This book may or may not have broke my heart. This story was heart-racing in the sense that the story is unfolding so slowly, we as the audience know more than the podcast narrator, West McCray and it gave me so many conflicting emotions. Exasperation since he was only two steps behind Sadie, sadness for what Sadie went through and was going through currently, fear for how things would turn out in the end. Sadie's guilt, her contemplation, her drive to make things right, to get closure; my heart officially broke. Yet as the story goes along, we see all of the people involved had a hand in the death of Mattie and Sadie's disappearance. All of these people making mistakes... and Summer's somehow manages to humanize them. You don't forgive them, but you understand and at times, sympathize with them. And I wasn't expecting to feel much for West. He's an outsider looking for answers, I was expecting to have a bit of disconnect. Yet, I sympathized with him. Him and his husband have a daughter of their own, yet that's not his motivation in doing this podcast. In fact, he doesn't want to do it at all. Ignorance is bliss, girls go missing all the time, but the closer he gets to the truth, the more he knows he can't back out. And when the ending happened, I won't say I'm not heartbroken. It manages to give answers while leaving so many questions. But it's realistic. Not all stories have closure or a happy ending and for that, I respect how the book wrapped up.

Absolutely loved the pacing of this book. It will be an easy sell to teens/young adults. One of my favorites of the year!

I was drawn to this book because it uses the format of a podcast, The Girls, which focuses on the case of a missing young woman, Sadie Hunter. (Sounds so promising, right?!) Sadie disappeared shortly after the murder of her little sister, Mattie Southern. Sadie alternates between the podcast series and Sadie's POV. I wasn't sure if the podcast idea would work, but this book really delivers an excellent story told through these alternating approaches. Some of the subject matter is quite tough, though, as Sadie has been let down by most of the adults she encountered during her young life. I won't say more, as it is best to go into this book without too many details.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and Wednesday Books for an opportunity to read an advance copy in exchange for a review.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

While this book is classified as YA, it deals with some really heavy topics. The format is very fresh - following both Sadie and a podcast that chronicles her story. The storytelling is very well done and I enjoyed the alternating narrators. Some other reviewers pointed out that not everything added up and that some aspects seemed a bit too convenient. That didn’t necessarily bother me, but I did think the book could have been longer. I debated giving this 4 vs. 5 stars, and ultimately went with 5 because of the characters, the format, and that it never felt liked it dragged. I would say that I would like to read more from this author, but because of the heavy subject matter, I think I’ll take a breather before diving back in.

This book was amazing!! It was well crafted with breathless pacing and spot on characterization. This book is going to be huge and I'm telling literally everyone about it!

Podcasts are all the rage and I was intrigued by the way this book was structured a la Serial. However, I had a hard time connecting with the character of Sadie. I didn’t get a warm fuzzy feeling about her relationship with her sister Maddie, and how Sadie initially knew a key point of info in the book. Plus the book would sometimes jump back and forth between present day and past within the same paragraph which was confusing. I know A LOT of people love this one, so check it out for yourself and see what you think.

A dead body. A missing girl. A sister looking for revenge. Courtney Summers has done it again with masterful storytelling. I've been a fan since Cracked Up to Be and she gets better and better with every new book. Toggling between a true crime podcast transcript and Sadie's first person narrative, readers are pulled into a gritty, page turning thriller. But this story is much more than a thriller - it's about girls and the violence that can happen to them, it's about how we as a society consume these stories about missing girls and dead bodies, and it's about so much more. Hands down, one of my favorite reads this year.

This book was powerful. That's a word I almost never use, because I feel like it is deadened from overuse. But this book points out how even when you think you understand the commonalities of every story of ever missing or dead girl, their individuality matters.

The book veers between transcripts of a true crime podcast telling the story of missing Sadie and Sadie's actual story. Sadie's honorary grandmother May Beth fills in the outlines of Sadie's life: born to a drug addict at a young age, no known father, with a mother who couldn't and wouldn't take care of her, Sadie's whole life was her younger sister, Mattie. Mattie was recently murdered, and now Sadie has run off. It would be easy to write Sadie off as just another runaway, but May Beth needs to find her because she "can't take another dead girl". As the reporter, Wes McCray, starts tracking down and interviewing the people Sadie meets along the road, it becomes clear that she's on the road for a reason - and she's determined to track down someone specific. Sadie is vulnerable and broken and strong and powerful and as the story ricochets to its inevitable end, I was captivated and saddened.

I wasn't surprised by the pedophilia plotline, but something doesn't have to be surprising to be moving.

A heartwrenching tale about a girl on the hunt for her sisters killer. Delivered, outstandingly, in dual perspective: the first being a podcast format and the second coming from Sadie herself. There are many things that make me proud to be Canadian, Courtney Summers being nearly at the top of that list. #1 free health care, #2 Courtney Summers. She is a true master of her craft. Her flawless writing style and story development draw you in immediately and will never let you go. All of her characters will remain cozy in your heart forever. Sadie is no exception. In Sadie, Summers crafts a small but in-depth character cast. Each character adds their own valuable puzzle piece to this dark and mysterious story.

Sadie is a sad story. It's about a girl seeking vengeance for her dead sister. Sadie's pain bleeds from the pages and you will be left heartbroken for her. Summers surely captures the emotional tone of this novel. Sadie is also about a journalist that is willing to go to the ends of the earth to find out what happened to her and to Mattie. To give Sadie a voice and to tell her story. In a way, it's a triumphant story.

Courtney Summers has done it again; but really, I had no doubt whatsoever! You can always count on her stories to wrap their pages around you and never let go.

When I read the blurb to Sadie, I instantly put in on my TBR. Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin press, I was able to read an advanced copy.

Sadie had me hooked from the start. I really enjoyed the way the story was written and the way Courtney pulled you into the story with her words. Page after page, I was on the edge of my seat trying to figure out where Sadie is and what she went through. This book touched some deep issues that may be triggers for some. My heart broke for Sadie. While I wanted to go inside the book and give her a hug, I also want to stand by her side and help her seek her revenge.

As much I as enjoyed Sadie, it left me with so many unanswered questions. I know that's probably the whole point of the book but I want some answers! ;) I started this book with the question, Where is Sadie? I also ended the book with the same question, Where is Sadie?! But like the real world, sometimes we don't get the answers to the questions pondering in our minds.

I would definitely recommend Sadie to any of my friends. This was my first book from Courtney Summers and I'm really looking forward to her future books! I'm also one-clicking her other book now too!

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read Sadie, by Courtney Summers. This book was sad, but a realistic view of children deserted by their parents, abused by people they trusted, and loss of innocence. Sadie and Mattie’s mother abandoned them one day, leaving them to wonder what they did wrong to make her leave. When Mattie, a young teen, receives a postcard from her mother in LA, she runs away to find her, but tragedy strikes. Her older sister, Sadie, leaves home to search for answers about Mattie and their mother, discovering ugly truths about life and human nature. Not everything is as it seems.

Sadie by Courtney Summers was a hard book for me to put down. Truth be told, it was the first of book of Courtney Summers that I've read and I really enjoyed it (that might not be the right word)... I really felt this book. The heartache, the love, Sadie's need to know the truth and exact her revenge... her resilience. I felt it all. I cheered for her when she found a good lead and cringed when she did something so teenage-ish, putting herself in danger, yet I understood. This book got to me.


And the story goes...

Raised in the middle of nowhere to a drunk and drug addict teen mom, Sadie and her younger sister, Mattie, never had an easy life. But oh how Sadie loved her little sister and took care of her the best she could, especially after her mother ran off and left them to fend for themselves. Sadie did what she could, but when her sister is murdered after running away in search of her mother; Sadie's whole life is destroyed.

A year after Mattie's death, Sadie disappears, determined to bring her sisters killer to justice. When West McCray, a true crime radio/podcast host doing a story on small, forgotten towns, overhears someone talking about the missing girl, he starts podcast, The Girls, to find out what happened to Sadie and her sister. Through the podcast, West follows the clues of Sadie's journey, interviewing the people she met along the way, hoping to find her at the end. But will what he discovers lead him to Sadie before it's to late??


My thoughts...


Sadie is a book is really about strength, resilience, and a sister's love and need for revenge that will ultimately bring her to the brink of self-destruction. I couldn't put it down. I needed to know. I felt like I was along for the ride, both from Sadie's perspective and West's.
This book will make you feel Sadie's sorrow and her desire to serve justice on her sister's killer. Pick it up September 4 to find out what happened to Sadie!


Special thanks to #netgalley and #StMartinsPress for the #arc for my honest review.

At first, I was wary of podcast-styled chapters, but I was proven so wrong. I was sucked into this absolutely horrible story of a dead girl and her missing sister so quickly that I was surprised and had trouble putting it down. Despite not being true crime, it felt so realistic that I would absolutely recommend this to fans of the genre.

Be aware that there are some heavy themes, but nothing seemed gratuitous. Each moment is perfectly there.

Where do I even start?

Sadie’s synopsis was an immediate attention grabber. My attention as of late has been on thrillers and suspenseful reads. Something exciting to look forward too.

Second would have to be the alternating chapters of Sadie’s POV and then ‘radio show’ of The Girls telling Sadie’s story. At first I thought I just wanted the radio show POV but the more I read of Sadie’s side of events the more it made sense I wanted to read her and not the radio show.

Third, while this is a tremendous read, I feel like the book carried on just a TOUCH too long. Like the climax took just a bit too long to get too where it ALMOST lost me. I nearly put the book down. I might have had I not agreed to do the blog tour in September so that gave me the extra push to finish the ending.

Lastly, OMG THAT FREAKING ENDING! Courtney, how could you?! I don’t know if it was... anti-climactic. Too climactic. I don’t know! It’s not sitting with me right and I’m mad and upset! But I get it. And I hate it! And it wasn’t good too! Argh!

The ending is really sitting with me and I’m not sure I’ll ever get to a place where I’ll accept it. But it’s there.

Sadie by Courtney Summers was a hard read, but Summers never fails to impress me. It's the kind of story that sticks with you. I am disappointed in myself for not waiting for the audiobook because the format lends itself perfectly for listening. A mystery, an investigating and heart wrenching discoveries await you dear reader. Set time aside for this as its one that will keep you reading into the wee hours, sleep be damned. Full review to be posted on Caffeinated Reviewer September 4th.

Sadie is a tragically beautiful story, and I do mean tragic. Throughout the story of
It swaps back and forth between Sadie's point of view and that of a radio show that is centered around her disappearance. The further you read the more sad it gets. In the end there is a kind of justice but no real happy ending which makes the story seem all too real and unfortunately, familiar.
Though there isn't explicit details, I'll warn you there is the subject of sexual abuse that plays a major tool within the story.
I liked the way the story was told, it was well written, and how real it seems on one hand yet on the other this story is not a happy one.

Scheduled for 8/28/18.

It's not that I didn't like SADIE. I thought the story was compelling and I actually really liked the format: split between the storytelling podcast and from Sadie's point of view. I haven't actually listened to the supplemental podcast that goes along with the book and I don't think you NEED too. It'll just add to the drama and tension within the book itself. I'm just not as blown away by the book as I expected to be.

Like I said, I like the narrative format. All the written parts of the podcast I could absolutely hear them in my head as podcasts. That came through spectacularly. Different voices, the sounds people make when they're talking, background and ambient noises. I loved that part.

And Sadie's story was really good. Heartbreaking and tragic and compelling. I could totally get behind her wrath and I was fully rooting for her. At the same time she was definitely a train wreck that I couldn't look away from, again in a tragic and heartbreaking sort of way. Basically she's this girl who never had a shot, never had a chance, was pretty much destined to end up scraped off the bottom of a barrel.

It's a very visual and visceral story too. I don't get that too often, but I experienced it more deeply from a sensory perspective than I do a lot of other stories, especially thrillers. It doesn't have the same fast pace as other similar stories do and I liked that. It got to where it was going in its own painstakingly slow way, but it didn't feel slow. If that makes any sense.

What bugged the hell out of me, and I really hope it gets fixed for final print, was the distances. Someone wasn't looking at a map when they were talking about mileage and travel times from point A to point B. The entire story takes place in BFE Colorado. Now Colorado is no Rhode Island. It's not tiny. But it's not gigantic either. And the number of times I kept reading town A was thousands of miles from town B I wanted to throw my phone. Seriously. The only way you're driving thousands of miles and staying within Colorado's borders is if you're driving in circles. And driving from town B to town C would take five days. It took me four days to drive from Connecticut to Arizona while really limiting the amount of time we were driving and traveling with a 26 foot Penske with a 10 foot trailer tow. So unless Sadie's physically pushing the little Toyota or whatever tiny sedan she's driving from one town to the next, I promise it's not taking her five days to get there.

It drove me bananas.

Other than that I mean I thought it was a good story. I'm just not blown away by it like all the advanced praise kept saying. It's new, to me anyway, in regard to format, but maybe I read a lot of thrillers and the storyline just isn't fresh for me? I don't know. I just don't get the ridiculous hype it's been getting. It's good, but it's not groundbreaking, earth-shifting good.

3.5

I think this book is more of a book for advanced teen readers and adults than one for run of the mill teens in that the time shifts in the narrative and the narrative style will be hard for teens to follow.

This is one of the darkest and most heart-wrenching novels I have ever read. Sadie, our protagonist, is a young woman who had dedicated herself completely to raising her little sister Mattie, before the latter was found dead in an orchard at the age of thirteen. Even before Mattie's murder, life had not been kind to the girls . The misery of it made me angry at times, angry that Sadie and Mattie and their adoptive grandmother had to carry such a heavy burden, anger which turned to sadness when realizing that there are people out there leading similar or even worse lives, every single day, and the world does not stop for them.

Sadie's story may have been just another footnote in a world already overflowing with suffering, if it weren't for West McCray, a journalist who follows the flimsy trail Sadie leaves behind after she disappears from home and her car is found abandoned thousands of miles away. The chapters alternate between Sadie's point of view and McCray's podcast, which adds greatly to the intrigue of the plot. The reader follows the investigation along with McCray, while getting some vital insights from Sadie, anticipating the moment when the two narratives will converge. Sadie's story is heartbreaking, but seeing West looking for her, getting to know more about her and her life, is the way that the author brings a bit of kindness and justice into Sadie's life.

This is a very hard book to read, and for those who may be triggered by pedophilia and sexual abuse, it may prove to be too upsetting. Despite being a work of fiction, Sadie does address themes that are very real. By reading it, I feel I understand just a little bit better, all the pain and unfairness that flood the world.

Holy hell, this book hit me hard.

Sadie was everything I wished for and so much forking more.
Sadie is one of my favourite reads of 2018 so far. I highly recommend reading this one!