Exclusive Interview
‘Into the Blue’ Author Emma Brodie on Her Book’s Ending, Adaptation Plans & More (VIDEO)
What To Know
- Emma Brodie’s novel, Into the Blue, centers on the intense, transformative love story between AJ Graves and Noah Drew.
- In an interview with Swooon, Brodie discussed the show’s ending and a possible adaptation.
- Into the Blue is Brodie’s second novel.
Emma Brodie’s Into the Blue burst into the book world like a supernova. Anyone who’s read her sophomore novel, which was released on April 7, knows that AJ Graves and Noah Drew’s love story feels like a cosmic explosion — intense and completely transformative.
Noah and AJ first meet while working at a local video store in their small Massachusetts town. They bond over their mutual love of Astronauticals, a Star Trek-esque television show that starred Noah’s great-aunt, Eudora Drew, and her great love, Ezell Farr. Noah and AJ’s time together as friends and eventual scene partners cemented a bone-deep, unbreakable connection that neither of them can fully fathom.
And then one day, after a mind-melting first kiss, Noah just disappears, leaving AJ confused and heartbroken. Years later, Noah blasts back into her life, and their dormant connection resurfaces. They work together on an improv-heavy sci-fi show that brings them face-to-face with truths that change their lives forever.
“The character of Noah definitely came to me first,” Brodie told Swooon when she stopped by our studio. “He had just this magnetic energy, and I just was like, you are something, but I didn’t really know what to do with him.”
It wasn’t until she saw the Season 5 episode of Castle, titled “The Final Frontier,” that she got a burst of inspiration. “It was this incredibly nerd-coded murder show about a murder that had taken place at a fan convention. And what I loved about it was that I was just instantly drawn into this world, and it felt like walking into a room where I wasn’t expecting to know anyone, but everyone embraced me, kind of like family.”
Brodie started pondering putting Noah in that world, and she got another source of inspiration from none other than the Vanderpump Rules cheating scandal, aka Scandoval. “I just was like, this is it. This is how I make this work,” Brodie said. “Because I wanted to do something with the show I wasn’t sure how to write about it in a way that would be satisfying because it’s very boring to shoot a show.”
This allowed her to formulate the Astronauticals prequel series in the novel, appropriately titled Into the Blue. The show only lasts a season, but AJ and Noah’s connection refuses to die with it. The universe, with a little help from Eudora Drew, keeps bringing them back together.
In the book’s third act, an emotional eruption, fueled by Noah believing that his Huntington’s disease (the fatal neurodegenerative disease his mother had) is starting, leads to Noah and AJ agreeing to stage Ezell’s unfinished play, Laughter & Death. They’ll perform 12 different versions of the play before parting ways for good.
On the final night, Noah walks out, leaving AJ in the theater to believe that their love story is truly over. She receives a call from her twin sister, Emily, which prolongs her stay. Just as she’s about to exit the stage, Noah returns. Outside, he waited for AJ to leave, and that time made him realize that nothing would ever make him stop loving her.
“I didn’t know how it was gonna end,” Brodie admitted. “There was always a question in my mind of, is he going to stick with it? But yeah, I knew he would walk out. There was absolutely no question in my mind. The question was, is he going to come back?”
The author took us inside Noah’s mindset when he walked out. “I think in Noah’s head, he had only really thought this through until the end of the scene,” she said. “They made these very hard and fast rules, and I think walking out that last night was his horizon line. I think he immediately started to negotiate that with himself the minute he left the theater.”
What if AJ had left the theater? Would Noah have followed her that night? “I don’t think he would have followed her that night,” Brodie told Swooon. “I wonder if he would have… if something would have happened. But I don’t… I don’t actually know.”
A book like Into the Blue automatically makes you want to reread it and immediately gets your mind percolating on a possible adaptation. “I can’t say too much at this point, but we’re putting together a cool team. And there is excitement about a potential show,” Brodie revealed. She stressed that Into the Blue has to be a TV show and not a movie. There’s just too much ground to cover with Noah and AJ.
Swooon endorses Brodie’s stance on the Into the Blue television show. Someone get Eudora Drew on it.
