Q&A: Charlotte Lillie Balogh, Author of ‘Kill The Lax Bro’

We chat with author Charlotte Lillie Balogh about Kill The Lax Bro, which is a fresh and darkly funny 90s murder mystery about one high school’s net of lies that begin to unravel when a star lacrosse player winds up dead.

Hi, Charlotte! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

Hiya, readers! My name is Charlotte Lillie — ‘Charlotte’ from my dad’s side of the family, ‘Lillie’ from my mom’s. I’m originally from Boston, MA, and I’m one of those aggressive Bostonians (is there any other kind?) who drops the fact into every other conversation. I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember, first books, then movies and TV, and now I’m somehow lucky enough to do a little bit of everything. Growing up, I’d go to my grandmother’s house after school each day, and she fed my love for stories with frequent trips to our local bookstore (shout out to the Concord Bookshop!). I self-published my very first book when I was still in high school, and in college I decided to study screenwriting. After a handful of incredible internships—in New York, Los Angeles, and even at the Cannes Film Festival—I graduated and moved to Los Angeles full-time, where I was able to live my lifelong dream of working at DC Entertainment. I’ve primarily been in the world of TV ever since, including my most recent job on 9-1-1: Lone Star, but in recent years I’ve gotten back into writing fiction—which is how Kill The Lax Bro came to be! Some of my favorite things that aren’t related to writing include: rowing, Thai food, boba, road trips (scream-singing every song along way—right now, it’s Epic: The Musical), dinner with friends, my niece, and exploring new cities. I will stop to pet every dog that I see on the street, I drive a convertible, I taught myself how to surf, and I use color-coded spreadsheets to keep track of everything. Seriously, EVERYTHING. I’m also trying to learn Italian, which may or may not be related to another project I’m hoping to finish one day!

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

I remember “writing” stories as early as when I was in kindergarten and still didn’t know how to write real worlds. Instead, I would draw pictures, caption them with zig-zags (“words”), and then ask my teachers or my grandmother to translate the story at the bottom of the page.

Quick lightning round! Tell us:

• The first book you ever remember reading: Either Don Freeman’s Corduroy, or Mama, Do You Love Me?, by Barbara M. Joose.
• The one that made you want to become an author: Nancy Drew and the Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene. But I also have to give credit to James Patterson’s Maximum Ride series!
• The one that you can’t stop thinking about: In Altre Parole by Jhumpa Lahiri, because I finished it recently and it’s the first book I’ve read entirely in Italian.

Your latest novel, Kill the Lax Bro, is out June 24^th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Revenge! Friendship! Lacrosse! Lip gloss!

What can readers expect?

A group of unapologetic girls set on revenge, and a twisting locked-room mystery that will keep you guessing until the very last page. Also, it’s set in the ‘90s!

Where did the inspiration for Kill the Lax Bro come from?

Kill The Lax Bro started out as a TV sample, and I wrote the pilot after rewatching John Tucker Must Die in the Covid lockdown. Coming from public school in New England, I’ve always wanted to do some kind of story involving lax bros and lax culture, and this time while watching John Tucker I started to wonder: What if the girls killed the guy instead? The pilot script won several awards (including being a Final Draft Big Break Quarter Finalist, WWFC, BIFF & Shore Scripts Finalist, and ITWFF, CCFF, Best TV Pilot Winner), and although I found my literary agent and went on submission with an entirely different YA project, my editor saw a video of the Lax Bro table read and asked if I was interested in doing that as a book instead. And now…here we are!

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

There are 6 different narrators in Lax Bro, and I had the most fun writing from the POV of our leading ladies—Sassi, Tatum, Jennifer, and Naomi. Each one of them has a completely different tone and worldview (not to mention their vastly different senses of humor!), and I think they each ended up being a different version of who I’ve been or who I’ve wanted to be in life. Naomi has the heart, Sassi the confidence, Tatum the guts, and Jennifer is full of hope.

Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?

Ha—YES!!! Even though I started out adapting the Lax Bro book from its TV pilot iteration, I had intentionally written that the sample script to end on a cliffhanger. Meaning, I didn’t have the ending figured out (you know…that whole murder thing?). So after we sold the proposal, I had to race to figure out who the killer was before I could write the draft—and it still changed. Twice.

What’s next for you?

I’m currently developing a TV pitch based on one of my yet-to-be published manuscripts. But more on that later! Promise!

Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up this year?

Off the top of my head: The Rebel Girls of Rome by Jordyn Taylor, The Rebel’s Guide to Pride by Matthew Hubbard (big, big year for rebels IMO!), and Difficult Girls, another YA thriller debut by Veronica Bane.

Will you be picking up Kill The Lax Bro? Have you already? Tell us in the comments below!