Newhouse Alumni set to release debut novel in June

Charlotte Lillie Balogh has an exciting year ahead of her. Though she has mostly worked in film and TV before now, the 2017 Newhouse graduate’s first novel is being published in June.

“My pitch was a very, very literal John Tucker Must Die,” said Balogh. The book Kill the Lax Bro is a young adult murder mystery set in the ‘90s. It centers on a group of high school girls who find the body of the captain of the lacrosse team the night before high school graduation. The problem? Each of them has a motive.

“The girls over the course of the semester are like, ‘We’re gonna ruin his car and ruin his reputation,’ do all these things, and then he turns up dead. And they’re like, ‘Oh my god, someone got a bit carried away,’” said Balogh.

“I went to a very posh public high school in New England. So lacrosse was always the thing. So I have written many things in my life that have a lacrosse character in them,” said Balogh. “I thought that would be very real and relatable. And I joke about this a lot, too, but I dated a lax bro. I have had my own personal good and bad experience with lax bros.”

Balogh had been submitting a different book to publishers when an editor at Delacorte and Penguin stumbled upon a table reading of a TV pilot.

“That TV pilot was the real-life John Tucker Must Die that I had written in COVID,” said Balogh. “She loved it. And then, basically, when she expressed interest, I wrote a pitch and the first 50 pages. I gave that to her, then that was where it came from.”

One of Balogh’s favorite parts of writing Kill the Lax Bro was digging into research on the ‘90s. The book is meant to be a homage to the era, taking inspiration from the TV show Yellowjackets to incorporate elements of the decade into the novel. For example, each chapter is titled after a song from the ‘90s. With the research also came copyeditors making notes about fashion and slang, which Balogh noted as a “Pinch me,” “How is this my job?” moment.

In addition to ‘90s references, Balogh’s research for the book also included watching tapes of the Gait brothers playing lacrosse. For the uninitiated, the twin brothers Gary and Paul attended Syracuse from 1987 to 1990. Gary, who is thought to be one of the greatest lacrosse players in history, has also coached lacrosse at Syracuse since 2007, transitioning from head coach of the women’s team to head coach of the men’s team in 2021.

Syracuse still holds a special place in Balogh’s heart, as the wide network of Syracuse alumni aided her in landing a job at DC Entertainment. As such, she participates as a mentor for the Syracuse University Los Angeles Semester to help current students. Balogh sees it as a way to pay it forward and help others the way they helped her.

Though Balogh couldn’t share specific details of what’s next, she did say more work is on the way, with a focus on working on her projects. Regardless, she promises that the young adult is her “playground” for the time being.

“I’ve seen memes now, TikToks now, just regarding the state of the world, and people are like, ‘Look for the chosen 16-year-old girl in a love triangle who’s going to save us all,” you know?” said Balogh. “But I also think these books teach you certain lessons, right? And you can learn from them and see yourself in them. And it’s a good age to be inspired, and it’s a good age to do the inspiring, you know?”

Courtesy of Photographer Casey Moses

Kill The Lax Bro by Charlotte Lillie Balogh cover.