'It makes everything worth it': SILS alumna author's successful debut novel

While browsing grocery store aisles, a UNC School of Information and Library Science alumna received an email from her agent requesting a full manuscript of her latest piece: "Not Like Other Girls." Meredith Adamo wasn't just studying books while she at UNC — she was writing one. 

Adamo’s debut young adult mystery tells the story of a girl searching for her ex-best friend. The novel has garnered significant acclaim and it recently won the prestigious 2025 William C. Morris Debut Award.  The book was also named a Chicago Public Library Best of the Best book, a BookPage Best Young Adult Book of 2024, a Southern Book Prize Young Readers Finalist and a May/June Kids’ Indie Next List pick. In May 2024, it was featured in Target's YA Book Club. 

But before the accolades, Adamo was just a kid who loved mysteries. She grew up reading the "Nancy Drew Mystery Stories" series and "The Adventures of Mary-Kate and Ashley."

“I was always that kid in the classroom who, during recess, was not doing anything active and just reading on the side," she said.

Adamo attended Wordsmith Workshops, a program designed to help aspiring writers get their stories published, in 2019. She said it changed her life.

"I remember reading through her first few sample pages and just thinking, 'Damn. She can write,'" Beth Revis, published author and co-founder of Wordsmith Workshops, wrote in an email to The Daily Tar Heel.

Although she majored in English literature at Syracuse University, Alamo said she was scared to commit to creative writing, fearing the unpredictability of a writing career. Still, storytelling never left her mind. She emailed herself the first idea for "Not Like Other Girls" in 2014. It would take nearly a decade — including five or six years of drafting — before publication.

At UNC, Adamo said studying library science reshaped how she thought about young readers. 

She said Sandra Hughes-Hassell, her advisor at UNC, taught a section in one of her children’s literature classes that really stuck with her. The course, she said, focused on counter-narratives and the importance for teens and children to see stories that contrast more dominant narratives to give voice to their own stories.

Adamo said Hughes-Hassel's class and her time at SILS impacted the way she viewed her audience.

“I was thinking about teen readers in a totally different way," Adamo said. "I was thinking about what it meant to have teens have access to books in their different communities. So it was informing the way that I was envisioning the reader on the other side of the book.” 

One of the novel’s core themes — the “not like other girls” trope — was something Adamo said she wanted to subvert. This trope refers to select female characters who portray themselves as different from their feminine peers based on their hobbies or interests, implying superiority or increased desirability for the character.  

"I thought it would be a little funny to start a book where the main character thinks that, and then her arc is actually realizing that she's just like other girls," Adamo said.

When crafting the mystery, Adamo said she had sticky notes covering her walls in a design similar to a police suspect board. Despite the years of work, the reality of publication still took her by surprise.

She first spotted "Not Like Other Girls" on shelves at a Barnes & Noble after a powerlifting class in Durham. 

"I just stood there frozen," she said. "The people were so nice there, so I ended up talking to some of the employees, and they took a picture of me really sweaty and gross with it, and I got to sign them."

At Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews on Franklin Street, Bookstore Experience Manager Brianna Lloyd said the novel is currently sold out.

"It's a pretty popular book when it comes in," Lloyd said.

Since her novel’s release, Adamo has visited local high schools, participated in book clubs and spoke to a creative writing class. She said it’s the messages from teen readers that mean the most to her.

"I've had some students come up to me and be like, 'this felt like my life,' and that is just such a surreal experience to hear especially from my target readership," Adamo said. "It makes everything worth it."

Fans of Adamo’s work won’t have to wait too long for another book. She said she’s currently revising her next novel, a young adult mystery following the daughter of a mommy blogger. 

Adamo said she sees "Not Like Other Girls" and her future novel as sisters, with both stories centered on complicated female leads solving crimes.

@meganmichaels4

@dailytarheel | university@dailytarheel.com