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.

There are some books that take you on a full emotional journey, and this is one of them. I was elated to receive an ARC of this book, and let me tell you, all the hype absolutely did not disappoint. It was gritty, raw, and unabashedly dark; it was shockingly emotional and nearly overwhelming at times. It was a tour de force.

The book follows Sadie who, reeling after the murder of her younger sister, Mattie, sets out on a journey of her own to find out exactly what happened. And to get her revenge. I absolutely loved the style of this novel, and how it alternated between Sadie’s subjective account of her story and a (somewhat) more objective recounting through the podcast at the center of this book. The podcast format is so underrated, and especially unique in a novel, and made this book even more special.

Sadie had such a distinct, captivating voice – it held your attention and did not let go until long after finishing the final moments of this novel. It’s rare to see a protagonist with a stutter, and its importance to her personal character should not be overlooked. On the one hand, Sadie saw it as a weakness; on the other, she knew how to weaponize it, and it served as the perfect example of how cunning yet human she was. There was no sugarcoating with this girl – she was trying to survive, mentally and physically.

However, what impressed me the most was how integral the family elements were to the story. Mattie remained a firm presence throughout the novel, a constant reminder of the circumstances which led to Sadie’s story needing to be told. The story was made by its detailing of this family, and all its complex layers of tragedy. And that’s really what this book was – layered in tragedy. It reeked of pain, grief, and desperation, and by the end of it, I was floored. The extent to which the abuse at the center of this novel was detailed, along with its repercussions, was gut-wrenching, but it was such an important story to tell.

Overall, this book was a masterpiece. It was everything I could have wanted, and then some, and when it hits shelves – run, don’t walk.

Sadie was thought-provoking and a beautifully written novel with an enthralling juxtaposition of a narrative that dealt with the reality of a heinous crime, family, and love.

This book was so gut wrenching, it hit me hard and I didn't expect that at all. This is the first book I've read by this author and it will not be the last.

Sadie and Mattie's mom is an addict and never sober enough to notice what is really happening in their house. She brings home one guy after the other, uses them, then loses them. One day she just up and leaves the girls behind. Mattie is so convinced that their mom wants to be found it's all she fixates on. Then Mattie herself is gone, dead, murdered and her body found by an abandoned school on fire. Sadie is out for revenge on her sister's killer and she doesn't care what she had to do she is going to get justice for her. She knows who took her and did the unimaginable to her baby sister and she is set on making amends.

This book is one of the most infuriatingly amazing books I’ve read in a long time. If you’re a fan of the Serial podcast, Frozen, and murder mysteries .. this book is definitely for you. Without giving away too much, Sadie’s love for her sister is a tangible thing, and this story takes right along the roller coaster of her story. I can’t say too much without giving the story away, but read this book. Take this journey. Find out for yourself. Trust me, you won’t regret it. I have feelings I can’t eveb talk about yet because I’m still not sure I can. This is definitely going to the top of my favorites.

I can't remember the last time that I was so engrossed in a story that I had to read it in only one sitting. That's what happened to me with Sadie. It was 3 A.M last night and I was crying over a book that literally broke me.

Sadie tells the story of a sister going on a hunt to seek revenge and justice for her murdered sister. The story is told in dual perspectives, one from Sadie while she is travelling across the country to look for the person she thinks is responsible for her sister's murder, and the other one from a serialized podcast made by a man who is trying to put the pieces together about what happened to Sadie on her hunt.

But this book is so much more than just a murder mystery. Sadie is a story about family, sisterhood, addictions and dark themes like sexual abuse and pedophilia. It's a story that makes you ponder on and care about issues that, unfortunately, are a reality to so many girls' lives. The author did an amazing job at intertwining such dark themes into a mystery without making it impossibly hard to read due to the dark subject matter. The writing style was completely engrossing, and the fact that she kept switching from one POV to the other made me want to keep reading, which ended up with me finishing the whole thing in just one sitting. That's how addicting and enthralling Sadie was. The only thing that I had a problem with was the ending, but that's only because I tend to really dislike open endings, especially in mystery books.

This was my first Courtney Summers book that I read, so I had no idea what to expect from it but damn, this was the best first impression I could have gotten from an author. She created such a heart-wrenching and addicting story that I can't wait to visit some of her other novels and see how they compare to Sadie. I'd recommend this book to anyone, but especially to those whose favorite genre is YA mystery which tackles dark and disturbing themes.

Brilliant and Harrowing. The complexity in Sadie’s character layered so tragically and beautifully I found myself unable to put the book down. The author’s style was amazing and using the format of podcast and first person married together nicely. I will read anything Courtney Summers writes after this.

I have a copy of one of Courtney Summers other books, All the Rage, that's been sitting on my shelf waiting for me for awhile, but I've been hearing a lot of hype about this book and St. Martin's Press was so kind as to send me an advance electronic copy in exchange for an honest review, so I decided to read this one first.

As usual, I barely read the synopsis for this one and picked it up mostly based on the hype, so I went into this blind. Sadie is the story of 19 year old Sadie Hunter and her younger sister Mattie. The book starts with Sadie's disappearance after Mattie is found murdered. The girls mother was a drug abuser and did little parenting of her two daughters. They grew up with their surrogate grandmother, May Beth, but Sadie ultimately took on the responsibility of raising Mattie. She loved her sister with every fibre of her being, even though Mattie sometimes drove her crazy, so her death tears Sadie apart.

Sadie believes she knows who murdered Mattie and runs away from their home in Cold Creek to find him. The story is told from two different perspectives and played a big role in why I liked this book. Half of the story is told from Sadie's perspective, but the other half is the transcript of an 8-part podcast called the girls, narrated by journalist and radio personality, West McCray. I thought the podcast transcript was brilliant and totally set the scene for this book. I literally never listen to podcasts, but my partner does and this read just like Serial, which I've heard him listening to on occasion, and reminded me of the old town crime mystery documentaries that I used to watch on TLC growing up.

So we get two very different perspectives from this novel. Sadie's perspective is deeply personal and emotional. She is very much a girl who's entire world has been torn apart and she starts to damn the consequences in her desperation to find her sister's killer. Then there's the other perspective from West McCray, who is more clinical about Sadie's disappearance and is always two steps behind Sadie as he tries to track her down (side note: I know West is a man, but for some reason I pictured him as a woman throughout almost my entire reading. Anyone else get that vibe?). I thought that both narratives were incredibly strong and together made this a strong novel. Most of the double narrative books I read are split timeline historical fiction novels and I almost always find the modern day timeline boring compared to the historical one, but with this book, I found both narratives extremely compelling. Sadie's story had depth and McCray's was intriguing. I just felt so transported during every "podcast episode" that I couldn't help but love it. Plus it was different from anything else I've read.

That said, parts of this book are tough to read. "Girls disappear all the time". It's a sad statement, but a true one. There is child abuse in this novel and Summers tackles some disturbing topics. I appreciated though that while Summers didn't hold back the punches, she's not graphic. "I've decided the gruesome details of what was uncovered.. will not be a part of this show,.. it's violence and brutality do not exist for your entertainment." Many books and shows are needlessly gratuitous when it comes to describing violence, so I'm glad she left it out. What she's not afraid to tackle though are Sadie's brutal thoughts. She shocked me several times, but she was determined that no one else suffer what she and her sister suffered, even if she had to destroy herself in the process.

The ending killed me. I won't give any spoilers. It's brutal, but it's also exactly how it should be. I flew through this book in a single long weekend camping trip and I would definitely recommend it. I'm feeling a bit more of an itch now to finally pick up my copy of All the Rage.

Sadie's publish date is Sept. 4th, 2018 if you want to pick up a copy!

The story of a missing girl whose sister has been murdered, Sadie stands out for its unique narrative in the form of a podcast transcript. This style had me engaged from the get-go and the haunting tale proved to be a page turner.

The Quick Cut: A girl goes looking for vengeance after her younger sister is murdered and ends up missing herself. The drama unfolds as a podcast unravels what happened to both sisters over multiple episodes.

A Real Review:

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Not many people get to live a charmed life. In fact, most (if not everyone) get to push and crawl their way through hard times, difficult situations, and unbearable people standing in the way of personal progress. In the book "Sadie", our lead ladies have experienced the worst of the worst: having no parents to rely on, Sadie has worked hard to provide for her younger sister Mattie and raise her the best she can. However, when Mattie is found dead outside their hometown of Cold Creek, Colorado - Sadie changes course and disappears with barely a trace. Leaving behind a car and some of her things, a journalist named West McCray comes upon the story of the two sisters and becomes intrigued... which is where the real story begins.

I enjoyed a lot of elements in this book, but the narrative here was definitely my favorite. The switching between the podcast and Sadie's point of view was an interesting way to see what was really going on while also following the chaos of interviewing all those people involved in the girls' lives. Reading the transcripts from the podcast was really my preferred parts of the book. Sadie was a good enough narrator, but some of her sections plod along a little bit and I didn't connect with her as strongly as many others did. A big element to Sadie's character is the fact that she has a stutter - which continues throughout the book and that the journalist explains has no known cause.

Forewarning: this book is dark when it comes to the material it covers and it does include sexual abuse of minors by adults. Being aware of these elements going in is definitely something you should be aware of, especially depending on what age you are reading this one. I wouldn't recommend anyone on the younger scale of teenage read this one due to the sensitive material here. The ending is also a bit frustrating considering its very open ended, but I understand the reasoning behind that decision.

A powerful story about two sisters who stood together, this book will leave you on the edge of your seat wondering what happened and why the other disappeared.

4.5 stars
This book was amazingly powerful. It was nothing I thought it would be but that’s not a bad thing since I went in basically blind.
I loved the split between podcast (or whatever it was) and Sadie’s point of view. I found myself constantly urging West McCray to keep searching because I had known what happened to Sadie from previous chapters.
The writing was beautiful. It was amazing how I could tell Sadie came from a small town just by the way she talked.
I felt like Mattie was a main character, yet not a main character because she was not alive, but I felt like I got to know her so well despite that. I loved Sadie as a character, stutter and all. She had so many faults but she owned most of them.
With books that have 2 different POVs, a lot of the time each chapter ends on a small cliffhanger so you always want to read quickly through the next POV to get back to the other and this book did not disappoint. I needed to know what happened next and my interest was kept throughout the whole book.
The only reason I knocked it down a half star was because there was sexual abuse, which is a very uncomfortable topic, but does happen unfortunately. It just makes me so sad to think about, and it’s something I don’t want to read about, but it’s so important to put the message out there.

4.5

Courtney Summers is one of the most diverse contemporary YA writers and her latest novel is a gritty crime mystery with an engaging writing style and a captivating plot. This book is told from the viewpoints of Sadie, a teenage runaway who was abandoned by her mother and is on the road looking for the man who killed her sister and West McCray, who is a journalist recording a podcast on his journey to find Sadie.

As Sadie's story unravels from these two POV's, we are forced to address topics that are dark, heartbreaking, and raw. With a main character that you will absolutely empathize with and a plot that will enthrall you, this is one book that you will not soon forget.

Is this YA? I've seen quite a few mentions of it being Young Adult, and I don't think it falls into that category, as it's far edgier, more mature, and better written than the majority of YA fiction. If I were rating it as a YA book, I'd say it's definitely 4/5 stars. The reason I'm giving it 3/5 on Goodreads is because I would put it up against adult mystery fiction, alongside Mary Kubica and Gillian Flynn, which it doesn't quite stack up to, as that genre is deep. Yes, this is a book ABOUT teenagers, but it is not FOR teenagers, is it? I think that perhaps the issue here is that it's in kind of a no-man's-land, between the two, finding a home among neither.

The construction and voice here are very interesting in that I could definitely hear the podcast-- to me, and maybe this is just because I've been listening to Revisionist History nonstop, I could hear Malcolm Gladwell's voice over, and the seams were perfect (i.e. the transitions between the narration and the interview sections). However, as much as I wanted to buy into the book, it never happened. I could never just get lost in it. There wasn't a connection for me with Sadie or any of the other characters, and I'm not sure why.

This is one of those books where I think format comes into play re: how it reads. So much of the narrative is transcript-based, that it's hard to engage I think as much as I wanted to with the characters? It's a powerful, moving story, and I will definitely check out the audiobook once available, but I think the narrative could have benefitted from other epistolary elements beyond the podcast transcripts.

Wow.



Sadie hit me a lot harder than I expected, which makes sense because there was nothing expected about this read.



Sadie is another multi-perspective novel (it seems 90% of books are now) and it alternates between the perspective of Sadie and the perspective of West, a journalist (?) who is doing a story for a podcast. Sadie is on an odyssey to process her grief over the tragic loss (murder) of her 13 year old sister Mattie.



What follows is a gritty, harrowing look at what happens when children are raised in deprivation. There's more to it than that, of course, and I won't give spoilers for this one, but at its heart, this novel encourages readers to ask themselves how things would have been different if Sadie and Mattie would've grown up with some love and support. It really brings up a lot of questions, some that we find ourselves struggling with every day: does blame really matter? Can people be redeemed? What responsibility do we have to act when we see a stranger in need?



At first, I had a lot of trouble reading this book. I don't always love it when I don't know what to expect and there was something about Sadie that defied all my expectations for what it "should" be. I expected it to be a thriller/mystery type book based on the description. A book about a young girl hitting the road to bring justice to her sister's killer sounds like it should be the next big thriller. It's not that, though. Sure, there are clues, witnesses, false identities, etc. There are all the elements of a mystery, but Sadie (much like Sadie) resists those expectations. Is it a drama, then? A family drama? That doesn't quite feel right either. While we learn about Sadie's neglect at the hands of her drug addicted mother, the rivalry she has with her mother for the love of her sister, and even a surrogate grandma who resents the mom, calling it a drama feels too easy. Nothing in this book fits an easy formula.



I definitely recommend this book. It's as deeply satisfying as it is unsettling, and while it's occasionally hard to read, it's so worth it.



4/5



Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC I was given in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The death of Sadie’s sister was devastating to her. She could not stand the thought that the killer was still living, still breathing, so she set out to find the killer. Sadie was in a very dark place but I loved her, loved the character. Beautifully written!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press and Wednesday Books for the advance reader copy Sadie by Courtney Summers in exchange for an honest review. Summers’ Some Girls Are and Cracked Up To Be were always being passed around and constantly checked out by students. Sadie is a compelling, tense novel detailing Sadie’s self-hatred for failing to keep her sister safe. After her sister, Mattie, is murdered, the reader follows this tense mystery from Sadie’s point-of-view and through a podcast, The Girls, narrated by famed journalist, West McCray, as he searches for Sadie. I could not put this book down; Sadie’s life is hell; her mother is drug addicted and derelict. Sadie has a severe stutter and suffers from abuse; I rooted for her as she used her wits to follow clues. Mattie was the center of Sadie’s life and when her mother takes off; Sadie takes over the care of her little sister. With the police no help, and an absent mother, will Sadie find her sister’s murderer? Will McCray find Sadie? Courtney Summers has written an explosive, riveting novel.