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Monday, September 3, 2018

Sadie Blog Tour: Q&A with Courtney Summers



Today, I have the pleasure of sharing a Q&A with Courtney Summers, author of the highly anticipated Sadie! I hope you all enjoy it. 



Sadie by Courtney Summers
Publisher: Wednesday Books (Macmillan)
Pub. Date: September 4, 2018
Buy Links: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Book Depository
A missing girl on a journey of revenge and a Serial―like podcast following the clues she's left behind.

Sadie hasn't had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she's been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water.

But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie's entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister's killer to justice and hits the road following a few meager clues to find him.

When West McCray―a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America―overhears Sadie's story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie's journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it's too late.

Courtney Summers has written the breakout book of her career. Sadie is propulsive and harrowing and will keep you riveted until the last page.



COURTNEY SUMMERS lives and writes in Canada. She is the author of What Goes Around, This is Not a Test, Fall for Anything, Some Girls Are, Cracked Up to Be, Please Remain Calm, and All the Rage.
Connect with Courtney: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Tumblr

Which authors and books have influenced you the most?

Ann M. Martin’s The Baby-sitters Club fostered my love of reading. Robert Cormier and Ryu Murakami showed me it’s okay to spotlight the harsh realities of the world in fiction. Battle Royale by Koushun Takami made me reconsider the scope of YA fiction, even though Battle Royale is not a YA book. Nova Ren Suma’s quality of work constantly inspires me to do better.

Did you experience more difficulty writing one or the other, or did you like writing in one form more? How much of the novel did you write in chronological order, and how much did you jump around? 

I enjoyed both of them. Writing Sadie’s perspective was very familiar to me because all of my books feature an intensely close first person, female point-of-view. Writing West’s perspective, the podcast format, proved a little more challenging. Not so much because of the way it was written (scripts) but because each episode had to propel Sadie’s narrative forward and give us a different way of looking at the things she went through.

So far, I’ve only ever been able to write in chronological order!

What was the most surprising thing you learned in creating your characters? Which of your characters do you most identify with, and why? 

When I first started Sadie, I was extremely skeptical of West—he had to prove himself to readers over the course of his narrative and given the nature of his job, I was curious to see where writing him would take me. I really loved the way his arc unfolded. I wasn’t necessarily surprised by it, but more gratified by it than I realized I would be.

I identify with little pieces of all of my characters, but I like to keep those to myself because I don’t want risk readers thinking about me while they read. I like my role as an author to be invisible.

What gave you the idea for Sadie

One of the things that inspired Sadie was the way we consume violence against women and girls as a form of entertainment. When we do that, we reduce its victims to objects, which suggests a level of disposability—that a girl’s pain is only valuable to us if we’re being entertained by it. But it’s not her responsibility to entertain us. What is our responsibility to us? I really wanted to explore that and the way we dismiss missing girls and what the cost of that ultimately is.

Do you have a favorite scene, quote, or moment from Sadie

My favorite moment is a spoiler, but my favorite quote is this: “I wish this was a love story.”

If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be? 

I used to have an answer for this kind of question but the older I get, that’s changed. I wouldn’t tell her anything. Her experience as a writer unfolded the way it was supposed to and I like how it’s turning out.

Thank you, Courtney, for being on Brittany's Book Rambles today!



Is Sadie on your TBR? Is this the first time you're hearing about it? Let me know!

19 comments:

  1. Thanks for kicking off the blog tour! I'll be posting tomorrow at Bildungsroman. :)

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  2. First time I hear about this and, I must say, I actually got intrigued by that fave quote: “I wish this was a love story.” :)

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  3. I absolutely LOVED Sadie--it was such an important story, which seems to be Courtney's specialty. I love how she mentioned not wanting readers to think of her while reading--that makes reading her books an even more engaging experience.

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    1. I haven't read anything by Courtney but I've heard amazing things about this book. I'm so glad that you enjoy her work though. I have to move them up on my TBR!

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  4. This book was so powerful. Summers' ability to take this narrative and make people listen is amazing. Thanks so much for sharing these responses. I am glad that I am not the only one who enjoyed those Babysitter's Club novels. ;)

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    1. That's what I keep hearing! It was my pleasure sharing these. And those were a classic when I was growing up! I remember reading a couple though I don't remember the content well.

      Thanks for stopping by!

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  5. Great interview! I was already excited to read this book but now I'm more excited than ever! I keep hearing such great things about it too.

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    1. Thank you! There is a lot of buzz about this book, I hope you added it to your TBR.

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  6. Wonderful interview, and I liked her thoughts on how violence against women is SO prevalent in entertainment. Definitely thought provoking.

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    1. It really is, and it's something that needs to be continued to be talked about. I hope you added Sadie to your TBR.

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  7. I just started reading this like a few hours ago!! (And am already pretty addicted and want the best for Sadie omg I feel so bad for her.) So this was perfect timing to read the Q&A and I loved the behind-the-scenes peek!!

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  8. Great interview! I haven't read Sadie, but everyone keeps recommending it, and this interview definitely made me want to read it more! I definitely appreciate Courtney talking about violence against women. It's frustrating that it's a major theme in all kinds of entertainment.

    Mary @ Mary Had a Little Book Blog

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  9. This novel caught my eye because of its cover. And since some others rated it with 5 stars, I am now really curious about it. Thanks for sharing the wonderful interview with us!

    Best wishes
    Vi

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  10. Eee, loved this interview post :D Stunning questions love. <3 And ugh, how I adore Courtney. SHE IS THE BEST. And Sadie was so so so very good, eee :D Thank you for sharing Brittany. <3

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