio

Christine Riccio is a BookTuber and New York Times bestselling author. Her YouTube channel has accumulated roughly half a million subscribers. On the channel, she does comedic sketches, writing vlogs, and other bookish-related content. She also hosts Booksplosion with Jesse George (@jessetheReader) and Kat O’Keefe (@Katytastic) and it’s YouTube’s longest-running book club.

Pop Culturalist got the opportunity to sit down with Christine Riccio to talk about her upcoming novel, Better Together, and other book-related projects! You can grab your copy of Better Together here!

PC: What’s something you can tell readers (and BookTube fans) about Better Together that they might not already know?
Christine: Something my audience might not already know is that idea to write a Parent Trap-esque story, came out of my craving to write about young women struggling to deal with their parent’s loud/messy divorce.

I was brainstorming how I wanted to tell that type of story when it hit me—the girls in the Parent Trap have divorced parents! How have I never thought of them as divorced? And those poor girls didn’t even know one another existed. I never looked at their situation that way when I was younger.

From the girls’ point of view, everything feels kind of magical and wondrous. But when you zoom out and take the story in from an adult perspective, it’s a really strange and fairly messed up agreement those parents made. They split up their twins when they were babies and raised their kids as though their sibling never existed. I dug in from there. What would this situation look like if the sisters were young adults? How would things unravel?

PC: Which character was the easiest and which character was difficult to write?
Christine: Better Together is dual first person point of view, and the hardest part of that was actually switching from Jamie’s headspace to Siri’s headspace and vise versa. Once I was in one of their voices, I was completely in it. I’d be up late, on these writing binges, words pouring out of me, and then I’d come to a chapter where I would have to switch point of views. That’s when I would hit a mental block. But, the further I got into the drafting process, the less of an issue it became. I got to know the girls so well, it became second nature to switch in and out of their voices.

Which character was the most fun to write?
Christine: Probably Jamie! She doesn’t have a filter. I had a grand ole time writing her dialogue.

PC: Do you have a favorite side character from Better Together and if yes, who is it?
Christine: Yes! I love Terry. She had quite a bit more ‘screen time’ in the first draft of the book because I liked writing her so much, but alas, she wasn’t necessary to the plot so her extraneous scenes got chopped in the editing process.

PC: Do you have a character that you resonated with the most in Better Together and if yes, why?
Christine: I can’t choose between the two leads! Jamie and Siri’s journeys both resonate with me hard, in very different ways.

PC: Can you share with us what you’re working on next?
Christine: Yes! I’m working on my next novel! It’s another standalone, and I think I already know the title?! Which is something that usually doesn’t come to me until I’ve finished writing it. I have it outlined, and I’m so excited to start the drafting process. The idea has been percolating in my brain since the beginning of 2020. Unfortunately, I can’t share many details yet. It’s going to be more of rom-com, then rom-com-drama: so more in the vein of Again, But Better, than Better Together. I think? We’ll see once it’s finished.

PC: You have the longest-running book club on YouTube called Booksplosion. How did the idea for Booksplosion start and what advice do you have for those who might want to start a book club and keep it going?
Christine: This is a big question! I’m going to try to summarize or else this will be an essay. In the summer of 2013, a lot of the BookTube community (which was rather small back then) met up at Vidcon! That’s where I met Jesse and Kat. We bonded so quickly and had an amazing time together, so we started interacting more often. We talked about putting together a book club to give us an excuse to read together every month and Booksplosion was born! If you want to start a book club, my advice would be to go for it! It’s a time-consuming commitment, but it’s such a fun, communal project to have in your life.  As far as keeping it going, that’s just a matter of committing to the responsibility of reading one book together every month. Some months that’s really tough! You have to make sure your core group of hosts are dependable, and just as excited about the book club as you are.

PC: You have inspired so many people in the book community. What video was your favorite to film?
Christine: Thank you. I have so many favorites! One that stands out is the CLACE: A Shadowhunters Parody sketch that I filmed at Bookcon 2016. All my BookTube pals were there participating, and we had a blast. I still go back to those bloopers and cackle, reliving the experience.

PC: How did you maintain writing a book and uploading videos on YouTube?
Christine: It’s really difficult to maintain both on a consistent schedule. At first, when I was writing Again, But Better I was able to work on YouTube projects in the morning/afternoon and then write in the evenings, but when it came time to write Better Together I was at a different place in my life, and that schedule wasn’t working for me anymore.  These days, I give myself permission to break my YouTube schedule, so I can prioritize writing. I tend to write in bursts at the moment, so if I need a week to just write, I’ll take it, and when I need a break, I’ll work on a YouTube video.

PC: What advice do you have for others who want to start a BookTube or YouTube channel?
Christine: My best advice is to make videos for you, not for an audience! If you love what you’re making, it’s going to find an audience because your passion will shine through.

Pop Culturalist Speed Round

PC: Are you a plotter, pantser, or plantser (combination)?
Christine: I’ve become a plantser by necessity, but I used to be a pantser.

PC: How many times did you have to rewatch The Parent Trap or Freaky Friday while writing Better Together?
Christine: [laughs] I rewatched them both once before I started drafting. 

PC: Currently watching or reading?
Christine: I’m reading Happily Ever Afters by Elise Bryant (so cute!) and watching The Handmaid’s Tale.

PC: What Taylor Swift era best describes Siri and Jaime?
Christine: Siri – Speak Now. Jamie – Reputation.

PC: What Taylor Swift era best describes you?
Christine: This is tough because it changes from month to month! Right now: Evermore.

You can follow Christine here.

Thank you to St. Martin’s publisher and Christine for a copy of Better Together!