About the Author

“A riveting tour de force.ˮ

-Kirkus, starred review

“A taut, suspenseful book about abuse and power that feels personal.ˮ

-Publishers Weekly, starred review

“A heartrending must-have.ˮ

-School Library Journal, starred review

A missing girl on a journey of revenge. A Serial—like podcast following the clues she's left behind. And an ending you won't be able to stop talking about.

When popular radio personality West McCray receives a desperate phone call from a stranger imploring him to find nineteen-year-old runaway Sadie Hunter, he’s not convinced there’s a story there; girls go missing all the time. But when it’s revealed that Sadie fled home after the brutal murder of her little sister, Mattie, West travels to the small town of Cold Creek, Colorado, to uncover what happened.

Sadie has no idea that her journey to avenge her sister will soon become the subject of a blockbuster podcast. Armed with a switchblade, Sadie follows meager clues hoping they’ll lead to the man who took Mattie’s life, because she’s determined to make him pay with his own. But as West traces her path to the darkest, most dangerous corners of big cities and small towns, a deeply unsettling mystery begins to unfold—one that’s bigger than them both. Can he find Sadie before it’s too late?

Alternating between Sadie’s unflinching voice as she hunts the killer and the podcast transcripts tracking the clues she’s left behind, Sadie is a breathless thriller about the lengths we go to protect the ones we love and the high price we pay when we can’t. It will haunt you long after you reach the final page.

Enter Sadie Giveaway

Dear Reader, 

Girls go missing all the time. Restless teenage girls, reckless teenage girls. Teenage girls and their inevitable drama. Sadie had survived a terrible loss, and with very little effort on my part, I dismissed it. Her. I wanted a story that felt fresh, new and exciting and what about a missing teenage girl was that? We’ve heard this story before. 

So admits West McCray, the popular radio personality who inadvertently finds himself on the hunt for a missing girl, Sadie, and who shares his quest to find her on a serialized podcast called The Girls. 

One of the earliest things I had to consider when writing Sadie was the way the world would receive her story—not only the world beyond the book, but the world within it. We live in a time where violence against women and girls is often consumed as a form of entertainment. The consequence of that is an indifference to female pain and suffering unless we’re entertained by it. 

West, at first, can’t recognize the urgency of Sadie’s story because he doesn’t believe it has much of a hook. He’s proven wrong pretty quickly, but why did he ever think it needed one? As he follows the trail of clues Sadie’s left behind, West is forced to take a closer look at the privilege that allowed him his initial skepticism and indifference; maybe, just maybe, it’s not a missing girl’s responsibility to entertain anyone. 

Maybe the real question is: what is our responsibility to a missing girl? 

Thank you so much for reading Sadie.

Courtney Summers 

   

Sadie Book Club Menu

When the titular protagonist in Sadie takes to the road to avenge her little sister's murder, the last thing on her mind is food—which is as understandable as it is impractical. We all need to eat. Her blatant disregard for her well-being also makes those few opportunities Sadie does get the chance to have a meal all the more precious and heartbreaking—food isn't only the fuel she needs to help achieve the revenge she has planned, it represents the respite and the care she so desperately deserves from a world that has long denied her.

If readers want the full Sadie experience, they should power through the pages with the strongest cup of black coffee they can stand and whatever's left in the bag of salt and vinegar chips buried in the back of their cupboard.