This or That with Kyle from Pieces of Us (Pieces of Us Blog Tour)

Today we have Kyle from Pieces of Us here for a this or that interview! This post is part of The Teen Book Scene's blog tour for Pieces of Us by Margie Gelbwasser.You can find out all about the tour here. Make sure to visit all the other stops if you'd like to know more about Pieces of Us!


This or that with Kyle:

Sunrise or sunset?

There's beauty in both.

Half-empty of half-full?

Things stopped being half-full when you turned nine.

Summer or winter?

Lake houses are summer, safety is summer. Definitely summer.

Movies or TV?

The darkness, getting lost in the crowd and your thoughts. Movies, it is.

Outdoors or indoors?

Indoors if you're the only one home. Otherwise, outdoors.

Being in a crowd or being alone?

Either, as long as it's without Mom or Alex.

Being able to change the past or living with your mistakes?

If you could change the past, you would feel like living.

Superpower: Being invisible or being able to fly?

Disappearing would be heaven.

Margie Gelbwasser on writing Kyle:

When I was a kid, I went to upstate New York to a bungalow colony. It was a bunch of little houses that people stayed in for the summer, and we all went there with our grandparents. The lake houses are based on this. When we were there, there were two brothers. The older one was a player and all the girls wanted him. He was fourteen. The younger one was five. Whenever the older one got a girlfriend, he encouraged the five year old to grab her boob or hit her on the butt. The girls thought it was funny. The younger brother thought it was funny. I was nine and thought it was strange. When I started writing PIECES OF US and about the lake houses, those brothers popped into my head. I wondered what would happen if the situation escalated through the years, if it was darker. Originally, Kyle's story was there but in the background. However, the more I wrote, the more extensive the drafts, the more Kyle came through. I see PIECES OF US as his and Katie's story. I also see Kyle as the most innocent of the four and who I feel for the most. To me, there's more hope for Kyle's future than any of the others.

I loved Pieces of Us - you can check out my review here. It will be released on March 8th.

Pieces of Us by Margie Gelbwasser
(Amazon | Goodreads)

At home in Philly, Alex is angry. Angry at the dad who offed himself rather than stay around; angry at the mom who goes from one guy to the next without a thought for her family. Alex may be a player and a bully, but his little brother Kyle will do anything for his approval.
At home in the suburbs, Katie is Miss Popularity, the golden girl that everyone expects too much of, the one who will always be the prettiest and best in her parents eyes, and everyone else’s. Her shy little sister Julie just wants a bit of the attention that Katie gets so easily.
But during their summers at lake houses in Upstate New York, all four teens have a chance to leave their old identities behind. They can be anything here.
Here, no one knows the truly disturbing nature of Kyle and Alex’s dysfunctional relationship. No one knows that the girl Katie pretends to be is a lie. Julie never worries that Kyle is only spending time with her to get to her prettier sister. And the secrets that are threatening to destroy each of them seem are safe. But secrets have a way of getting out…