Murder and teenagers may seem like a strange pairing to some, but not to Rachel Peterson, who has a debut novel for young adults, “Killing Sadie.”
“I'm happy to report that the book itself, and the plot within it, did not come out of real life,” said the Hudson native.
After a 20-year career in marketing, she now divides her time between New York and her native Northeast Ohio. She’s been writing since high school, turning out several unpublished books to hone her craft.
“I had a great family life and wonderful friends. And I think partially because of that, I'm able to write this dark, twisted thriller story about all of these things that are so far the opposite of what my own experience was,” she said.
She signed with Simon & Schuster's Pulse imprint to tell the story of a group of teenagers who are trying to explain the death of their friend – but the stories don’t quite line up. If this sounds like a modern-day “Stranger Things,” Peterson is happy for the comparison to the Netflix juggernaut.
“I think that's probably the dream of many writers, that, ‘Hey, this would make for a great TV show,’” she said. “It's hard not to think about things cinematically as you're putting them together, putting them on paper and, especially, building out the environment.”
A barn party in the book is a catalyst for the story developments, and she called upon familiar Ohio settings to describe it.
About six years ago, Peterson got serious about making her dream of becoming an author into a page turner. She saved her journals from high school, which were a window into her teenage state of mind. Yet it’s not just a walk down memory lane: Peterson also wove in her thoughts on how teens should treat each other and themselves.
“There's a particular instance when one of our characters has a boyfriend who everyone said, ‘Wow, you're so lucky to be with this guy. He's perfect,’” she said. “There's an instance where he does something that everyone around her thinks is romantic. And she does not feel that it's romantic. And that's called out as … if you're uncomfortable, then it's uncomfortable, full stop.”
Even though it all comes wrapped in the sometimes-rough language of high school students, Peterson said she isn’t worried about “Killing Sadie” angering parents.
“If it does end up at school board meetings, that means a lot of people are talking about it, and there is no such thing as bad publicity,” she said.
Peterson is launching the book in her home state with events in Columbus on Sunday and at the Twinsburg library on Tuesday.
