This story was very eerie, odd, and plain weird and I loved it! This thriller is something completely new and I really enjoyed it. I also liked how the novel was told in two different perspectives, one from the world's and the other from Sadie's. I would recommend this title.

Every so often a book comes along that leaves bruises on your very soul. It’s raw, ugly, and isn’t about anything enjoyable. But still, even though it leaves you reeling, it’s also left you thinking. Perhaps about the other side of life. The side you’d like to brush under the rug and act like it doesn’t exist because it’s too dark. Too scary. Too emotional to think about. But this book does that. It pulls you out of your warm, cozy house and places you someplace uncomfortable.

Sadie is the first book I’ve read by Courtney Summers and is an absolutely ingenious novel. Written through a first person narrative by Sadie herself, along with alternating podcasts that tells the story of Sadie and her sister through the eyes of May Beth, their pseudo grandmother, and eventually through those of their own mother. Deeply moving, Sadie touches on some hard topics. It’s uncomfortable, but instead of taking away from the story, it adds depth and layers and eventually your life is entwined with Sadie’s. You won’t be able to get her out of your head. It’s been a week since I finished this one, and I still find myself thinking about these girls during random times throughout the day. Summer’s writing is beyond incredible. It’s poignant and pivotable, and one of the best YA thrillers that I’ve ever read.

Honestly, I feel like the best thing to do with this one is to go into it blind. Don’t over research it and read a hundred different reviews. Let this one speak for itself. This is a really important story about a poor girl who has an intense, undying love for her sister, and who has suffered unspeakable traumas. While the story of Sadie herself is a work of fiction, turn on the news or open the paper and you’ll find hundreds of stories about girls just like her. It’s a blight upon our society and one that needs to be addressed more often.

If you only read one book this year, READ THIS ONE!

Sadie by Courtney Summers is a book that will stick with me for some time. It's a YA thriller/mystery, but it has loads of subjects and triggers that range from YA to adult: drug abuse, murder, sexual abuse, pedophilia, rape, rural issues and poverty, etc. It is not just your run of the mill easy peasy YA book. It's pretty heavy.

But one of the things that helps make it lighter is the format in which the story is told. The chapters alternate between Sadie in the past and a podcast in the present. Yep - a PODCAST. In a book! I loved the idea and thought that Summers did an excellent job blending them both without going too meta and confusing us all.

My biggest complaint with the story is having to read Sadie's stutter the entire book. While on one hand it makes me feel more sympathetic towards her because she is juggling all of these emotions and things happening to her AS WELL as having a sever speech impediment. But on the other hand I was constantly annoyed at how it forced me to slow down my reading to read all h-her att- attempts at tr-trying to sp-sp-speak and stuff. I just could have managed perfectly fine without that ingredient in the story for it to work the way that it did.

I loved the ever-growing mystery with Sadie's journey (and then in turn OUR journey as we read along with the podcast). I am a huge lover of true crime mystery podcasts and cold cases and I think that Summers just did such a good job keeping us entertained and intrigued as if we were listening to a real life podcast.

I am going to give this one 4 out of 5 stars. I think I would have rated it higher had it not been for a) Sadie's constant stuttering and how that bothered me reading it for 300+ pages and b) the ending fell a little flat and was rushed after all that buildup and suspense. It kinda just happened and the next thing you know, the book is over! BUT those two elements did not take away from how great this book is and that it is extremely deserving of the 4 stars I am rating it. I encourage friends to read this if they like the kinds of things I have mentioned in this review.

Thanks to Netgalley, St Martins Press, and Wednesday Books for the advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Girls, girls, girls. Missing girls. A much explored topic in literature, but Sadie brings a unique take.

We live in an age of podcasts where true crime stories are among the most popular subjects explored. Maybe Serial popularized this trend, maybe not, I'm not well versed enough in the history of podcasts to know, but it is one I listened to which helped me to understand half of the format of Courtney Summers's compelling and gripping new read. Sadie, a story of a girl gone missing, is told in part through podcast transcript and in part through the first person perspective of Sadie herself in the days leading up to her disappearance.

I have always found Courtney Summers books to be "unputdownable" and to sweep me up into the emotional reality of the characters very quickly. I like that she has a fondness for writing girls who aren't mainstream pleasant, but full of the jagged edges of life which manifest in all the ways pain does manifest for girls. Anger, violence, control, manipulation. Exploring how girls react to the unique torments the world has for them in light of the patriarchy, in light of being girls, is still not as explored as it should be and remains an area I love to read about.

Writing the book in half podcast format also allowed Sadie to touch upon the exploitation of such stories, of such pain for the consumption of others. Why are we drawn to these stories? It's worth thinking about the ways in which we use the pain of others for our entertainment.

Giving away the plot is not something I'm interested in doing, so instead I'll leave you with this. The writing in this book is equal parts incisive and poignant. I felt every ounce of Sadie's pain even if her unique circumstances don't look anything like my own. Of course I recommend this book, I'm just sorry we'll probably be waiting another three years for the next?

This review can also be found on my page at The Young Folks, published on September 4.

If I had to choose one novel that was this summer’s must read and a top contender for the most anticipated read, it would have to be Courtney Summers Sadie. On nearly every platform I visited within the last few months, the buzz surrounding Sadie did not falter, and I would constantly encounter a variety of promotional content for its upcoming release. There was even a podcast published on Macmillan Podcasts entitled The Girls, in which fictional journalist West McCray’s launches an audio investigation into what happened to Sadie, allowing for a separate media to tie into the events of the novel while also bringing the story to life in an eerily realistic manner.

So, when I picked up the novel and settled in to read, there was one prominent question ringing in my mind: is this novel worth the hype?

My short answer: Yes. Yes, it is.

Having been born into a bleak life in Colorado, living in a trailer park with her drug-addict mother and facing a less than bright future, nineteen-year-old Sadie knows only one source of love: her thirteen-year-old sister, Mattie. When Mattie is murdered, and the following police investigation turns up nothing, Sadie’s grip on herself as a person is wrenched away, and she sets herself permanently down the path of finding her sister’s killer and bringing him to justice herself. After learning of her story, West McCray becomes obsessed not only with spreading Sadie’s story, but also in finding the girl before it’s too late.

“I’m going to kill a man. I’m going to steal the light from his eyes. I want to watch it go out. You aren’t supposed to answer violence with more violence but sometimes I think violence is the only answer.”

If you couldn’t tell from this line splayed on the back of the front cover, Sadie is, without a doubt, one of the most emotionally impacting, devastating, and uncomfortable books I’ve read in quite some time, and I feel that this was done by design. Summers definitely does not hold back in her description of the horror that fills these pages, and she ensures that she both enthralls and repulses her audience the entire time they are reading. I’ll willingly admit that I could not read through the entirety of this novel in one sitting, as it was difficult to read in the sense that the topics and psychology of Sadie’s journey and character are difficult to take in. This is by no means a criticism, but rather a compliment of the highest praise I can offer. Summers created a memorable novel here, and while it explores triggering topics that may not appeal to many people, Sadie is certainly a book that I would recommend for those that enjoy true crime stories that leave you reeling.

You know I’ve been a fan of Courtney Summers for a while now, I devour all her books as soon as I can get my hands on them, honestly sometimes I wonder why as inevitably I come out the other side entirely traumatised and with way too much on my mind. I don’t know any other author who writes with such huge depth, all wrapped up in a seemingly straightforward story. But they are never ever that..

Sadie, on the surface, would seem to be simply about a missing girl, we’ve all read that one, but there is nothing simple about this story and certainly nothing mainstream about Sadie herself, an intensely engaging young woman on a mission to track down her Sister’s killer. Courtney Summers takes us on a road trip through her life, through her psyche, into her head and heart and it is a dark, deeply personal journey that will leave you in tatters.

Following behind Sadie is West McCray, radio personality and podcaster, whose original investigation into small towns is sidelined when he stumbles onto Sadie’s story and slowly but surely becomes obsessed with finding her. His tale is taut and consuming, his initial reluctance slowly turning into Sadie’s last chance, as he tracks her both physically and mentally and in doing so learns some emotive life lessons.

As a reader you also will be consumed by this story, by the beautiful, intense prose that tells it, you may well find yourself having your own inner monologue as you beg West to catch up to Sadie before it’s too late.

The themes explored are entirely human, the dark side of nature and the evil that we do. It is thought provoking, scarily authentic, deeply immersive and completely fascinatingly addictive.

Courtney Summers as a writer pushes herself further with each novel – I genuinely didn’t believe she could ever top the genius that was “All the Rage” but here we have Sadie. Cleverly insightful, edgy and horribly truthful, this author pulls no punches and refuses to let you look away from the dark depths of human nature, showing us glimpses of lives less ordinary, the fact that she does this within the YA genre is all the more impressive.

The ending of this novel had me weeping into my pillow, distraught, because this is fiction that could so easily be fact, as such the truth of it hits hard in all our hidden emotional places. Sadie is a magnificent piece of storytelling – I’m not sure why I would ever expect anything less.

Highly Recommended.

To start, you need ALL the trigger warnings for sexual abuse. Every last one of them.

You probably haven't read a YA novel with a (fictional) true crime podcast at its heart, have you? In the wake of Serial, true crime podcasts have really been on the rise, so it was only a matter of time. Make the author of that book Courtney Summers, a veritable queen of emotional, no-bullshit books with endings that make you scream? There was no hitting that big "yes" button fast enough, especially because she's long been one of my favorite authors. Sadie is a nonstop, slow-burning thrill and if you're familiar with how her books end, you're really gonna scream this time!

It sounds simple when you describe the beginning of it all to someone: one dead girl, one missing woman, and one man chasing down the sisters' story. In execution, podcaster West's investigation of Mattie Southern's murder and Sadie Hunter's disappearance absolutely isn't. Sadie is a novel of creeping realizations and this slow bloom reveals more secrets with every petal. Dread the depth of your average lake deepens into an ocean as the pages fly by, the tension driven well by the alternation of Sadie's own narration with podcast transcripts.

One such chilling realization: Sadie and West are months apart from one another, leaving you unsure how things will turn out for either character.

When Sadie speaks for herself in her chapters, her fury is palpable. As she lets down her guard and allows readers to find out what happened to her and Mattie, that fury becomes contagious. Traveling across the United States to murder a man is a terrifying extreme for retaliation, but once you're in on her pain, you get why she put her moral compass away. To say the least, Sadie and Mattie never got a fair shake from life.

This may be a book for a very specific kind of reader, though? If you fell in love with long-form investigative media like Making a Murderer and Serial, Sadie hits that spot just right because that's what the podcast West works for is doing with Sadie's story. That? Is not me at all. For my tastes, think My Favorite Murder, True Crime Garage, shows ranging from Forensic Files to Investigation Discovery trash. Y'know, people chattering at one another about crimes and short-form specials. If you've got the same preferences I do, give the full cast-recorded first episode of Sadie's companion podcast The Girls a listen. It may help you make a decision!

And those legendarily ambiguous endings characteristic of a Courtney Summers book? Oh man, you've got one in full force, but the ending is possibly too open this time. Without giving anything away, readers are almost certain to drift toward one of three endings: the optimistic, the tempered optimistic, and the pessimistic. It's the kind of ending that's intended to be unsatisfactory but is unsatisfactory in its execution, if that makes sense.

Whether it's to your tastes or not, Sadie is a YA novel like you've never read before and it'll be a while before any YA novel can even hope to compare. If you haven't already read Summers's other books, do iiiiiiiiiiiiiit. DO IT. Her backlist us full of brilliant books, my favorites being This Is Not a Test and All the Rage. I've got a feeling many, many people are about to discover one of the best authors currently producing YA novels.

Stunning! Powerful! Uncomfortable!

WOW! Courtney Summers.... you pulled out my heart, ran it over a few times, and put it back, never to be the same again! This book was so ugly and yet so beautiful... so difficult and yet so easy... so heartbreaking and yet so hopeful... A book that will stay with you long after you finish reading the last page.... sadie is a girl that will not allow you to ever forget her! She is your sister, she is your daughter, she is your best friend, she is you!


Sadie is 19 and has not had the easiest of lives... she never knew her father and her mother abandoned her leaving her to take care of her younger sister Mattie... after Mattie is murdered Sadie is devastated and determined... determined to find and kill the man who killed her sister, because her sister was her whole world... told in alternating narratives from Sadie in the first person on her quest to find the man who killed her sister... and also from West McCray A radio personality recording an investigative podcast on the disappearance of Sadie.... I thought this was a very impactful way to structure the story.... we got the real and raw look into the mind of Sadie along with a look at how others saw her through West’s investigation.... and what we learned from this was that Sadie was an edgy, unforgettable damaged soul with a big heart...

Sadie’s story is riveting, but not easy to digest... this book took me a little longer to read then most, it took me some time to internalize some things... and sometimes I needed to just put the book down and take a few breaths.... sadie broke my heart and I just wanted to reach through those pages give her a big hug and let her know there was someone out there that did care....

Absolutely recommend! This is a hyped book that deserves every bit of the hype it is getting!

*** many thanks to Wednesday Books/St. Martin’s Press for my copy of this book ***

Courtney Summers does not make it easy for you to read this book. She keeps pressing your heart and your mind to take more, take more, TAKE MORE. Every time you feel as if you can't feel more haunted, she proves you wrong.

You will want to take Sadie and hold her close. This girl has SUFFERED. She feels unwanted, unloved, and unaccepted. The few years that she felt value are when her mother had a new baby girl. Sadie loves her sister Mattie the way she wishes she was loved. So when Mattie is murdered, Sadie becomes intent on finding the person she holds responsible.

Meanwhile, a podcaster finds out about Mattie's murder and becomes as obsessed with finding Sadie as she is with finding Mattie's killer.

Courtney Summers tells this story juxtaposing Sadie's narrative with podcast transcripts. It's an interesting device that holds up well. I liked seeing parts of this story through West McCray's eyes, and I liked getting deeper into Sadie's mind and heart. Sadie always has your sympathy, even when you want to put your arm around her shoulders and steer her away from the trouble she seems intent on finding.

One of the things I enjoyed most about this book is how Courtney Summers develops her supporting cast. Mattie is dead when the book begins, yet you get a sense of this girl, just as you come to understand her and Sadie's mother, their caretaker, and other people West encounters as he tries to find Sadie. Courtney Summers gives voice to people we tend to overlook in our lives, and she also forces you to sympathize with those who suffer from disorders that profoundly affect their spirits.

Sadie isn't always a fun book to read. In fact, it never is. But its story is one that teens and the rest of us will fall into as we find ourselves turning the pages, determined to find out what happened to Sadie and who murdered Mattie.

It’s no secret to those who know me — I love a good mystery. I enjoy true crime books, shows, and podcasts (My Favorite Murder 😍), not to mention mystery books and detective stories, be they true or fiction.

So at BookExpo in May, when I heard about a YA mystery called Sadie, I was all in.

The story follows two threads:

The first thread is Sadie’s story, in which she vows to avenge her younger sister Mattie’s unsolved murder. Growing up in a trailer park with an addict mother, Sadie was neglected early in life. When Mattie was born, Sadie took over the role of mother, promising herself that Mattie would have a loving childhood to look back on.

The second thread follows a podcast called The Girls that reminded me of Serial and Up and Vanished. The host, West McCray, does his best to track down Sadie, doing research and interviewing those who knew her before, as well as those who meet Sadie on her quest for justice. Another cool thing to note: the podcast is actually real — it’s called The Girls: Find Sadie (find it anywhere you listen to podcasts). It follows the first several “podcast chapters” in Sadie, and man, is it chilling and well-done.

Sadie is equal parts thrilling, tragic, fascinating, and horrifying. There’s a murder, all kinds of abuse, road trips, new friends, new enemies, and ultimately, a mystery that you won’t be able to put down.

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. Links in post are affiliate links whose proceeds go toward the maintenance of this blog.

St. Martin's Press and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Sadie. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

The book is centered around the disappearance of Sadie, a 19 year old young woman looking for answers after the murder of her 13 year old sister. Sadie's whole life is wrapped around Mattie, so she feels like she has nothing to lose by getting revenge on the murderer. Will Sadie be able to accomplish what the police has yet to do? Will justice be served?

Author Courtney Summers has written Sadie with an original format, as much of the book is told by the perspective of West McCray, a man with a podcast about small, forgotten towns in America. When he hears about Sadie, the direction of his show becomes centered around the sisters and their unfinished stories. Although the author was able to get across the point of the story, I found the constant back and forth between Sadie's and West's perspectives to be off-putting. This book would have been more successful had I chosen the audio format, as a narrator would have been able to give the book the legitimacy that it is lacking. Sadie was a good book, but not compelling despite the horrific circumstances that both Mattie and Sadie find themselves. For these reasons, I would be hesitant to recommend Sadie to other readers.

Sadie by Courtney Summers intrigued me from the very start. I'm an avid fan of podcasting, so when I heard that this book was told partially in the form of a podcast, I scrambled to get an ARC of it. I'm so glad that I did, because even if the story isn't pretty, it's worth being heard.

The narrative revolves around Sadie, a girl with a stutter. Right from the start, I appreciated the inclusion of this speech impediment. I've rarely seen stutters portrayed in books, and none so well as here. Sadie's quest throughout this novel is pretty straightforward; She wants to avenge her sister's death, so she has to find the man that killed her. Most of the plot involves her going from location to location, finding clues that will aid her on her search.

The way that Sadie's narration and the podcast work together is beautiful. Sometimes things that were skipped over in Sadie's chapters are explained in the podcast, and vice versa. They compliment each other well, and we get a feeling for a lot of characters who would otherwise be flat side characters if left alone in Sadie's narrative. 

As for the characters, they all felt so real, even the smaller ones. The dual narration styles help with that, but everyone felt like they had their own story and life behind them. From typical spoiled teenagers to stressed single mothers, there's a wide cast of characters in Sadie. 

This novel isn't as gritty and dark as I thought it would be, but at the same time, it's just as gritty and dark as I thought it would be. That probably doesn't make sense, but bear with me. I won't go into details because I don't want to spoil anything, but while there's nothing explicitly bad on the pages, there's plenty left up to the imagination.

I'd say that the novel started out a little slow, but that's not a bad thing. It just took me a bit to get into the podcast sections, but once I was into the novel, it flew by in a flash! I think I read 75% of the novel in one sitting. It really picks up after a while, and you won't be able to put it down.

Now, once again I won't spoil anything, but the ending made me feel something. I'm torn on if I liked it or not. Mostly, it just confused me, but I think in the back of my head I've formed an explanation for it. If you ever want to chat about it, send me a message.

I think that the story itself, and the characters in it, are so important. It's not a lighthearted summer read. This story is gritty and rough and makes you feel uncomfortable things. It's not for the faint of heart at all, and this isn't a book you'll love or like. It's a book you'll feel, and you'll probably feel it deeply. I laid on my bed for a while after I finished it, just thinking. 

In the end, I really appreciated Sadie. If you enjoyed The Lovely Bones you might like this novel. I'll end this review with a fun fact that I just learned about this book: there's actually a real podcast based on the novel! It's the same text as the novel. I haven't checked it out fully yet, but I'm sure it'll add to the experience.

Whoa..... But first, the blurb...

"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 meagre 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."

"Sadie" was my first read by Courtney Summers and I was not disappointed. This book was dark, it was intriguing, and it was also a heavy read. It took me a few days to fully process this book after I finished reading it, not because I didn't like it but because it left me an emotional wreck lol. It was sad, it was disturbing... it was so good! I have never read anything by Courtney Summers before this book but I will most definitely be catching up on her other novels! This book will definitely stick with me for a very long time. Be sure to check it out!!!

*I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

This is one that's going to haunt me. Sadie was so immersive - the format in which it's told is so interesting and it made it feel like the story was so real. Sadie definitely felt like a real person, someone I desperately wanted to be found. My heart ached so much for her situation. This is raw and real and heartbreaking, but also so incredibly beautiful. I cried and had to hold the book to my chest multiple times because I felt so much, which is the highest praise of a book for me. I'm going to be thinking about this one for a long, long time.

TW: pedophilia, rape, sexual assault, murder.

If you've read any of Courtney Summers's previous books, you know that this is not an author that shies away from the dark stuff. Not everyone's teenage experience is filled with light and love, and her books reflect the difficult, troubling occurrences that can happen. So yes, trigger warning for this book- but Summers is an author that can handle weighty topics.
Sadie uses the currently very trendy method of being told partly from the main character, Sadie's, point of view, and partly in the form of a podcast. In this book though, it works. I could hear the voice of the podcast host telling the story of Sadie's past and the quest to find out what happened to her. Sadie's quest to find the person she believes is responsible for the death of her sister shows how all that life that has dealt her has made her gritty, tough. Sadie has learned to trust no one, and she doesn't feel she has anything to lose at this point. This book is not easy, but life isn't always, either, and Sadie's life never really was.

For whatever reason, I had to wait a little bit between finishing reading the book and writing this review. Usually, I finish it, let it stew for about half an hour and then bust out my thoughts. In this case, I really needed to sit on it.

Thanks so much for NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book for an honest review, as always, all opinions are my own.

This book follows Sadie, a nineteen-year-old girl whose little sister has been found brutally murdered. After their mother left them to fend for themselves, Sadie has always taken care of Mattie - but she couldn't keep her safe in the end - and Sadie herself runs off to try to find Mattie's killer. I don't really want to say too much more about the plot, so I'll just get into the rest of my thoughts.

This book is told in the form of a podcast, which I thought was an interesting choice and a unique way to write a story. The main narrator is a journalist, West, who interviews people, following Sadie's trail. This storyline is also interrupted by sections from Sadie's perspective and we piece together what is happening from the two sources, usually one step closer than West, who obviously doesn't have Sadie's inner thoughts.

This book reminded me a bit of The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis and obviously, since I loved that book, I really enjoyed this one. There are, of course, differences between the two stories, but they both feature female leads who are at a lethal level above just your usual kick-butt heroine.

I've only read one other book by Summers but like that one, this was an emotional read. She writes about so many horrible things, but things that people sadly have to go through all the time. Everything from poverty to sexual abuse, physical violence to emotional trauma. She gives every gritty detail, never sparing the reader from the cruel life Sadie and her sister had to endure.

Overall, this is an extremely hard but extremely poignant book that you simply must pick up.

Big thanks to @stmartinspress @wednesdaybooks and @netgalley #partner for my eBook copy of Sadie by @summerscourtney . I give it 5⭐️. I was enthralled by this book. I simply couldn't put it down. Sadies life was tough, and reading about it was heartbreaking, but I fell in love with her. I was on her side, and felt her emotions, anger and rage. I understood her reasoning. I really liked the uniqueness of the way it was told through both Sadie's point of view, and also through podcast. Definitely one of my favs this summer. Now I need to listen to "The Girls" podcast show.

“I’m going to kill a man. I’m going to steal the light from his eyes. I want to watch it go out.”

Powerful. Emotional. Gripping.

Just three words I would use to describe Sadie by Courtney Summers. I knew I needed this book after adoring All the Rage and I was not disappointed.

Sadie is a cleverly written YA thriller that had me gripped from the very beginning. We follow the story of Sadie who has gone missing whilst attempting to avenge the murder of her little sister Mattie. But this is so far from your usual ‘I’m getting revenge’ story. Sadie is fuelled by her anger, her disappointment, every emotion she has been left after being dealt a really rough hand in her young life. I very quickly learnt that I loved Sadie and no matter what she did, I was going to love her.

The story is told through two very different types of narrative. There are chapters told from Sadie’s point of view so we can see what she has been doing, where she is going next and we really do feel every ounce of her sadness, anger and emotion. Alternate chapters are then told in podcast transcripts as Marybeth, Sadie’s guardian of sorts, enlists the help of a podcaster to try and solve the mystery of where Sadie has gone. I really loved the way these contrasted against one another. Knowing what you know from Sadie’s POVs and then seeing the podcast on her tail really amped up the tension and excitement as I read. I’ve heard that MacMillan have actually made some podcasts too so I’m excited to check those out!

This story is just breathtaking. Courtney Summers is an exceptional writer who really crawls into the minds of her characters, making all of their emotions and choices feel so real. As a reader, I felt so strongly for Sadie and wanted to protect her but also felt complicit in her actions as I could completely understand why she was doing what she was doing. Mattie’s murder sparked something in Sadie and she will not rest until justice is served, but her own kind of justice. Her journey is something she is doing for herself and seeing her struggle but remain still and strong was remarkable and inspiring. It left me wondering what I could be capable of if my own sister was murdered.

Sadie is an absolutely captivating protagonist and I sobbed my heart out whilst reading this book because I could truly feel what she was feeling. I worried for her, I felt panicky as she became more and more reckless and heartbroken for this young girl who feels so strongly that the world is completely against her. There is something incredibly special about Sadie as a character and her story is going to stick with me for a very long time.

TW: Paedophilia; sexual abuse; drug abuse.

Thanks to NetGalley, St Martin’s Press and Courtney Summers for my copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

When I received this book compliments of Wednesday Books, as an ARC, I thought it was a rather slow read. The premise is one I relish—revenge. Our protagonist is introduced by a webcast host, West McCray, whose show, The Girls, exposes and introduces the public to crimes against children—and basically single mothers who are preyed on by pedophiles. Sadie, the main character of this tale, switches points of view with our webcast narrator. She goes in search of her sister's killer and doggedly does so with the determination of a woman who has one purpose in life and that’s to avenge every single victim left by her sister's murderer. We’re led on a chase that takes us through the south as Sadie tries to find traces of a man who’s changed his name so many times that people are ending up confused at first until they realize that he’s a man who’d set out to deceive from the very beginning. Sadie's search exposes other victims and predators—and I was gripped by the storytelling though Sadie's eyes, and I just kept rooting for her.
When she finally gets to the final destination of her prey, it was so suspenseful because there’s this huge part of me that hopes that she lived through her attacker's attack, yet a small part of me thinks she may have just barely escaped from him, yes, he dies, but we never hear from our Sadie again. It’s a beautifully woven tale that makes for a great mystery read. I totally recommend this to all my fellow readers out there. #sadie #courtneysummers #septemberawesomereads #netgalley #goodreads #bookriot

*3.5 Stars*

I am so sad that I struggled with this one. I have recently fallen in love with podcasts, especially true crime ones. Because of that, once I read the synopsis of this book, I knew I had to pick it up!

This book is very uniquely written. Half of it is written from Sadie’s point of view and the other half is transcript from the podcast. This was such an amazing idea but I struggled with the timing, and the transitions between the two.

I did enjoy the overall storyline but there were a few things that really bothered me. I wish it was explained a little bit more, how Sadie knew who killed her sister. It was very briefly mentioned but I honestly didn’t remember it until after reading other reviews and going back to check in the book. There were some things that I felt were thrown in just for shock factor but didn’t align with the plot very well.

I do hope that this is not the last book in this world. I think the premise is amazing and could be AMAZING. I know I have a uncommon opinion with this book and may decide to pick it up and give it another try later because it’s the kind of book I would normally love.

Note: There is also an real podcast for this book now! I may have to give it a listen and see how it goes.

Trigger Warnings: Child Sexual Abuse, Neglect, Violence

Grateful to have received a complimentary ARC copy to honestly review.