#7wwl

[batmansymbol]

First of all, I would like to express that Seven Ways We Lie is truly a masterpiece, and I am blown away every time I return for a reread. The characters are distinct yet relatable in a way that feels both raw and devastatingly human. Secondly, I was wondering: if you are familiar, which MBTI and/or Enneagram types would you assign to the Seven?

hi oh my goodness - i don't know how i didn't see this until now, i am truly sorry for the delay. thank you so much for your kind words - i feel softer and softer toward those characters as i age farther and farther from them (and from myself at the time). am thrilled you have connected with them. <3

i don't know much about Enneagrams - i forget what my own is, in fact - but I can make a good-faith effort at MBTI typing them :) under the cut!

Olivia: ESFP. Because I'm not a HUGE mbti person, I tend to guess at types by doing each individual letter, then looking it up to see how I did overall! I love that warmth, high energy, and humor immediately showed up for this one. Olivia all over. I think she's also quite a detail-oriented and results-driven person which is what pushes me toward sensing rather than intuition.

Kat: INFJ. had some difficulty choosing between judging and perceiving for kat. ultimately, though, i don't think she's flexible enough to make sense as an INFP. she's very reactive, but i do think she has strict ideas of worldview and plans accordingly, which feels more J to me?

Juniper: ISFP. juni is all about ~the interior~ for me. what is moving under her surface? there's a pragmatism and in-the-moment vibe to her that pushes me toward Sensing. was sort of torn between isfp and istp for her but i think she is ultimately very much guided by what she feels at any given time.

Claire: ENTJ. maybe the easiest of all of them. gregarious and needing social engagement, constantly draws lines between two ideas (which feeds into her wounded feelings when she recognizes patterns she dislikes), and makes decisions based on prior thoughts and evaluations (with a single crucial exception).

Valentine: INTJ. no, okay, i take it back, this was the easiest one. lol.

Lucas: ENFP. i like that lucas is valentine's total opposite except for the intuition! this seems to make sense to me on a larger scale. they balance each other with lots of contrasts, but are still able to share a sense of the bigger picture.

Matt: ISFJ. haha, sort of the reverse of olivia for this one, where i looked up the type after selecting letters and saw, "ISFJs are industrious caretakers ... motivated to provide for others and protect them from the perils of life." which initially seems very wrong for a guy whose main struggle throughout the book is getting himself to act. BUT i do think that he is happiest once he DOES allow himself to indulge those instincts - taking care of his little brother, caring about and supporting olivia. man, i miss writing this boy.

thank u for the fun ask and again for making my day!! <3

[midnightlightlooks]

Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate

Olivia Scott- Lust

Kat Scott- Wrath

Lucas McCallum- Greed

Valentine Simmons- Pride

Matt Jackson- Sloth

Juniper Kipling- Gluttony

Claire Lombardi- Envy

[druidcore]

I saw your posts on 7WWL and I was wondering who you thought were each of the sins? Just curious and your choices were partially different than mine so I wanted to hear your thoughts

Oh my gosh it’s been literally maybe 3 years since I read 7WWL, so bear with me! Valentine is Pride, Lucas is Greed and Matt is Sloth. I don’t remember much about the guys but! 

For the girls, I see Juni as gluttony because she wants more more more. She doesn’t know when to stop herself, doesn’t know how to say no or when to say no because she wants to drown everything out with sensation. 

Olivia is lust because she uses it I think to keep people away: I mean she’s literally slut-shamed by other girls as a result. 

Claire has to be Envy because she’s always comparing herself to others and wishing she could be like Juni or Olivia, wishing she could be closer to them. 

And Kat... I mean, cmon she radiates anger and bottled resentment. 

[necessary-quotation-marks]

You don't realise how alone you are until you let yourself out of your cage, or until someone finds a way inside.

Riley Redgate (Seven Ways We Lie)

[princessnicasia]

SWWL Aesthetics: Kat Scott

Life is better when it’s scripted.

[wistcrias-arch2]

i wasn’t ashamed of being gay. i was worried about losing the people i was closest to. // ooo claire for juniper

              ❝ 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐞, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐮𝐬. and if anyone were to ever give you grief, olivia and I would snip that in the bud right there and then. ❞ to think, this is the burden claire has been shouldering. a secret that must have sat like a rock in her pocket, a weight pulling her under. juniper could imagine. ❝ who you love and who loves you is nothing to be ashamed of. besides, do you really think me, of all people, would judge you for something like that? ❞ she shoots her a small smile, the loss of her love still so raw, but healing. 

LOST THE MEME. 

[salx6]

You should have your only fans 🤤

Nah😂 u got me mixed up fam 7wwl 3la someone else😳😬

[angelofavarice]

Fuk im gonna b a 7wwl stan again arent i?

[batmansymbol]

omg hii!! I'm a big fan of your novel 7WWL and I was just wondering if you have made music playlists for the characters? And if you haven't what type of music do you think each of the characters listen to?

hello dear anon!! thank you for reading 7WWL, i’m so glad you liked it! i have not made playlists for each of the characters, but i do have this general mood playlist for the book overall.

here are some random headcanons about each character’s music taste:

kat listens to hip-hop almost exclusively (anderson paak and chance are favorites). also, occasionally, metal. she does not listen to musical theatre and IN FACT gets very irritated when people assume she does.

it will take her ~10 years to grow out of her feelings that musical theatre isn’t “real theatre”

and then she will finally admit to herself that she does really like the song “What You Own” from Rent

olivia likes garage rock, cheesy oldies, and any song that will embarrass claire when they roll the windows down in juniper’s car.

juniper i see as an indie-darling listener... julien baker, sufjan stevens, fka twigs, phoebe bridgers.

claire is very involved in listening to classical music, much to juniper’s chagrin. juni absolutely forbids claire from playing anything related to her violin pieces.

matt is the only one whose music taste is mentioned in the book, i think? he is Very Secretive about his music taste because he listens to a lot of bratty punk pop.

valentine alternates between six different ambient playlists and hates it when songs have words because he is trying to concentrate, thank you.

lucas, unlike kat, does listen to musical theatre.

also, he unironically enjoys songs that are sort of memes. like country roads and despacito and wagon wheel.

[necessary-quotation-marks]

"Is that how your mind works, you just go around throwing your care at whatever's within range?" "Why not? Not like I'm going to run out."

Riley Redgate (Seven Ways We Lie)

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

7 Covers in 7 Days Challenge

Rules: Each day, I will post the cover of a book that I love and nominate someone new to start the challenge. No explanation, no discussion, just post the cover and by doing so spread some literary love!

If you’d like to do the thing, I tag @freckles-and-books. If you would prefer not to, no pressure, and I can remove your tag (:

[batmansymbol]

Seven Ways We Lie sequel called Eight Ways We Lie where it turns out there's a super secret eighth deadly sin called "Juggling On-Fire Chainsaws" and it's the same kids from 7wwl but they meet a new guy who juggles on-fire chainsaws too much send ask

i love u

[batmansymbol]

What is your dream casting for Seven Ways We Lie? And do you think that the audiobook did a good job with the characters' voices?

sweet anon! it’s been years since i listened to parts of the audiobook (i’ve never heard the whole thing). my only lingering impression is that the narrators sounded SO different from the voices in my head, hahah. in particular i remember one of the guys’ voices being a really deep bass, and sounding ... you know, not 17, and that was jarring to me? but that’s how it always goes with YA.

mmm dream casting! fun!! also very hard, since i would REALLY want the actors to be actually teenaged, not grizzled old twenty-somethings pretending to be in high school. for ur consideration, i have dreamcast several youths who would all need to dye their hair.

Elsie Fisher would be great as Claire. I loved her in Eighth Grade, she embodied insecurity there in a way that is so claire. hair dye: red and curly.

McKenna Grace would kill as Kat. she’s 14, so a couple years young for it, but in The Haunting of Hill House she had a great take-no-shit attitude which is of course the one thing a kat needs to have. hair dye: bleach blonde, dark roots coming in.

Dafne Keen as Olivia. her part in logan is, uh, very far from the world of 7wwl, but even in xmen-world she has this mixture of intense confidence and vulnerability that rings olivia to me :) hair dye: none!!!! but i’ve always pictured olivia’s hair flat-ironed.

Millie Bobby Brown as Juniper. she’s not quite my mental image (juniper driftier and waifier), but the vibe is mooostly right. she does have that collected, picture-perfect air. hair dye: pale blonde.

annnd it turns out i can only dreamcast the female characters? no young actors i’m aware of look enough like valentine or matt to work. lucas could be the one actor who’s a little older, because he’s supposed to be unusually tall/built/handsome for high school, lol. but i still can’t think of anyone.

[batmansymbol]

I just finished 7wwl (ended up reading your books in reverse order of publication) and I cannot Believe that you were in high school/college when you wrote/revised it. I myself am only a year younger than you and none of my writing has been as fully realised! I am in awe of your talent and absolutely cannot wait for your next book

ahhh anon thank you so much! this is so kind. 7wwl is very funny to me because i'm almost certain i would never attempt something like that book now. seven different first-person present-tense POVs? was i a masochist???? anyway, i'm really excited for this next book and can't wait to share it. i wish you all the best and much joy in your own writing!

[batmansymbol]

So, I was thinking about Valentine the other day... and I was just wondering how he’s doing. Is he drinking water? Talking to another human being once in awhile? Lost all of his faith in humanity over the 2020 events that have occurred thus far?

oh, anon, my heart is warm... i love to think of Valentine...

i think in a 2020-like situation he would be doing all right except for recurring feelings of nihilism. i picture a lot of closing his laptop hard halfway through news articles with a disgusted look on his face.

having spent so much of his life as a loner, i think he’s prepped for social isolation... he probably has a weekly catchup with Lucas on the phone which mostly involves Valentine sipping coffee while Lucas releases his pent-up extroversion. and i like to think that somewhere along the way, Kat has strongarmed him into trying one (1) or two (2) video games that ... despite Valentine’s omnipresent disinterest in fiction and especially sci-fi ... are sort of fun. not that he would ever admit that to Kat or anyone else. anyway, so they probably play together remotely every so often, and he constantly, loudly complains about scientific aspects of the worldbuilding, and Kat just laughs.

i also like to think that valentine has an easier relationship with his parents once he’s out in the world. like, he’s a self-conscious character, but not an anxious one - i think independence and leaving town and working in a lab would be a huge relief for him. imo, despite becoming less solitary, he’d still retain lingering feelings of discomfort with the idea of relying on people - so he’d become competence and efficiency all the way down. but once he feels he’s “earned” his adulthood, and that the playing field is level, he’s less insecure about talking to his parents.

[batmansymbol]

Hi, this must be so out of nowhere, but I read Seven Ways We Lie (which is amazing!), and I was wondering what your stance is on Juniper and Garcia? Thanks!

hi anon! i’m very glad you liked the book!

i did a little writeup on my thoughts on the nature of J&G’s relationship a couple years ago. you can read it here.

all those thoughts still pretty much hold true, but since you ask for “stance,” i’d like to be clear that at a basic level, their relationship was a bad decision with universally negative consequences. they should not have chosen to be together and this is baked into the structure of the book.

but also, there would have been no book without that choice, and people make mistakes because they feel that those choices are correct, or worthwhile, at the time. juni’s POV is very immediate, and she’s in love with this person, so of course she will feel romantically and express romantic feelings on the page.

sometimes i feel nervous that i did a bad job with this, and i guess your mileage may vary. in particular, i now strongly question my own decision not to have juni’s parents ten times angrier and more repulsed. now that i’m no longer a teenager (book was written when i was 17-19) i don’t feel like their reaction is realistic anymore.

still, i mostly stand by the book and its contents. at the end of the day, i trust that readers can step back from the book, look at the overarching narrative, and recognize that the form of the thing does not paint the relationship as Good or Desirable. i don’t know how much clearer i can get than 1) Garcia losing his job and leaving town and 2) Juni being hospitalized, nearly ruining her life, and only feeling at peace when he’s gone.