False Idols – a visit to locations with Karla Marie Sweet

False Idols – with Karla Marie Sweet

Here’s an interesting journey – from Los Angeles to New York via Georgia. And Karla Marie Sweet is the guide you need…

False Idols follows Sadie across several cities and stages of life, but at its core, it’s about the tension between who we are, who we were and who we pretend to be. Each location in the book reflects something about Sadie’s inner world and it felt natural to write about them because they are places that mean something to me too.

Locations in False Idols

Locations in False Idols

I’m obsessed with the idea that the past is another country. For me, that is quite literally the case, having grown up in Augusta, Georgia during my teen years. For Sadie, the past is another state. She grows up in a small Southern town that’s never named, but is heavily inspired by Augusta and its surrounding area. Sadie is running away from the kind of town where people know your business, where reputation sticks and where stepping outside the norm can feel risky.

Locations in False Idols

Sadie remembers childhood vacations to Hilton Head, eating at Mellow Mushroom, and hanging around downtown just like I used to do in Augusta, back when it was full of quirky shops, little restaurants and funky bars. Church always seemed to be the most obvious way to find a sense of community there.

After a massive event that turns her world upside down, Sadie and her family move to Savannah, a city that carries a different kind of weight. It’s beautiful, historic and haunted in subtle ways. There, she begins to build a new version of herself. She stops dancing and starts painting and this becomes her new creative identity.

Eventually, she heads to New York to study fine art. I never mention where she actually studies, but I imagine it’s somewhere like Tisch. Much is made of the fact Sadie is very smart so I think she may have got there on a full ride.

Locations in False Idols

She meets her husband Derek in a bookstore. Perhaps somewhere like The Strand, just off campus – one of those places that feels like a maze of ideas and possibility. Derek’s likely studying filmmaking at Tisch – he is, after all, a director when we meet him again in present day. They move in together, renting a rough-around-the-edges warehouse studio above a mechanic’s garage. It’s not glamorous, but they make it theirs.

Locations in False Idols

After college, they move back to Savannah for a while. Sadie is invited to join a shared art studio by her old friend Raheem and the two of them work alongside two other artists, Jenna and Ashley. Sadie is talented but cautious, never exhibiting her work and instead making a living out of agency work designing company logos. There’s always a sense that if she puts herself out there fully, her dark past might come back to hurt her. She’s dogged by horrendous nightmares and hopes leaving Georgia again will help somehow. But her sense of dread is something that follows her wherever she travels in this novel.

Locations in False Idols

The main story takes place in Los Angeles. They move there from Savannah for Derek’s career and the city becomes a new kind of challenge. LA is sprawling, chaotic, and image-obsessed, which makes it the perfect setting to explore themes of identity, wellness culture and self-deception.

Locations in False Idols

Sadie lives in Echo Park and meets Lilith, the charismatic leader of a movement and meditation class called Deep Flow, in the Silver Lake branch of Gelson’s. She’s looking for connection, and the class – held in a sleek West Hollywood studio – promises transformation. But underneath the affirmations and incense lies something far more manipulative. Is it a cult? Is it a pyramid scheme? Or is it just a harmless wellbeing community? Whatever the case, it slowly pulls Sadie in deeper than she ever could’ve expected.

Locations in False Idols

In the novel, Venice Beach represents a kind of freedom. It’s messy, creative, unpredictable and where she often hangs out with new friend Veronica, who lives entirely outside the Deep Flow world. It’s also a 45 minute drive away from Sadie’s house (on a good day!) and a similar distance from the Deep Flow studio, so it often feels as if she heads there to step away from the intensity of Lilith et al and the complexities of her home life.

Karla Marie Sweet

Later in the book, there’s a flashback to another Venice, in Italy, during Sadie and Derek’s honeymoon. On a cobbled street corner, a fortune teller reads her tea leaves. Sadie asks what it will take for her to be happy and the woman sees the shape of a bird. She tells Sadie it means freedom and the bird becomes a motif throughout the book. In present day, Sadie finds a baby yellow warbler in her LA yard. She takes it in and cares for it. I spent a lot of time researching birds native to Southern California to make that detail feel authentic.

Abbot Kinney in Venice Beach

If readers want to get a feel for the world of False Idols, I’d recommend walking along Abbot Kinney in Venice Beach, checking out downtown Augusta, or stopping by Strand Bookstore in New York. These places shaped Sadie’s journey, and in some ways, they shaped mine too.

Thank you so much Karla!

BookTrail Boarding Pass: False Idols

Insta: @karlamsweet