I didn't attend boarding school, but I did attend a women's college, and I based Bates Academy on it. Why did you choose an all-girls boarding school as the setting? Did you attend either? What do you think are the pros and cons of an all-girls environment? Part of me still wishes I'd gone with one of the others. I also wrote alternate endings with different killers. It had something of a happily ever after, believe it or not. I did actually write a different original ending, and it changed during the editorial process. How did you decide on the ending and were you ever considering a different one? The Dear Valentine incident was inspired by a time I was broken up with the day before Valentine's Day, and I still had a Valentine's Day rose from the person who broke my heart delivered to me in front of everyone at my locker the next day. It's hard to remember what I was inspired by at this point, but in conversations with my editor, I remembered that when I was in college, there had been a murder near campus on Halloween night, and I have to believe that was at least a subconscious inspiration. I started writing People Like Us in 2016. When did you start writing People Like Us, and what inspired you?

After finishing the book in a single sitting, I reached out to Dana and had the chance to interview her. What’s better than drama, revenge, and murder, all in a boarding school setting? Dana Mele’s young adult thriller People Like Us has it all, plus an addictive plot with a shocking twist.

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