Fast Five Author Interview: Jenna Voris

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Jenna Voris writes books about ambitious girls and galaxy-traversing adventures. She was born and raised in Indiana—where she learned to love roundabouts and the art of college basketball—and now calls Washington, DC, home. When she’s not writing, she can be found perfecting her road trip playlists and desperately trying to keep her houseplants alive. She is also the author of Made of Stars and Every Time You Hear That Song. 
Follow her online @JennaVoris and at JennaMVoris.com

TLT: Give us the elevator pitch for your book.

Jenna: Say a Little Prayer is about a teenage girl named Riley who is forced to attend church camp after getting into a fight at school. She’s already estranged from the congregation, so she decides to commit all seven deadly sins throughout the course of the week, just to prove that sinning might not be the one-way ticket to hell their pastor claims. Only problem is, she’s slowly realizing that she has feelings for her best friend—who also happens to be the pastor’s daughter.

TLT: What inspired your book?

Jenna: I spent my high school years involved in my own hometown church attending every retreat, every Bible study, and every mission trip. There were days where we had fun and genuinely felt like we were doing good and then there were days where our youth leaders would say things like “you can stop being gay if you accept Jesus into your life.” Even then, I remember thinking that couldn’t possibly be right—Jesus is supposed to love everyone. That doubt stayed with me as I started to deconstruct and look at my time with the church with a more critical eye. I wish someone had told sixteen-year-old me that my church’s teachings were not law and that I could still be a good person outside of its walls. I started to wonder what my teenage years might have looked like with that information and Riley’s story was born.

TLT: What do you hope readers take away from your book?

Jenna: I hope readers feel comforted and seen after finishing this book. I’ve gotten a few comments from people who haven’t read it who assume I’m condemning Christianity or writing about how everyone who practices is a bad person but that couldn’t be further from the truth. I know some congregations are safe and welcoming and kind even if that wasn’t my experience. At the beginning of the book, Riley’s relationship with religion has been fundamentally damaged by the people in power, but there are other characters who still find comfort in their faith and everything it’s supposed to represent. I wanted to explore a wide variety of teenage experiences within the pages of this book and I wanted them all connected by the same overarching truth—that each experience is valid and real.

TLT: What are you working on now?

Jenna: I have a few exciting projects in the works for next year! My adult debut comes out in February with Dial Press. It’s about two rival conwomen who team up to rob a fancy Miami hotel—and just might kiss about it.

TLT: Recommend a few books you love and want to share with readers.

Jenna: Some recent favorites include: Lucy Undying by Kiersten White (come for the Dracula retelling, stay for the sapphic vampires), This Could Be Us by Kennedy Ryan (no romance couple has ever been as messy or as fun as these two), and A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams (make sure you allot ten to fifteen minutes to stare into space and think about that epilogue after finishing this book).

About Say A Little Prayer

Saved! meets Casey McQuiston in this wry, heartfelt tale of a teen who’s taking her church camp by storm—one deadly sin at a time.

Riley quietly left church a year ago when she realized there was no place for a bi girl in her congregation. But it wasn’t until the pastor shunned her older sister for getting an abortion that she really wanted to burn it all down.

It’s just her luck, then, that she’s sent to the principal’s office for slapping a girl talking smack about her sister—and in order to avoid suspension, she has to spend spring break at church camp. The only saving grace is that she’ll be there with her best friend, Julia. Even if Julia’s dad is the pastor. And he’s in charge of camp. But Riley won’t let a technicality like “repenting” get in the way of her true mission. Instead of spending the week embracing the seven heavenly virtues, she decides to commit all seven deadly sins. If she can show the other campers that sometimes being a little bad is for the greater good, she could start a righteous revolution! What could possibly go wrong? Aside from falling for the pastor’s daughter . . .

ISBN-13: 9780593692745
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date: 03/04/2025
Age Range: 12 – 17 Years

Filed under: Author Interview