Q&A with Shannon Takaoka, Author of “Everything I Thought I Knew”
Everything I Thought I Knew follows 17-year-old Chloe, a focused, straight-A student who has always known exactly what her life after high school would look like. But then Chloe collapses one day at a track meet, and everything changes. When she wakes up in the hospital, Chloe is told that she has a rare, deadly heart disease, and soon, she receives a heart transplant. But even though Chloe knows she is lucky to be alive, she can’t shake the feeling that something isn’t right. Suddenly, she’s experiencing dreams and memories that aren’t hers, and despite having never liked the ocean, all she wants to do is surf. As her symptoms intensify, Chloe can’t help wondering if she inherited more than just a heart from her donor.
1. How did Everything I Thought I Knew come about, and when did you start writing it? What inspired you to focus on heart transplants?
Oh wow, it’s a little wild now to think of how long the process was. I probably got the idea for the story somewhere around 2015-2016. I’d worked as a business writer for a very long time, but I’d never written a novel before, so it took me about two years. I was basically learning how to do it as I went. And then publishing cycles are fairly long too, so although I sold the finished manuscript in late 2018, it didn’t come out until 2020. Luckily with my second book, The Great and Powerful Gracie Byrne, things have gone a little faster. I drafted it in a little less than a year, and it’s coming out this fall. (Official pub date is coming soon!)
The inspiration for Everything I Thought I Knew came from a story I had heard—I can’t remember the original source—about organ recipients feeling as if they’ve picked up new habits or interests after their transplants that they feel are connected to their donor. Craving a specific food or being drawn to the similar music, for example. Whether this is scientifically possible or not, I thought it was a compelling idea to explore—especially through a character who is at a phase in their own life where they are still trying to figure out who they are. And if felt especially poignant for it to be a heart because of all the emotional connotations we typically associate with hearts.
2. The plot twist was amazing! How did you come up with it, and were you ever considering a different ending?
Ah cool, thank you! Well, not to be too spoiler-y about it, when I originally conceived the idea for the book, I was interested in exploring the donor-recipient connection, so I guess you could say I really leaned into that. I’m also obsessed with theories around the multiverse and parallel universes, so each of these ideas led me to the conclusion. There were are few times when I considered a different ending. Even though I always knew the story was going to depart from reality in some way, I did want to strike the right balance. So there were moments when I worried the speculative elements might seem too “out there.” But in the end, I just had to shut that worry off and let my imagination go. I love stories that throw a weird premise or strange twist at me, so I guess I just followed the advice about writing the kind of book that I typically like to read.
3. Like Chloe, I love surfing and really enjoyed that aspect of the book. Do you surf? What inspired you to make it such a big part of Chloe’s new life after her transplant?
I don’t surf, but I occasionally have the opportunity to check out surfers in action, and I love watching them. Surfing has always seemed so graceful and beautiful to me, but also a little intimidating – particularly here in the San Francisco Bay Area, where in certain spots the waves can get scary big and powerful. (And the water is cold.) I chose surfing for Chloe because it felt like a sport that would take her out of her comfort zone. The “before transplant” Chloe is a runner and a high achiever, but also somewhat risk adverse. So, I wanted her to take on an activity that was not only a little bit dangerous and unpredictable, but also one that she could engage in solely for the joy of it. It wouldn’t be about getting a “best time” or a line item for her college resume. Additionally, I loved the idea of setting some of the action in the story in the ocean, because of the connection between waves and physics. I’m SO glad you enjoyed the surfing parts! As a writer, I always want to be sure I’m doing the right amount of homework so that things feel authentic (enough). I think that’s one of the best parts about writing books—I get to be super-curious about everything that interests me.
4. The idea of cellular memory is so interesting. What kind of research did you do before writing the book, and what is the most surprising fact you learned?
Organ transplants have always fascinated me. The fact that humans have figured out how to transplant a heart or a kidney or a lung, successfully, from one person to another is such an extraordinary achievement, and the history behind it all is so interesting. Before and while writing, I read a number of books about heart research and the history of transplant surgery. These included When Death Becomes Life: Notes from a Transplant Surgeon by Joshua D. Mezrich and The Man Who Touched His Own Heart: True Tales of Science, Surgery, and Mystery by Rob Dunn. I also read and listened to patient stories and visited hospital websites and consumed all the patient information on “what to expect” before and after a transplant. The history of heart research is wild… so there were a lot of surprising facts. For example, the doctor who figured out how to do cardiac catheterization in the late 1920s couldn’t get his hospital to sign off on trying it on a patient, so he snuck into a lab and had a nurse help him do the experiment on himself, not knowing yet if it would even work. But the coolest part about the research was that I got to learn a lot about Norman Shumway—he performed the first successful human heart transplant in the U.S. My mom-in-law, Lois Takaoka, worked for him at Stanford for many years. She passed away before this book was even a glimmer of an idea, but I know she would have been so excited to know I was reading about his work. She always talked about what a great doctor and person he was.
5. After her transplant, Chloe becomes obsessed with music. Which songs do you feel best represent Chloe, Kai, and their relationship?
For sure it’s Hello My Old Heart by the Oh Hellos. When I was writing the book, I had a playlist of songs with the word “heart” in the title—there are a lot!—and that one in particular just perfectly fits the mood of the story. I love that song so much.
Other songs that I listened to on repeat while writing that more abstractly gave me Chloe/Kai vibes: Never Let Me Go, Florence + The Machine; Your Heart is an Empty Room, Death Cab for Cutie; Riptide, Vance Joy; Let’s Be Still, The Head and the Heart; Elastic Heart, Sia; Swim Good, Frank Ocean; Gravity, Surfer Blood; Forever, HAIM; Days, The Drums; Constellations, Jack Johnson; and finally, Across the Universe, The Beatles.
6. Throughout the book, Chloe thinks a lot about parallel universes and even writes a physics paper on the topic. In an ideal parallel universe, what are you doing right now?
Probably still writing! But in an ideal parallel universe, I wish I would have started my fiction writing career a little sooner maybe. From a “bigger picture” standpoint, I’d like to believe there’s a parallel universe where humans have worked out more ways to come together to solve some of our bigger problems, like climate change. (Although I want to remain hopeful that we’ll figure things out in this universe too.)
7. If you were to write an epilogue set five years after the end of the book, where do you see all of the characters?
Oh love this question! Let’s see… I think based on Chloe’s academic interests, the “before Chloe” would want to go on to grad school or medical school right after college, but my hope is that the Chloe we see at the end of the book does things a little differently and takes the time to live life to the fullest and have adventures. (And continue to surf, of course.) But science will always be in her life for sure, and I think ultimately, she’ll do something in the area of heart research. Kai will always be surfing, so he’s still living somewhere close to the water. He seems like he’d make an excellent, compassionate doctor, so maybe he goes to medical school. Or… perhaps he’s doing something in marine biology or oceanography? Jane is definitely living in a cool city somewhere, and despite being the least “academic” of the three, is already running her own design business, because she’s a boss. And finally, because I am a hopeless romantic at heart, I love the idea that there’s a universe where Chloe and Kai find each other. So maybe in five years, some version of Kai is on a surf trip somewhere and, out in the water, he spots some version of Chloe, and thinks… “I have to meet this girl.”
8. What inspired you to write a YA story, and which YA books would you recommend that are similar to Everything I Thought I Knew?
So I love stories that are grounded in reality but have a speculative twist. A recent YA book I read and loved is Jeff Bishop’s A Heavy Dose of Allison Tandy—it so funny, heartfelt and weird in the best possible way. Watch Over Meby Nina LaCour has all the moody California coast vibes and an otherworldly mystery at its heart. I am also in awe of Laura Ruby’s ability to tell stories that feel like nothing I’ve ever read before, and I especially love Bone Gap and Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All. Finally, not a book recommendation, but there’s also a Japanese anime movie called Your Name that an author friend told me reminded them of Everything I Thought I Knew when they read it, and I watched it afterward and it is SO fantastic. It came out a while ago, but is definitely worth checking out on streaming.
I love YA as a genre because the teen years are usually a time of so many changes and new experiences—growing up, finding your voice and independence, thinking about the kind of person you want to be in the world and maybe even experiencing your first love. There’s just a lot that’s fun to write about, and a lot that I can channel from when I was a teen that remains universal. I want readers to feel like they are not alone if they feel overwhelmed, unsure or confused by it all.
9. Were there any scenes you loved that didn’t make it into the book?
Yes! There was one with the dog, Ruby, that I loved but it ultimately had to go because it just wasn’t working. I’m a dog-person—there’s also a dog in my next book—and I like to include pets in my stories since they are such a big part of a lot of people’s lives. But I think I just went a bit overboard with this dog-heavy scene, lol.
10. What do you hope readers, especially teens, take away from the book?
Well, first, I hope they just enjoy it as a story. When I was writing it, one of the ideas I was trying to explore was the question a lot of people—and especially teens—ask themselves: “Who am I, really?” And I think that it’s okay to not always be sure. You don’t have to have everything figured out at age 17. And the answer can change over time. We are always learning and hopefully evolving, and being shaped by our experiences.
I also wanted to look at what it really means to live. While there’s nothing wrong with having goals and plans, I think we can also get so wrapped up in what comes next that we lose sight of the fact that life is lived in the present. In Chloe’s case, she’s faced with this question in a pretty extreme way. She almost dies and then her new life is a constant reminder of not just her “second chance,” but also of someone else’s loss. So how does she choose to live her life after coming so close to losing it, and with the knowledge that her existence will always be connected in this unique way to her donor?
Finally, I think there was something I was trying to get at related to the tension between attempting to control everything and accepting the reality of fate and chance. No matter how much we plan, things will sometimes go wrong. No matter how much we learn and discover about life and death, there will always be things we don’t understand. For a scientific mind like Chloe’s, this can be frustrating, but I also think there’s something beautiful in recognizing that the universe is too vast, magical and mysterious to be fully explained.
