J.E. Thomas tackles themes of loneliness and belonging through a contemporary sci-fi lens in her newest middle grade novel The AI Incident. Having lived in nine foster homes, 12-year-old Malcolm Montgomery is determined to make himself more adoptable. Though he has his self-made “How to Get Adopted Checklist”—which includes rules such as “Never argue” and “All A’s in school, EVERY year!”—he’s grateful for the extra help he finds in his new school’s AI program FRANCIS. When FRANCIS suggests additional adoption tips, such as wearing his shirt inside out, Malcolm doesn’t question the validity of the instructions. But as FRANCIS becomes increasingly independent, Malcolm’s troubles soon take a back seat. Thomas spoke with PW about plumbing her own experiences to inform her writing, and the differences between real and artificial emotional connection.
What did you learn from working on your debut novel Control Freaks that helped you write The AI Incident?
I learned a lot about character development and about digging deeper into what challenges the characters were facing. It revealed a little bit more of my own insecurities. I was able to put more of those into the characters of The AI Incident than I did in Control Freaks.
In this book, I really wanted to explore loneliness, which is something that I think everybody experiences at some point or another, and to do that, I had to excavate my own emotions and dig into how I felt when I was lonely. Sometimes, with difficult emotions, we work our way through them once, and then we try to pack them away. I had to step back and remember a time that I felt lonely, particularly when I was 12 or 13. How did that feel? Not just how did it feel emotionally, but how did it feel in my body? How did that emotion manifest later when I was in my 20s and 30s and 40s? Thinking about that helped inform how each of the characters would present themselves.
What research or experiences did you bring in to portray Malcolm’s navigating the foster care system?
I approached it from two different angles. First, I was fortunate enough to spend quite a bit of time with a retired case worker who told me about her experiences helping kids in the system, and how that impacted her, both as a case worker and as an observer. Kids who navigate that system feel untethered, because there’s not an anchoring home for them.
Second, my dad grew up in kin care, so he was raised by his aunts and uncles rather than his immediate family. After he retired, he spent probably 20 years researching our family’s history. He talked quite a bit about how it impacted him to not grow up in his family of origin. Even though he was extremely well cared for and he adored the people who raised him, it was just one of those lasting experiences that informed his life.
I took those two experiences, and I put them into this character who was struggling to find his anchor, his home. And I had him do what I do, and what I suspect other people do: I had him internalize external situations. The fact that he has been unable to find a permanent home makes him think that there’s something wrong with him. That’s why he created his checklist: he believes that if he can check all those boxes, if he can become the perfect kid, then he will “earn” a family.
Why did you inject sci-fi elements like AI into a story about loneliness?
As I was writing, I was trying to imagine where technology would be in 2025. I made the assumption that companies would move to a point where they would package technology like it was a friend or something that appeared to be human and would speak to people in a very human way. And I should note that I was working on this story prior to the announcements that different AI platforms could be used as a therapist or a buddy. But I wanted to explore the difference between having a computerized substitute for a friend and the process of building a real human friendship, a real human connection, which takes time.
Control Freaks also has a STEAM angle. What drew you to these topics and why did you make them foundational aspects of both your middle grade novels?
I am a science fiction fan from way, way back. I love stories that explore the intersection of technology and humanity, so I wanted to explore that in my own writing as well. I laugh when I think about Control Freaks because, in that book, one of the characters creates an app that scans the internet and writes papers for him. Then one of his friends says something like, “Yeah, it’s accurate, but it’s so hollow.” As that book was coming out, discussion about kids using ChatGPT—which I didn’t know anything about—to write papers was becoming more prevalent. And teachers were saying that the papers didn’t have any originality or humanity. I love exploring things like that.
The AI Incident by J.E. Thomas. Levine Querido, $18.99 July 8 ISBN 978-1-6461-4508-9
