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Alexandra Sirowy on the Inspiration Behind First We Were IV’s Prankster-Vigilantism
Nothing says summer like a good “secret society gone wrong” tale, which Sirowy’s third novel, First We Were IV, promises to deliver. Four longtime friends are rebels with a cause who form the Order of IV, taking down targets and drawing the interest, for better of worse, of classmates outside their circle. But soon their hunger for justice shades into something more dangerous, culminating in the dark events teased in the book’s opening pages.
Here’s Sirowy to discuss what drew her to the idea of vigilantism, and the easy path from writer to seeker of justice.
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Being a writer is a little like being a vigilante. I wear a disguise. A lot of us publish under pseudonyms. And for the most part, I get to choose what I reveal on social media or what I share at events. I keep secrets, a few things of myself, for myself. But you can read my books and deduce a lot about me. I crave dark and twisty mysteries, challenges and adventures, girls who save themselves and defeat monsters. I’m obsessed with friendship. I’m haunted by growing up in a small town and not quite belonging.
I’m not an anarchist, but I believe that, for many people, justice isn’t all that just, villains get away with crimes, and heroes don’t always win. I obsess over this like a vigilante. I can do something about it by writing. I can right wrongs, bring down villains, smudge the line between good and evil, and invent gritty protagonists who aren’t perfect but who fight for themselves because no one else will.
In my YA thriller First We Were IV I take these ideas and amplify them by a billion. Then, I let them ignite.
First We Were IV is about four best friends who invent a secret society to play pranks with a purpose. Vigilantism is a theme I’ve always wanted to explore in a book, but Izzie, Viv, Graham, and Harry’s prankster-vigilantism required something more revolutionary.
A few years ago, I came across an article about a group of celebrity kids in LA who were creating their own religion using crystals. I rolled my eyes and thought “that’s so California” (I’m from there, so it’s okay). But the article stuck with me. I began to wonder: What if the kids involved were really smart and unique? What if one was the son of an anthropologist and he was fascinated by dead civilizations? What if one was a theater student who had a talent for the dramatic and a love of Greek tragedies? What if one was a school news blogger who studied revolutions? And what if one wanted to get justice for the victim of an unsolved crime and had the idea to create a secret society to make it happen? Four friends like that could invent something spectacular—something dangerous.
What took shape wasn’t a religion, it was a secret society.
Izzie, Viv, Graham, and Harry, the four protagonists of First We Were IV, were born. These four friends aren’t satisfied with putting on a mask and cape to fight the good fight. They invent the Order of IV, a secret group devoted to vigilantism. A group with invented history, rituals, initiations, recruits, and rules. A group devoted to getting justice and revenge for a teenage runaway whose murder went unsolved.
The police and mayor of their small town of Seven Hills want people to forget about the killing. They don’t want people looking at their neighbors, wondering who might be responsible. They’d rather blame the victim.
The Order of IV calls their vigilante-pranks rebellions, and they are rebellions against authority and injustice and anyone who dares stand in Izzie, Viv, Graham, and Harry’s way. I found inspiration everywhere for the rebellions: in revolutions I studied in college, in real-life social movements, in newspaper articles, in song lyrics, and in corners of my mind I can’t account for. Rebellion and vigilantism is all around us when we start searching for it.
And in First We Were IV, it catches like fire. Other teens have grievances, and the Order of IV sparks a school-wide rebellion. Imagine, IVs popping up in Instagram feeds, armbands, and scribbled in marker on backpacks and T-shirts. Kids tagging their pranks with “IV” like a calling card.
These four best friends perceive an injustice and in response, they plot and revolt. They don’t accept the prejudice underlying the police’s she-was-asking-for-it attitude when a girl shows up dead. They don’t care that the mayor wants the crime forgotten. And even though their methods are of questionable morality at best, their vigilantism empowers them. Vigilantes don’t have to accept the world as it is.
Maybe that’s why I like thinking that the writer and the vigilante are step-cousins?
First We Were IV is on sale now.