Sadie is about a girl's quest to find her sister's murderer and bring him to justice; by herself and on her terms. What makes this book superior I think, is the way it is told. The story is narrated from two different POV's, one being Sadie's and the other one belongs to West McCray, a radio personality. While Sadie looks for clues and follows leads that will point her in the direction of the man who murdered her 13 year old sister, West McCray follows those leads months later looking for Sadie. He chronicles his search on his podcast titled, The Girls. This story is gritty, intense, at times heartbreaking and memorable, just like its title character.

The author knows how to weave a good mystery and pace it perfectly. It feels like overtime her tone and writing style have matured tremendously, although I will point out that I hardly remember the tone and plot of the book I read once by her years ago. But I feel that's precisely the reason why the growth in her writing style is so notable; this is hardly a book that I'm likely to forget about in the future. Courtney Summers makes an impact with Sadie. I can't recommend it enough.

(I gave this 4 stars instead of 5 because the ending felt unfinished to me. I kept trying to go to the next page on kindle and nothing. I'm one of those readers that needs closure.)

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher Wednesday books for providing with an arc of this title in exchange for an honest review.

I think the highest praise I can give <i>Sadie</i> is that it made me cry. I’m not a book crier and can probably count on one hand the books that have made me shed a tear.

There’s not much I can say about <i>Sadie</i> without spoiling it so instead I’ll keep it short. On its surface, this is a mystery but it’s so much more than that. It’s about family, love, revenge, and our tendency to ignore the aspects of life that are we’d rather not look to closely at. The alternating POVs in this story between Sadie and the podcast episodes kept me frantically turning pages waiting to see what came next.

Honestly this is in my top 5 of 2018 and I have read <b>a lot</b> of books this year. If you preorder one book this year, this should be it. I know I’ll be telling all of the readers I know to grab a copy of <i>Sadie</i>.

Thanks Netgalley and Wednesday Books for providing me with this eARC!

This book completely and utterly broke my heart, in the best way possible!
I had never heard of Courtney Summer or about her books before. I stumbled upon this one quite accidentally when I saw one of my favourite reviewers giving it a 5 star rating on goodreads. I was curious and when I found out that it was available in Netgalley to review, I immediately downloaded and started reading.
The book is about Sadie, a teenager who goes missing soon after her sister is found murdered. The story is told from alternating viewpoints. One is that of Sadie and the other is West McCray who is doing a podcast on the sisters and trying to solve the mystery of Sadie’s disappearance.
“How do you forgive the people who are supposed to protect you?”
The narration is gripping right from the start. We get the cold clinical analysis of McCray trying to piece together the puzzle pieces of the disappearance right alongside the passionate, fierce determination of Sadie to find the person who killed her sister, Mattie.
The feelings this book evoked in me were at times so intense that I had to put down the book at multiple points to just breathe. It was horrifying to see what can happen to young girls who have nobody and nothing looking after them. The language was so powerful that you can’t help but feel every painful memory Sadie had endured in her life, from the people who were supposed to love and protect her.
“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."
How do I even find words to describe Sadie? She was fierce and brave and so so badass that she is right up there with all the other amazing literary women I have come to admire like Lisbeth Salander from the Girl with a Dragon Tattoo and Celie from The Colour Purple. Her strength and ferocious love literally brought me to my knees.
Courtney Summers managed to infuse each and every word with so much raw power and emotion that I found myself crying outright at multiple points while reading. She doesn’t pull back any punches in portraying sensitive issues like abuse and pedophilia. Its one of those rarest of rare books that just overwhelms you with all the powerful emotions it stirs in you.
If pedophilia and abuse are not trigger factors for you, then please read this book. Its not to be missed. It releasing on the 4th of September.
Rating : Blew it right out of the park. 5 or 10 or even a thousand stars wouldn’t do it justice.

Received an e arec from netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Wow, I really really enjoyed this. I've been looking for a good true crime podcast lately and I feel like this was the perfect substitute.

The story was brutal and sad and I could just feel Sadie's trauma leaking off the page. I also got very frustrated with Wes and his mingling in the story line, which is what I think Summers was trying to do. The writing was brilliant and riveting. The characters felt like real life people and if I hadn't know this was fiction, I could easily believe that this was a real story. It was just so captivating and it captured human emotion so well. I've never read anything by Summers before but I definitely need more because I really think that this book is going to take the world by storm when it comes out. I've said this already but I'll say it again: it was brilliant.

*spoilers ahead*
I think the only thing that really bothered me and caught me off guard about this book was the ending. The book is called "Sadie" and yet we never get any closure for her. We get closure for Keith. We get closure for Wes. Hell, we even get closure of Claire. But Sadie is just out there and what happens to her is completely up in the air. Is she dead? Did Keith kill her? What the heck happened in the woods? I'm not sure if it's just because it was an arc and if the final book will have more closure but SERIOUSLY WHAT HAPPENED. I feel like if you're going to name a book after a character, then that character should at least get some closure. At least show her hitchhiking or leaving that place. Then we can know she stabbed Keith and doesn't want to be fine. Idk. It just felt unfinished to me. So, that's the only reason this gets 4 stars instead of 5.

Other than that, though, I really really enjoyed this book and I can't wait for everyone to read it.

This book was amazing! The cover is to die for and very mysterious! Will be recommending to all my friends and family for sure for years to come! Thank you netgalley for the free arc in exchange for an honest review!

Sadie is definitely one of those books that stays with you long after you finish it, and you're always having a hard time putting it down.

The idea of the chapters alternating between Sadie's perspective and the transcript of a podcast about a man searching for her was unique. I initially wasn't sure if it would read smoothly, but it made the story move a lot faster for me. As someone who is familiar with podcasts, I even found the brief sponsorships during each episode to be a funny addition. The use of the podcast was helpful in retaining a lot of background information to the reader without being overwhelming.

The story in general was intriguing and had me on the edge of my seat, but what kept this from being a five-star book was the ending. Toward the final chapters, we know Sadie goes into the woods to follow the man who hurt her, and we know he survives, but we know absolutely nothing else about what happens to her. I'm not a fan of cliffhanger endings, especially when I know there won't be a sequel. I was rooting for a certain ending for Sadie, and what bothered me about this book was not getting that, but, more importantly, not getting any kind of resolution for such a strong character who deserved it.

Hi

I read about half of the book, but I just wasn't interested enough to keep reading! It skips back and forth between the video and Sadie's diary, so to speak. The video was more interesting than the other, but I just wanted to stop!! Sorry!

Sometimes I don't know what I miss more; the things I've lost or everything I never had.

This story was hardly unique, if we are being honest. A tale told more than a couple thousand times in fiction and real life. A drug abusing mother with two children who must fend for themselves. Until one of them ends up murdered in a field left to be found by animals, humans, or not at all. All of this leads to Sadie's sad story and journey to avenge her sister's death.

This was a slow burner in my opinion. I wasn't immediately shook or hooked. It took some time. But once we got going, it became worthy of the praise and rave reviews that have been posted. This isn't a story for those who easily are triggered. The topic is heavy on the heart. Consider yourself warned.

What took this story to the top for me was the ending. I don't want to give too much away. But I really appreciated the way Summers' handled the end of this crazy story. Many readers are going to loathe the approach of this ending, but it was perfect in my opinion. A much more honest end than many stories will offer. But be prepared, sometimes happy ending aren't full of sunshine and rainbows.

I want to thank, NetGalley. I wasn't sure my chances of getting approved. But the odds were in my favor. And I am glad!

Check Sadie out. However, I would suggest the read before and after, Sadie, be something a little lighter.

It's been a while since I read a book within 24 hours but I could not help myself with Sadie. This book evokes so much emotion, my heart was racing the entire time.

Sadie is such a unique and memorable character, I was rooting for her from page one, completely oblivious to the fact that she was on a hunt to kill a man! At the age of 19, Sadie's been through so much already and then her sister Mattie, who she loves the most in the world, is found dead. Learning about Sadie's miserable childhood, her drug addicted mum who walked away, unknown father, the fact that Sadie has a stutter - all of that and more made me love Sadie and want to save her desperately. Although this book has been described as a mystery, it is not a book with shocking twists and turns but it is a moving and heart-wrenching story of a girl whose love for her sister is so profound that she will protect and fight for her no matter what.

I also liked the unusual format of the book - chapters narrated by Sadie alternate with a radio podcast investigating Sadie's disappearance. I found this combination of POVs worked really well, while we mostly follow the story through Sadie's eyes, we also get an insight into other characters' perspectives when they are interviewed by the radio presenter.

The worst part of reading this book is that it comes to an end eventually. When I reached the final page of the book I kept swiping my Kindle in a desperate attempt to get more of Sadie's story. There is no more for now but I will definitely look for more of Courtney Summer's books.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was damned good. Sadie is a brilliant, gripping YA thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time you're reading.

Sadie is told in two separate parts: the story alternates between Sadie's POV following the murder of her sister and in the form of podcast episodes as the host attempts to find Sadie, who has since gone missing. I really liked the format. I think it worked well for the story being told and that Courtney Summers executed it perfectly. The ending feels like a sucker punch: it's completely ambiguous and yet it fit the tone of the novel exquisitely. 

Sadie pulled me in from the first chapter and I couldn't seem to stop turning the pages. I highly recommend this book, especially those who have listened to podcasts like Up and Vanished or Serial.

Cold Creek, Colorado, population eight hundred is left shaken by the tragic and brutal murder of thirteen year old Mattie Southern. Mattie's body was left between a burning schoolhouse and an apple orchard, cause of death blunt force trauma to the head. A failed investigation with no suspects sets Sadie, Mattie's nineteen year old sister, out to seek justice for her sister’s death. Sadie is determined to hunt down and kill the man who took everything from her. Three months later Sadie is missing...
West McCray, a radio personality first hears of Mattie's death while interviewing small town residents for a segment of his show called Always Out There. A year later he receives a phone call from May Beth Foster, the girl's surrogate grandmother, in hopes of finding Sadie.

Sadie is a YA crime mystery in which a 19 year old girl sets out on a revenge mission to kill the man who murdered her little sister. The story alternates between Sadie's POV and West McCray's interviews as told through his podcast called The Girls. The writing is beautifully done, the characters are amazing, the plot is tragic and heartbreaking, and this is probably one of the best books I have read in a very long time. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about part of the story being told through a podcast but it just worked perfectly and was such a fresh and unique element to add to this novel. This novel contains some very dark and disturbing content including abuse, murder, addiction, rape, and pedophilia and may not be suitable for every reader. This is one of those books that will leave you emotionally raw, heartbroken, and yet still yearning for more; a must read for 2018.

One girl is dead and another goes missing. "Sadie" tracks the title character as she disappears from her home, claims a false identity, threatens would-be informants with a switchblade, and endures repeated bodily harm as she tirelessly seeks justice for her younger sister, found dead months earlier.

The story is told in alternating perspectives: one from Sadie's own point of view during her vigilante road trip and the other from journalist West McCray, who is producing a podcast on the misfortunate sisters. Despite the current popularity of true-crime podcasts, this angle feels oddly placed in a novel, though his halting investigation serves as a good reminder to why the stories of dead and missing girls can be so difficult to uncover.

In a small American town, a girl named Mattie is found dead. Her older sister, Sadie, had been raising her since their mother vanished three years prior. Sadie tried so hard to keep everything together, to do everything for Mattie. After Mattie's death, she suddenly leaves town, hitting the road to bring Mattie's killer to justice.

West McCray, a radio personality covering small towns, hears about Sadie's disappearance and is intrigued. He interviews people she came into contact with since she left home and creates a podcast to track her journey in the hopes of finding her before it's too late. Because the last thing anyone needs or wants is another dead girl.

This novel was brutal, thrilling, and sometimes just creepy. It is narrated in alternating perspectives of Sadie in first person, travelling to track down the man she believes has killed her sister, and McCray's podcast. Sadie's POV was the particularly brutal part of the story because you need to deal with her horrible but justified actions, her determination to have justice for Mattie, and the slow realization of just why Sadie is so driven to find one particular man. McCray's podcasts typically reviewed information we already saw through Sadie's POV, but often had new thoughts about her actions and tied up some loose ends, answering questions left by Sadie's narrative.

Although this is my second Courtney Summers book, I have to say that she absolutely nails female characters, especially desperate ones put into difficult positions. She can also handle really hard and difficult topics. It's books like this that stay with a reader long after they've read it. I absolutely loved every part of this book: it was well-written, and filled with suspense. Parts of it were almost like a car crash: even though you feel like you should look away, you can't bring yourself to do so. You just want to figure out what the hell is going to happen next. Sadie is utterly sympathetic as a narrator and I could feel myself wincing whenever she endured nasty incidents that left her wounded, both physically and emotionally.

If you want a thriller about another dead girl, starring a girl who is very much alive, flawed, and determined to get revenge, I would highly recommend Sadie. It is an extremely well-written and well-structured novel that you won't want to put down until you have all your answers. Just make sure you accept that life is messy and sometimes you don't get all the closure you want.

I have struggled with reviewing this book - how do I summarize my thoughts and feelings when I have, days after reading this book, still not fully come to grips with it?

I have read Courtney Summers before and find her books to be very well written - this book is no exception. I was lucky enough to receive a copy of this book for review from NetGalley but also had the opportunity to meet Ms. Summers at BEA and receive an autographed copy. In the course of in line discussions, it was agreed that to say "enjoy reading this book" may be a bit of a stretch - the topics covered in this book are hard - there is no easy and that is rather evident from page 1. But you can definitely enjoy the writing and I did 100%.

I would recommend this book to older teen readers + with a warning to check for "triggers".

Sadie is one heavy book that will be one that will surely stick with me for a long time. Sadie is a girl on a mission. Her sister is murdered and Sadie is determined to find the man who she believes killed her sister. The book follows a podcast and a point of view from Sadie as she travels.

Overall, this novel had me hooked. I read the majority of it in one sitting. The story gains momentum until the end when I was whipping through the pages hoping to find answers. No spoilers but the ending might have readers divided on whether it is a good or not so satisfactory ending.

If you like thrillers, I would definitely recommend giving this book a read.

Sadie by Courtney Summers is a book that will tear you heart out and leave you emotionally wrenched. Reading it hurt and I so often wanted to shut of my Kindle and put the book as far from me as possible, but it’s also story you can look away from because it’s so devastatingly real. While I highly recommend this novel, please be advised it deals with very heavy content and anyone who is triggered by the warnings posted above, should be careful when reading Sadie.

I was originally intrigued by Sadie because of my love of podcasts, specifically true crime podcasts. Sadie is loosely inspired by the format of Serial — a true crime podcast that follows a woman named Sarah Koenig as she goes delves through the evidence of a nineteen-year-old murder to find out if a boy really did kill his ex-girlfriend — and I knew I just had to read the book. (Please check out my blog for a post I recently wrote featuring podcast recommendations! — honestly, what a coincidence.)

Sadie is told from the perspective of two narrators: Sadie, who, a year after her sister’s murder, disappears to hunt down her killer; and West McCray, a radio personality, who traces Sadie’s footsteps months after she disappears, creating a podcast of his investigation and eventual findings. The alternating perspectives was executed perfectly — through Sadie’s chapters we get a first-hand look into her revenge-fuelled road trip, while through West’s podcast we learn more about Sadie’s past and relationship with her sister from many outsiders’ perspectives.

While Sadie tackles a whole host of important issues, it’s ultimately a story about a sister’s love and the lengths she’d go to avenge her sister. Sadie is not a bad person, or an anti-hero or a villain. She knows that what she’s doing is not necessarily the right thing — attempting to kill someone — but she doesn’t care. She knows who killed her sister and rather than inform the police, she decides to take matters into her own hands. But Sadie’s still a teenager, and no matter that her revenge is motivated by the death of her beloved sister, she struggles a lot with the idea of taking someone’s life.

Sadie also has a severe stutter, and you can feel her frustration at her inability to communicate something. She doesn’t feel any shame about her stutter, and she often criticises the people who make her feel as though she should be ashamed. Sadie is such a powerful character, and she’s someone that I look up to. She dropped out of school at the age of sixteen to care for her sister, Mattie, after their mother abandoned them; she struggled to find work and money to put food on their table; and she’s stuck in a dead-end town with no future prospects — because her whole being, her whole existence, is wrapped around Mattie.

I did struggle to like West at the beginning because, for so long, he feels like someone taking advantage of Sadie’s tragedy to garner popularity for his podcast. While Sadie promotes many messages, one of the most important is that it shows an indelible truth about society: that many men only ever seem realise women are human beings — that we are worth something, that we don’t deserve to be raped or murdered because we dare say ‘no’ to a man — when they have a daughter of their own. But, as the novel progresses, you can feel him begin to care — or has he always? — about Sadie at the millions of stories just like hers and her sisters.

The ending of Sadie will be definitely be divisive: some people will love it because it’s so realistic, but many others will be frustrated by it. While I can see both sides, I do fall on the side of ‘holy crap, that was an amazing ending’. Because, ultimately, it’s realistic. It shows what always happens when you listen to a true crime podcast. It’s sad … but it will pack a punch, and Sadie won’t be a book you’ll be forgetting anytime soon.

I've read a few books by Courtney Summers before and I've always felt like I've missed something. It always feels like her books are supposed to be these raw, powerful books that haunt you. Until Sadie her books have never affected me like that. Sure, they've been good enough books, but I've always felt a bit of a disconnect. Sadie, though, is finally that Courtney Summers book that packed an unmistakable punch for me.

I love the way the story was told, alternating between a podcast called The Girls that focuses on Sadie's disappearance and Sadie's narrative of what actually transpired. At first, I was a bit concerned about how these alternating story lines would play out, but it couldn't have been more perfect.

The story itself was topnotch, simply put. Even down to the ending.

Sadie is easily one of my favorite books of 2018. Give it a read!

Dark, deep, and oh so readable. I couldn’t put it down! I fell in love with Summers’ zombies first, but this contemporary is off the charts good.

I would prefer to end this review on a happy note, so let's get this out of the way first: Colorado is not thousands of miles wide/high! Somehow a wild misjudgment in the size of the state has survived the first rounds of edits and made its way into review copies. A character beings and ends their travels all within the state's borders, yet their car is found "thousands of miles" away. It isn't just a typo, either. This country-sized error informs every distance and travel time quoted, which by the end of Sadie was enormously irritating considering how tightly plotted the story was. Hopefully it gets fixed before the final printing!

Ahem.

Courtney Summers finds a unique approach in the rapidly homogenizing thriller genre, unafraid to visit the grim places of the human soul and shine a light on how easily they are allowed to fester. Combining the rubbernecking glee of a true crime podcast and the personal narrative of Sadie, the missing girl at its center, ratchets tension while drawing attention to how even the best intentions can lead to misinterpretation and false leads.

The reluctant investigation of radio host West McCray dovetails with the narrative of Sadie Hunter, who disappeared from her home four months prior. Although the reason for her vanishing remains the subject of speculation by those left behind, it's immediately clear from Sadie's inner thoughts that she's driven by the murder of her younger sister, Mattie, the year before. She has a specific suspect in mind and a very specific fate in store for him, but with little more than a name and physical description to go off of, Sadie has a hunt ahead of her.

A high school drop-out with a stutter, Sadie suffers from a severe case of social awkwardness. This makes her quite unlikable, or at least off-putting, to many of the people she encounters along the way, yet she's quite endearing to the reader. Time and again she steps outside the realm of her personal comfort and experience to learn why her sister was found murdered next to a burning barn and bring justice to a killer the small town of Cold Creek was either unable or disinterested in apprehending. Far from superhuman, Sadie makes the best of her limited resources to do right by the sister she dearly loved.

Seen predominantly through the context of his one-off podcast The Girls, West is less a character than he is a guide. Thorough and methodical, he uncovers some of the same secrets that Sadie did months before: a closeted pedophile, numerous false identities for one man that trail across Colorado. What he and The Girls do best, though, is slyly point out to readers how even investigative journalism cannot always capture the full story of a case.

Survivors—or simply non-missing-persons—are the ones left behind to tell a story. Often, the one unfolding on West's podcast is different in small, yet important, details from the one Sadie actually lived. Some discrepancies don't amount to much, while others threaten to shape an incorrect view of Sadie for those not privy to the unbiased truth. At times it feels like a critique of the voyeurism that drives programs like Serial, Making a Murderer, and The Staircase: no matter how unbiased the approach, entertainment is still a key factor in the true crime industry.

Setting aside the irksome misconceptions about American geography (and they truly were irritating by the end), Sadie is a taut and clever thriller that doesn't shy away from the darkness of crime and the vengeful feelings it can inspire. Its unique structure should appease readers looking for something fresh within the mystery/thriller genre and draw in plenty of new fans as well.

HSP/trigger warning: paedophilia.

Wow, this book really got under my skin. And if I hadn’t had other things to do I probably would have finished it in a day. As it was I read the last 70% or so in one big gulp.

It’s not a story for the faint-hearted. It’s a story about a dead girl. And a sister’s desperate journey to avenge the death. It’s real, it’s gritty, and it’s heartbreaking. Thematically the writing reminds me a little of Gillian Flynn, which is not a bad thing – that’s exactly the kind of dark and gritty story I can’t get enough of. Though the story itself is not like anything I’ve read before.

There are two POVs. One is a podcast made by a radio personality called West McCray, whose help has been enlisted in finding Sadie, after she disappeared without a trace not long after her younger sister Mattie was found murdered. Sadie’s car with her belongings in it has been found, but there’s still no trace of the girl.

The other POV is Sadie herself. Sadie and Mattie grew up in a trailer park with a mother who was a drug addict. There was not always something to eat available, and there were always different men in and out of the trailer. Mostly they were harmless, mostly they didn’t care about the kids at all. But one man cared too much. In ways you’re not supposed to.

The girls’ mother up and left them some time ago, and Sadie has been taking care of Mattie ever since. Truthfully, Sadie has been taking care of Mattie her entire life. Mattie is literally Sadie’s only reason to live. And when she is murdered, Sadie embarks upon a journey of revenge, with nothing left to lose.

Sadie is a 19 year old girl, and she is starved. Of love, certainly, of attention too, and of basic sustenance – she just hasn’t gotten most of her basic needs filled for most of her life, despite the kindly interference of her “adoptive grandmother” May Beth. And now the very last thing, the only thing that she cared about has been taken away from her. She gets in a cheaply bought car with a few belongings and little money to her name, with only one goal: she will find the man who murdered her sister and she will kill him.

She is certainly a complex character and she has her dark sides, but most of all she is loveable and fragile and I just want to take care of her and tell her everything will be OK. But it will never be OK again – it’s too late for any of that, and Sadie knows it.

This was really rough to read, but also extremely engaging. The style worked well and the writing was fantastic. My heart really broke for Sadie. Recommended read, but you have to be ready for it. You have to be ready for the rawness, the emotions, the dirty deeds.

This was my first Courtney Summers book but I can say for pretty much certain it won’t be my last. And I’m all the more impressed by her being so young (and so prolific already). Sadie is a serious book and a serious accomplishment. This author does not shy away from the darker side of life.