Exclusive: Author Sophie Stava dishes on Count My Lies and its buzzy TV adaptation!
New York, New York - Sophie Stava has the literary world abuzz with her debut novel, Count My Lies! In an exclusive chat with TAG24 NEWS, the author spilled the secrets behind the story and dropped some major teases about the book's A-list TV adaptation!
Count My Lies, which hit bookstores in March, follows a woman named Sloane with a penchant for compulsive lying.
While out at a park one day, she tells a seemingly innocuous lie. Claiming that she is a nurse, she offers to help a dad whose young daughter has just been stung by a bee.
This chance encounter leads Sloane to grow closer to the little girl and her parents, Jay and Violet. But as she grows further interwined with the wealthy couple, she soon realizes that the lies they've told may be far more dangerous.
The inspiration for the story came from a personal experience Stava had at a local park with her kids – followed by a bit of imaginative thinking.
"My daughter was four months old, and my son was just over two. It was the tail end of Covid, and we had just gotten into a pretty consistent routine of going to the same park at the same time every day," Stava told TAG24.
"Typically, it was empty, but one morning, there was a woman there I had never seen before, and she also had two small kids with her. And so, being the chatty person that I am and the empty park that it was, we got to chatting, and I learned that she was the nanny for these two kids, and they lived in the neighborhood," she continued.
"And she and I just got along so well, like the way that you hope to make friends as an adult, but just don't often."
The serendipitous encounter led Stava to go down a mental rabbit hole and come up with a more "chilling" explanation for their meeting.
"What if the reason that we got along so well is because she already knew things about me?"
Author Sophia Stava explores those with a "tenuous relationship with the truth"
And so, the character of Sloane was born.
"I thought it'd be just such an interesting idea for a character or somebody who's willing to do or say anything – somebody who's so desperate for connection that they're willing to lie," Stava said.
While most would never consider lying to the degree that Sloane does, writing the novel led Stava to realize just how many of us have a "tenuous relationship with the truth" when we're trying to impress others.
"I really wanted to explore the idea of somebody who lied but wasn't necessarily nefarious about it and whose intentions were pretty pure," Stava said.
"I really empathized with Sloane as I was writing her. She lies to be liked, she lies to be noticed, she lies to be more interesting."
As the novel progresses, Sloane is contrasted with Violet, who is growing increasingly frustrated – and desperate – from the strain of keeping up appearances.
The women's lives wind up on a collision course, but as secrets are revealed and lies are exposed, the dark truth calls everything they knew about one another into question.
With bookworms poring over this addictive novel, Count My Lies is already getting the screen treatment with a TV adaptation boasting a major name in a leading role.
Sophie Stava reacts to Lindsay Lohan starring in Count My Lies TV series
After making waves as a Good Morning America Book Club pick earlier this year, Count My Lies got even more exciting news in April with the announcement of its forthcoming TV adaptation from 20th Century Studios.
"They're fabulous and brilliant and funny, and they just get the book," Stava said of the writing team.
The biggest news, of course, was the announcement that Lindsay Lohan was on board for the series as well, serving as an executive producer in addition to taking on a starring role.
Stava confirmed to TAG24 that Lohan would be playing Violet in the adaptation.
"We're sort of still in the planning phase with the episodes being written, but I have read the first two episodes of the scripts, and they're so good," Stava said.
"We have writers, we have scripts being written, we have Lindsey. What more do you need?"
Cover photo: Collage: Courtesy of Jessica Roth