‘Made for You’ by Jenna Satterthwaite

Published by Verve Books,
29 April 2025.
ISBN: 978-0-85730909-9 (PB)

Made for You displays a fascinating fusion of genres. It is a love story as well as a murder mystery while introducing an element of science fiction that curiously manages to reinvigorate traditional tropes of crime fiction. Whatever one thinks of Jenna Sattterthwaite’s innovations, it is impossible to fault the audacity of her ambition and the fecundity of her imagination: achievements all the more remarkable as this novel is the author’s debut work.

Set in a world almost identical to the one we presently inhabit; scientific advances have resulted in the manufacture of so-called ‘Synths’: robots who resemble humans in nearly every respect. They have ambitions and dreams; they possess reason and feelings; they can fall in love; they can procreate. The only significant difference between Synths and humans seems to be the means by which they are produced.

In Made for You, an inventor named Andy Wekstein, the genius behind the firm WekTech, creates a ‘bot’ or ‘synth’ with one aim in mind: the beautiful red-head Julia Walden has been specifically designed to win the affections of a handsome bachelor named Josh LaSala on a popular reality television show called The Proposal. Before filming starts, Julia is a hit on social media, garnering over a million Instagram followers within hours after the announcement of her creation, a number that quickly quadruples once she grants an interview.

Dressed in finery, hair brushed and set, make-up carefully applied, Julia is ferried by limo to a luxurious house where she will meet Josh and compete – with twenty-three other lovely contestants – for his hand in marriage. The winner is the woman he eventually proposes to. Julia is the only Synth and wonders if that will prove a drawback or an advantage.

Satterthwaite’s novel has a double timeline. ‘Then’ is January 2022 and the place is Los Angeles, where The Proposal is filmed. ‘Now’ takes place in Indiana several years later. Josh and Julia have settled in the Midwest following their marriage, living in an isolated spot with their baby daughter Annaleigh and large, boisterous dog named Captain. For Julia, alas, the fairytale ending of The Proposal has evolved into a nightmarish existence. Neighbours are suspicious of Synths and shun the young family; lonely and bored, Julia begins to drink too much; she and Josh argue. It is a surprise but not surprising at all when Josh disappears. After his severed arm is found, confirming the suspicion Josh has been murdered, the local police decide the Synth living in their midst is the prime suspect. Julia is arrested and convicted, manages to escape from prison, and embarks on a search for her husband’s killer, desperate to be reunited with her young daughter.

Satterthwaite is to be commended for writing such an entertaining and clever book, and in such eloquent, self-assured prose. Ironically, it is the musings of a robot that make us realise what it means to be human.
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Reviewer: Wendy Jones Nakanishi/aka Lea O’Harra.

Jenna Satterthwaite was born in the Midwest, but grew up in Spain, lived briefly in France, and is now happily settled in Chicago with her husband and children. Jenna studied classical guitar at the Conservatorio Profesional de Música de Zaragoza and earned her BAs in English Lit and French at Indiana University. Now she is a literary agent with Storm Literary and also works a 9-5 style office job.  Once upon a time, Jenna moonlighted as a singer-songwriter in folk band Thornfield. In the winter, you can find Jenna obsessively and cozily pounding out novels on her laptop by the fireplace. In the summer, you can find her getting sunburned at the pool with her kids, vaguely wondering how a novel is even written. She loves sushi, reading in her natural habitat (aka her bed), and women taking back their power.

Connect with Jenna on Twitter @jennaschmenna, Facebook on her author page, and Instagram @jenna.satterthwaite.author. She loves to hear from readers!  

Lea O’Harra.  An American by birth, did her postgraduate work in Britain – an MA in Lancaster and a doctorate at Edinburgh – and worked full-time for 36 years at a Japanese university. Since retiring in March 2020, she has spent part of each year in Lancaster and part in Takamatsu on Shikoku Island, her second home, with occasional visits to the States to see family and friends. An avid reader of crime fiction since childhood, as a university professor she wrote academic articles on it as a literary genre and then decided to try her hand at composing such stories herself, publishing the so-called ‘Inspector Inoue mystery series’ comprising three murder mysteries set in rural, contemporary Japan. She has also published two standalone crime fiction novels.