A bit of a heavy read. It's a surprisingly good story with some elements that are a bit rough to read through. It's still pretty good and definitely worth reading.

Believe the hype because this is an absolutely heartbreakingly beautiful story. Courtney Summers has written a book that will no doubt be the talk of the town beyond it's September publication date. READ IT! READ IT! READ IT!

Review being posted on my blog on 8/22/18

TRIGGER WARNING:

Child abuse, drug addiction, attempted sexual assault.



Sadie was my first Courtney Summers book, and I get all the hype surrounding her. I could not put this book down and read it all in one day.


Sadie follows two people. Sadie who is a young woman who was forced to grow up and take care of her sister at a young age. The second point of view is from West McCray who is a radio personality looking into the disappearance of Sadie and her sister's murderer.



Through West McCray's eyes, we get to see what those around Sadie were thinking and doing while she was missing. We hear stories of Sadie and her mom and the life they had before all of this happened. While no one knows why exactly Sadie left they do know that she would do anything for Mattie even if that meant going on a wild goose chase to find the person that took her.




With Sadie we saw her life play out and why she was so protective of her little sister Mattie. Sadie is one of those girls who not only had to raise herself, but her little sister as well due to a mom who had an addiction to multiple things. Because of this Sadie and her mom didn’t get along very well and this causes the little sister to be divided between them and at times favor one more than the other. We also get to see Sadie looking for the person who took her sister, and the places that it takes her.





Overall this mystery book had me on my toes throughout the whole book, I couldn’t get enough of it! From wondering what happened to Sadie and her little sister Mattie. To what the report was going to find out, and if we were ever going to find out if anyone saw anything to help in the investigation. It was just so so good, and I really enjoyed all the little side stories as well where we got to find out more information about the people in Sadie and Mattie's life.



I adored Sadie as a character. She was smart and stubborn and willing to do almost anything to get the answers she needed to find out what happened to Mattie. Yes, this meant not always following the rules, but sometimes that just what you have to do in order to find answers to a mystery.



With West McCray I found myself getting annoyed with him at times. He hints at things from his past but nothing is never officially said so your just kind of left speculating. Which was really frustrating to me because it's not something I like to speculate about, because of the consequences it can cause for others and what it means for the person it happened to. Does that make sense? I feel like I'm just rambling at this point.



If you've read any of Summer's other books please let me know what you think I should read next!

At the time I’m writing this review, it’s been a couple of days since I finished Sadie, and I still haven’t fully processed it. This is one of those stories that seeps into your bones somewhere along the way, and it changes the way you look at the world a little. It is the best mystery—and one of the best books, period—that I have ever read, and it is also one of the bleakest, most devastating reading experiences of my life.

"And it begins, as so many stories do, with a dead girl."

You know, going into this story, that Sadie’s little sister’s body has just been found, and Sadie is on a mission to track down the man she believes is responsible. Besides the fact that it’s a story partially told through podcast episodes (which is such an incredible touch), that’s all you really need to know. This isn’t about what happens so much as it is about coming to know and love Sadie—and to know and love Mattie, too, through her memories. It’s about recognizing that the society we live in has this terrifying, grimy layer that nobody wants to talk about, where little girls are never really safe, and children are forced to grow up way too fast, to become adults in replacement of the parents they didn’t ask for.

"Imagine having to live every day knowing the person who killed your sister is breathing the air she can’t, filling his lungs with it, tasting its sweetness. Imagine him knowing the steady weight of the earth under his feet while her body is buried six feet below it."

With a mother suffering from addiction, a community that looked the other way far too many times, and a life of barely keeping food on the table, much less having any real opportunities to succeed, Sadie feels like such an old soul. I don’t know how many readers will struggle to relate to the age of her inner monologue, but from another woman whose circumstances never quite allowed me to feel like a child, I saw so much of myself in the cynical, pragmatic way Sadie views the world around her.

"I realized pretty early on that the who didn’t really matter so much. That anybody who listens to me, I end up loving them just a little."

It’s hard enough to grow up poor and in a broken family, but Sadie’s also queer—she doesn’t label herself, but explains her sexuality in ways that heavily point to pansexuality—and she stutters, which forms a barricade between her and the rest of the world. Her representation feels so valid and genuine, and it broke my heart every time she mused about how imprisoned she felt by her struggles with speech.

"I’d do it all again and again for eternity if I had to. I don’t know why that’s not enough to bring her back."

More than anything else about Sadie’s character, though, I loved the fierce, maternal determination she has for taking care of Mattie—and, once Mattie is gone, for finding her killer and dishing out justice. Every memory of Mattie, whether told through her view of their adopted grandmother May Beth’s, is beautiful and haunting. The tremendous amount of guilt that Sadie carries as she blames herself for what went wrong had me completely breaking down in passages, and I’ll admit without shame that I read the last several chapters through tears. The most brutal part of it all is that, somehow, it feels like Sadie’s story could be based on a real girl—no, on countless real girls, all over the world.

"I have never been kissed the way I want to be kissed and I have never been touched the way I want to be touched."

Without spoiling the plot, I want to warn you that this book focuses heavily on child abuse and sexual assault, and it is broken down in the most honest, agonizing ways. There’s also a solid portrayal of how deceptive abusers can be, as the abusers in question are shown to have fooled so many people. But there’s also another side to the representation here, as we see Sadie’s intense solidarity with other abused girls, and her desperate need to protect and defend them, even though (perhaps especially though) she feels that she failed to protect and defend her sister.

"It’s about the lengths we go to protect the ones we love… and the high price we pay when we can’t."

There’s not much else I can tell you now, because I think it’s the kind of story that you should go into without too many expectations. Just climb in, let Sadie take you for a ride and tell you her story, and try not to let your heart get too broken in the process. This is a phenomenal story, and I know that I will be thinking about it for a long, long time to come.

Content warnings for child abuse, sexual assault, drug addiction, addiction-shaming, PTSD, violence, child abduction, child death

All quotes come from an advance copy and may not match the final release. Thank you so much to Wednesday Books for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Many thanks to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for the chance to read and review this novel early.

It seems like Sadie is everywhere in the book world right now, with rave reviews being given right and left. I just knew it would be my kind of read – I can’t get enough of vengeance-seeking females. I crave justice in this world more than anything, but can’t find a way to right every wrong of the world, especially the wrongs done to children, so I depend on fiction to give me the satisfaction of seeing people get their just desserts. The world can be cruel to women, many of us end up broken in irreparable ways before we even enter adulthood. Sadie takes readers to the hard and heavy parts of a female’s world, without being overly descriptive in the details. I really appreciated the author’s ability to convey some of the worst things that can happen to a woman, without making the story graphic or difficult to read. One knows, without having to know.

The writing in this story is spectacular. I can’t begin to convey how enveloping the whole story was. I felt like I was on the road with Sadie, when she was uncomfortable in the car for hours on end, I was uncomfortable; when her hands ached from holding the steering wheel tightly, my hands ached; when she was utterly exhausted, I felt it, too. I was able to imagine without being inundated with tedious description. Sadie was lost and didn’t want to be found, but still craved human connection and love. She was made hard and cynical but still had a softness in her soul, despite the terrible things she had experienced. She had a soul-hollowing loneliness about her that was incredibly heartbreaking to behold. Yet, I truly loved everything about her character and was rooting for her throughout the story.

“Sometimes I don’t know what I miss more; everything I’ve lost or everything I never had.”

I especially enjoyed the changing perspectives between Sadie’s point-of-view and West McCray’s podcast as he interviews Sadie’s friends, acquaintances, and family. This allowed me to get to know a variety of characters without having to delve fully into their minds, giving a viewpoint I haven’t experienced in a novel before. I was incredibly impressed with how well-done the podcast part of the story was done. It kept the mystery alive as we followed weeks behind Sadie’s actions.

This was a slightly slower read for me, I think because it was so incredibly immersive and heavy, yet I couldn’t get enough. Even as the story ended (and that ending!!!), I wanted more! I was torn between four and five stars, so I decided a half star was in order here. This was thought-provoking and one of the most realistic works of fiction I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. If you’re into darker reads and broken characters, I can’t recommend this book enough.

Sadie releases September 4th!

I have to say, this book felt like a very real podcast. I remember how invested I was in Up and Vanished about Tara Grinstead case. I needed this book to have a resolution. The desperation and the need to know that cake with this story was incredible. There were times where I did feel like the story lulled but then it would pick up and I would keep turning the pages to find out more. Sadie is a book that really crosses the lines of fiction and possibly being non fiction just based on what is going on. I really enjoyed how there wasn’t big shock factors and there isn’t long dragged out secrets. It’s all given or insinuated very early on. And that ending? I’m all for it.

Ohhhh man!!! This is a YA true crime/Mystery that will have you holding your damned breath while reading! SADIE centres around vengeance and sisterly love. It’s a complex mix of devastating and beautiful. You truly feel Sadie’s desperation while reading. This book was an emotional punch in the face. It was my first by this author, but I will definitely be picking up her other books in the future.

[Excerpt]:

4 stars

I want to start off by saying I’ve read all of Courtney Summers’ books except one, and I wasn’t very much a fan of any of them. That may come as a surprise, based on the amount of people who enthuse over Summers’ books, or it may not. All I know is that her books are always unsettlingly dark and viciously real. Her books deal with some really harsh issues – rape, alienation, bullying, sexual assault, murder, physical/verbal abuse, pedophilia, incest, and so on. “Some Girls Are” stands out as a book with lots of bullying and alienation, while “All the Rage” deals with rape. It’s not that the books aren’t well written, because they really are – the prose is beautiful, if at times stark and hard to read.

Summers’ protagonists (always girls) never seem to stand up for themselves. To me, they come across as weak and unwilling to defend themselves. Horrifying, traumatizing things happen to them, and of course there should be a time when they recover from that, but then I expect my female protags to fight back in whatever way they can, even if that’s just by pulling themselves together and standing their ground. I always feel that Summers’ characters let other people walk all over them, insult them, bully them, and so on. One of my BIGGEST pet peeves (in life as well as in literature) is when people don’t stand up for themselves and instead would rather roll over and take the disgusting things people do and say to them without a fight.

“Sadie” is not like those other books. “Sadie” was riveting from page one. “Sadie” is broken up into two different forms – the radio show that follows Sadie’s journey as she tries to find her sister’s killer and the first-person POV of Sadie herself. I read this book in less than 2 days. The whole time, I wanted to know the particulars of the murder and if Sadie was actually going to find the person who killed her sister. Not to mention, Sadie just assumes the person she seeks is responsible, but it’s not actually confirmed he’s the killer until late in the book. I worried for Sadie’s safety the entire time, and I was captivated by Summers’ method of storytelling – the story flowed really well, the pace was perfect, and I felt tense for Sadie when she was in dire circumstances and angry for her when Sadie was hot on the killer’s trail.

[Full review on my blog!]

This book. THIS. BOOK. There are two main narratives to the story; there is Sadie's story, told in the first person perspective, and there is West's podcast, told in podcast transcripts. West's narrative is very much like your usual true crime podcast with an investigative element, like "Serial" or "S-Town", and Summers made it feel believable, as well as insightful. West has taken this story and packaged it as entertainment and advocacy, but while his intentions are good, it definitely feels like a 'let my listeners look at this poor wrecked family' situation. Which, honestly, a lot of these podcasts are. I like West a lot as a character because he's complex, and he truly cares about Sadie even while he's putting her life on display and profiting off of it. Sadie's story, on the other hand, shows all of the darkness that West's story may be parsing out, albeit inadvertently. Sadie is damaged and complex, and her anger sears on the pages. Sadie has been a victim her entire life, and now she is going to do something about it, and watching her go on her journey is at times very difficult. Summers never pulls any punches and clearly wants to make the reader uncomfortable, and it makes the story all the more powerful, especially when contrasted with the podcast that the 'audience' is listening to, and the parts that they are missing. Both narratives come together nicely, and they both have perspectives that the other doesn't, which makes a complete whole. This book has a lot to say about poverty, misogyny, and capitalism, specifically when it makes a commodity out of other peoples tragedies.

This book definitely struck a chord with me. I'm not sure whether it was the tragic yet plucky heroine, the found family support or the presentation of the story through a Serial type podcast. For whatever reason mingling our heroine's tale of revenge with episodes of the podcast, obviously recorded some time later, just worked for me. Yes I enjoy these types of podcasts and true life crime (shoutout to Dirty John and My Favourite Murder podcasts).

Although the heroine is a teenager she has lived a very adult life, being the main parental figure for her younger sibling. It is in trying to care for her sister that the tragic chain of events is set into motion, her youth and immaturity leaving her unable to speak the truth in a way that would help her sibling.

I will definitely return to this book, in fact this is the second draft of my review (first is noted below). I think a solid 4.5 out of 5 and I would definitely recommend.

An advance reading copy (egalley) was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

**blog post set to auto-publish on 4th September**

**** first draft review ****
I loved this book. The mixed media format, incorporating a podcast into the storyline, was something I had never seen before. The author timed the podcast intersections with the narrative really well. It is a powerful story, and not always pleasant. Effects of adverse choldhood experiences are evident in many of the characters. I will likely re-read this book as I am still thinking about it days after finishing.

Mixed reactions. Some parts fast, exciting, involving and enjoyable. Other parts slow, slogging, boring and forced. On balance it was okay but did not live up to expectations from high ratings and strong reviews..

"It's sad when people don't realize their worth."

WOW! Reading this book is like being sucker punched by sadness.

Sadie has lived a sad life. She is frequently teased for her stutter. She has no idea who her father is. Her Mother is an addict who had a bevy of boyfriends rotating in and out of their lives. Some of which are happy to ignore Sadie and her younger sister, Mattie. Unfortunately, there was one boyfriend who gave way too much attention. Sadie has basically raised not only herself, but her younger sister as well. Be warned - this is not a happy go lucky book. Its deals with heavy subjects such as neglect, sexual abuse, drug use, murder, revenge, etc. It's not an easy read and yet it is beautiful at the same time. Summers has created a heart wrenching and heartbreaking book about a young woman and her quest for revenge. The person she loved most has been murdered and Sadie lets the reader know early on what her motivations are - to avenge her sister's murder.

The story is told through podcasts and Sadie's narrative. West McCray, a radio personality, becomes obsessed in learning about Sadie's story. Her car has been found abandoned and he is on a mission to find out what happened, why she left, and ultimately hopes to find her before it's too late. The reader is also shown Sadie's perspective and her journey attempting to track down the man who killed her sister.

This book is extremely well written. It is also extremely gritty and shows the ugly side of life. Sadie is a powerful character who is hard to forget. She's smart, edgy and yet consumed by grief. Her pain is palpable. Her desperation leaps off the page and it is easy to become absorbed in this book. I found this to be an emotional read. The entire book I wanted to give Said a hug and hoped for the best all the while dreading where her path was taking her.

This book will have triggers for some. This gripping tale is sad and haunting. It is one that will stay with the reader long after the last page has turned. I have not read this Author before and found her writing to be powerful and eloquent. I will be reading more books by this Author. I highly recommend this book!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

I don't even know where to begin with SADIE. There's just so much. I've been a fan of Courtney Summers for a long time, As hard hitting as her books are, they are timely and very much needed. SADIE is an emotional read, heartbreaking as it is beautiful in the way one sister stops at nothing to seek vengeance for another. I finished early in the morning and just laid in bed thinking about Sadie, Mattie and the 'what ifs'. The podcast POV took Sade's story to the next level of reading experience. I loved every minute of the journey.

I wanted to like this book, because it has so much buzz. In the end, I found the NPR tone grating (perhaps part of the problem was that I disliked Serial), and some parts were a bit... well, triggering. I actually didn't mind the ending. I will still purchase this title, but I personally was not a big fan, but that has more to do with my tastes than anything.

The format of half the book being a podcast was interesting. Crime and other podcasts are so popular now it made the book seem so contemporary and real. It's about a teenager but I think it would appeal to adults as well.

In Sadie we have an alternating perspective of a podcast called The Girls and Sadie perspective. Sadie’s sister Mattie was brutally murdered and found dead behind an old school that was lit on fire. Sadie played the mother role raising Mattie because their mother was an alcoholic and would bring strange men home. Sadie has a stutter and the town looks at her like she’s weak and different. In Sadie’s POV she is dead set on finding who killed her sister and taking revenge in her own hands! The Girls podcast they intervie multiple people to find out what happened to Sadie and Mattie. Mattie has been gone for a while and Sadie has disappeared recently so did Sadie get revenge and where is she. I give this book a solid five stars I absolutely loved it and finished this book quickly!!

Wow. There were times I got so lost in the story and characters it felt like I was reading the transcript of an actual podcast. Thought provoking character development...people don't always turn out to be who you think they are or have the motivations you assume they do. Totally not the ending I was expecting, which I both love and hate at the same time!

Thanks to St. Martin’s #partner for including me on the blog tour for Sadie by Courtney Summers! I am a huge fan of the whole podcast setting within a story. I LOVE IT!

In Sadie, we have alternating perspectives of the podcast called The Girls and also Sadie’s perspective. Sadie recently just lost her sister, Mattie. She was found dead behind an old school. Sadie grew up taking care of her Mattie because their junkie mother ran off. She has always felt the need to be responsible of her sister. In Sadie’s POV she is off to get revenge.

The Girls podcast interviews multiple people to find out what happened to Sadie and Mattie. Mattie has been gone for awhile but Sadie has just gone missing. Where is Sadie? Did she find who she was looking for?

Again, I looove the podcast setup. I know multiple POVs just doesn’t work for some people but, for me, it does! I adored Sadie! I thought she was pretty badass. Secrets, lies, dark, ooo

I have not read any of Summer’s previous work before but I definitely plan to do so! I recommend! 4 solid Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A great book with plenty of crossover appeal for both young adult and adult readers. I loved the idea of using a podcast as a vehicle for the plot. Sadie's character is beautifully realized and the plot is never less than compelling. A surefire hit!

I loved this book. It was heart wrenching and compelling. The writing made it feel authentic. Gritty and powerful.