MADE
FOR YOU
Author:
Jenna Satterthwaite
ISBN: 9780778310426
Publication
Date: July 2, 2024
Publisher:
MIRA Books
Hi. My name is Julia.
I’m a Synth. And I’m here to find love…
Synthetic woman Julia Walden was designed for one reason: to compete on The Proposal and claim the heart of
bachelor Josh LaSala. Her casting is controversial, but Julia seems to get her
fairy-tale ending when Josh gets down on one knee.
Fast-forward fifteen months, and Julia and Josh are married and raising their
baby in small-town Indiana. But with haters around every corner, Julia’s life
is a far cry from the domestic bliss she imagined. Then her splintering world
shatters: Josh goes missing, and she becomes the prime suspect in his murder.
With no one left she can trust, Julia takes the investigation into her own
hands. But the explosive truths she uncovers will drive her to her breaking
point—and isn’t that where a person’s true nature is revealed? That is…if Julia
truly is a person.
Told via dual timelines, Jenna Satterthwaite’s twist-filled debut deftly
explores the exhilarating point where artificial intelligence, reality TV, and
bone-chilling murder mystery meet.
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Excerpted from Made for You by Jenna Satterthwaite © 2024 by Jenna Satterthwaite used with permission by MIRA/HarperCollins.
THEN
“Can you hear me?” A male face peers into mine.
Midthirties, glasses, expressive eyebrows. Andy. Kind.
“Yes,” I say. There’s an overwhelming barrage of hot
sensation, then click, it all evens out—light, sound, the air on my skin—settling
like embers, then cooling.
I breathe in, feel my chest balloon, breathe out. Lift
my hands to face level and flex my fingers, mapping how the smooth pale skin
with its smattering of freckles shifts and ripples over my knuckle ridges.
I’m sitting. Dressed in what seems to be an evening
gown. I register how tight the skirt is around my thighs. How beautifully the
blue sequins catch in the ice-white light from above. Palms down, I skim the
fabric, tickling the pads of my fingers as the sequins catch, lift, fall. It’s
like wearing a party. I like it.
“Do you know who you are?” says Andy.
I look up and feel myself smile. He’s in baggy jeans,
a gray T-shirt with a buffalo plaid shirt open over top and a pen hooked on the
breast pocket. A dark five-o’clock shadow travels down his neck. His look
screams sleepless nights.
“Of course,” I say. Everything is simply there, no
effort, natural as breathing. “I’m Julia Walden.”
“Do you know where you are? What year it is?”
“We’re in LA. It’s January 2022 and Biden is
President.” I tilt my head. “We’re in the middle of a pandemic.”
“Do you know what’s about to happen?”
I register, out of the corner of my eye, a boom mic
operator to our deep left, but keep my attention on Andy.
“I’m about to compete on The Proposal.”
“God,” breathes Andy, putting a fist to his chest like
my answers are slaying him. “You—you’re—” He crooks a finger at his lips.
“Here?” I suggest with a light laugh. Now I’m rubbing
my arms, the rough skin at my elbows, allowing my hands to touch my own face,
then wander up to my hair, long and loose. I fish it around my shoulder. It’s a
fiery, sun-gleam red. I love it. I love everything about being Julia Walden.
“Real,” says Andy when he’s recovered his speech.
“Working. Amazing. I kind of want to hug you?”
“You don’t have to ask.” I stand in my high heels,
taller than Andy by nearly a head. His glasses collide with my shoulder as
applause bursts around us. After a second, he hooks my hands in his and pulls
back, eyes moist.
“Wow, Julia. Just wow.”
I scan our surroundings as flashes pop. We’re in a
warehouse. To the right, large machines quietly rest. I note hydraulics,
robotic arms, big sheets of pale, rubbery material. Skin, I realize, and my own
skin seems to respond, tiny goose bumps racing up my arms.
It’s not a bad feeling, exactly. Just…unpleasant, like
touching something wet that you thought would be dry.
To my left, a film crew makes a crescent shape. One
hefty man shoulders an equally hefty camera, trained on me. I know without
being told they’re here from The Proposal.
It’s a little strange to be having this intimate
moment with Andy while everyone watches. Then again…that’s about to be my life.
Fully on camera.
Andy claps his hands. “So. Ready to meet Josh?”
“I was born ready,” I say with a laugh. My eyes
flicker up to the answering sound of laughter from the film crew. But while I
did mean to be funny, I also mean it.
Andy pulls out a cell phone. “This is yours. Let’s
break it in.” He leans into me and we smile for our first selfie.
“Should we post it to Insta?” he says. “Your handle
just went live—we had to wait until the other contestants’ phones were taken
away. Oh, and we can’t mention you’re on The Proposal yet—” But I reach for the
phone.
“I got it.” My fingers navigate the screen easily.
Also, wow— how does @TheRealJuliaWalden already have close to a million
followers…and counting? I caption the picture the journey be-gins!!!, noting
the tug of resistance within me as I put the phone down. I guess part of me
wanted to watch the reactions roll in. Immediately I wall up this thought. I’m
not here for everyone. Just one man.
Andy has pulled out a blue pen while I’ve been messing
with the phone, and is nervously gnawing on the clicker end. Weirdly, I want to
reassure him, It’ll be okay. You’ll see.
“Julia!” the producer calls out. “Could you introduce
your-self? For our viewers?”
I look at the camera’s cold eye across the distance
and imagine that I’m looking into the face of a friend who can’t wait to see
me. I smile.
“Sure! I’m a Synth. My name is Julia. And I’m here to
find love.”
Born in the Midwest, Jenna Satterthwaite grew
up in Spain, lived briefly in France, and is now happily settled in Chicago
with her husband and three kids. Jenna studied classical guitar, English Lit
and French, and once upon a time was a singer-songwriter in folk band
Thornfield. She loves sushi, reading in her natural habitat (aka her bed), and
women taking back their power. Made For You is
her debut novel.
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