I really wasn't sure how to review this book without giving everything away or simply repeating what other reviewers have said. Instead I'll say this, at the end of the digital copy I kept swiping, needing more pages to read. Even now, when I'm surrounded by thousands of books as I write this review all I want to read is more Sadie.

From the time I read it to now I've tried to pick up at least 4 other books and none will do, because all I want is more from Courtney Summers. I've been a fan of her work for a long time now. Her early novels filled with teenage problem and unlikable characters are right up my alley, but as time between the writing of Cracked Up To Be/Some Girls Are and now Summers has grown exponentially as a writer and craftsman. This storytelling is something I'll be thinking about for a long time to come and her handling of such a profoundly dark topic was respectful, sensitive, and weighty.

Truly a phenomenal read that I could not, cannot put down event after the last page.

*Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this copy for review.

Thank you to St Martins Press for the arc of this book.
I didn’t enjoy this book at all, I found it hard to read, maybe the podcast form just isn’t for me.

This book was phenomenally chilling and presented wonderfully so. Structure-wise, Sadie alternated as a podcast by a guy following Sadie's disappearance and trying to trace her steps and Sadie's POV herself, always a step or two ahead. The formatting added so much to the enjoyability of the read, though occasionally it could also be a bit confusing.

So much wow. It was a pretty good choice to read this in the early early stages of the morning (aka two am), regardless of sleep deprivation, as the time and my creaky door didn't fail to amplify the creepiness factor of everything in these pages.

There were a lot of characters in each stretch of Sadie's quest for vengeance, and while I can't say that I really liked too many of them, or any of them, this book is a thriller for a reason! Exceptions for character development are kind of existent I suppose.

In a fairly short book, Courtney Summers did an incredible job, painting and completing the grey picture that was Sadie's journey.

Much appreciation for St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for providing this high quality ARC!

this book was too goddamn good and I stayed up too late to finish it

The structure is so smart, and it's such a good hook to have this partly-written in the format of a true crime Serial-style podcast. and: I don't even especially like true crime stories (though yeah duh I listened to Serial).

The voice here is haunting, I will never forget Sadie.

Sadie's had a tough life:  she stutters and has to deal with people either feeling sorry for her or thinking she's stupid, her mother is an addict who brings home an endless string of men who never stay long, and she's basically raising her younger sister Mattie.

Her mom finally leaves for good and it's up to Sadie to find a job and look after Mattie, who has just turned thirteen.  Heartbroken by her mom's abandonment, Mattie falls into a deep depression that only lifts when she receives a postcard from her mom all the way from L.A.  She's determined to find a way to be reunited with her mom and argues with Sadie about it.

Mattie goes missing not long after their argument and Sadie believes her sister has found a ride out of town headed toward L.A.  Mattie's body is soon found not far from home in an apple orchard.  There are no leads or suspects.

Devastated, Sadie sets out to find one of her mom's ex-boyfriends.  Her car is later found abandoned on the side of a road and no trace of her is found.

A radio personality named West McCray hears the tragic story of the sisters and begins a podcast, tracking Sadie's road trip to figure out who or what she was searching for.  We learn the full story through the podcast transcripts and Sadie's narrative.

This is a chilling story of love and abuse.  Sadie is a powerful and flawed character determined to uncover the truth about the man she knows killed her sister and bring down others like him in the process.  She's both vulnerable and fierce at the same time; still child-like though she had to grow up far too soon.  Courage and conviction are usually wasted on youth but Sadie, wise beyond her years, uses both wisely on her journey to find a killer.

Sadie's tale pulled me in immediately and wouldn't let me go.  The format of alternating narrative and podcast coming together to give the full story is compulsively readable, leading to a pulse pounding ending that stunned me.

This is an all too common story; girls go missing all the time.  Sadie and Mattie could be any and every girl, on or off the page.  That fact brings a sobering reality to this YA fiction/mystery and including America's latest obsession with true crime podcasts really drives the point home.

Sadie is a powerful and heartbreaking novel that will captivate you from beginning to end.  Many thanks to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

In West McCray and his podcast, The Girls, Summers captures the tone of story-based podcasts like Serial and S-Town with some light critique of the true-crime genre. Sadie's heartbreaking mission to avenge her sister remains gripping throughout. I would recommend this title with a few trigger warnings to mature teens.

I absolutely loved this book! In fact, I finished the book 2 days ago and it is still haunting me. One of my favorite types of books to read are those that go back and forth in time and weave a wonderful story together. Sadie did that so smartly. It was like reading a season of the podcast Serial (which I love). Thank you Netgalley for my copy.

Told from alternating perspectives of the strong-willed title character herself and a podcast-esque script read by host, West McCray, the suspenseful and engaging storytelling of this latest novel is nothing less than what one would expect from Courtney Summers.

We learn about sisters, about trauma, about love, and about desperation. Devastated from the loss of her younger sister, Sadie takes matters into her own hands to avenge her sister - no matter the cost. As the story progresses from chapters alternating in both perspective and timeline, readers are privy to the stakes our heroine is facing. We meet characters who make mistakes, who hide the darkest parts of themselves and others, and those who offer what they can to shed light and illuminate a story that has podcast host, West McCay both reluctant to explore and enthralled.

Sadie by Courtney Summers was an amazing story of a sister's courage and determination to protect the reputation of those she loved. Sadie was also told through the narration of a podcast, which as a lover of podcasts I found to be very intriguing.
Full of hard hitting and hard to read topics, I often found myself having to take breaks between chapters.
I overall enjoyed this one. Summers will always be a favorite author of mine and I'm thankful I had the opportunity to read this one before publication.

overall, I enjoyed it... but I felt like there was something missing in the end - not necessarily that it needed to be cleanly wrapped up. I really liked the podcast chapters a lot - I bet it would be a great audiobook!

Thanks to Courtney Summers, the publisher, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

So... Sadie... Full of heavy themes such as paedophilia, violence, alcohol and substance abuse, and abandonment this novel was a heavy hitter in literally every way possible. For anyone who has personally experienced any of these horrendous situations in life, it would be confronting to say the least. I'm not sure if I loved it BECAUSE it was such an emotionally draining book or whether I loved it even though right now I am a giant ball of confused-angry-sad-angst.

Throughout the entirity of the novel, the narrative is told from two point of views

The broadcasting of a journalists adventure to find out Sadie's whereabouts; and
Sadie's tale from her own, first-person point of view.
While this style can occassionally feel a little clunky, in Sadie the transition is both logical and fluid, allowing the reader to really be immersed in the narrative rather than having to keep track of the various happenings.

One of my favourite things about this was the character development and how even minor charcters had a story. In the instance of the books namesake, from the very first POV chapter, you can almost feel how frantic she is in her quest to leave town and get on her mission. Having had a stutter from a young age, the use of her speech to support her current feelings is genius (I will say here however, at some points of longer social interactions, the stutter was distracting - much as it would be in person).

I especially loved the secondary personalities and their character arcs especially the owner of the estate in which the girls live. May Beth, Sadie and Mattie's stand-in parent, is written in such a way that the reader develops disdain for others that she does not like and begins to feel compassion for the 'villain' which is then supported in portions relating to Ellis and Joe. Honorary mention goes to Claire; although she left, by the end you believe that no matter what she put them through, she had and always would love her girls.

As previously mentioned, this novel contains some confronting subject matter. This subject matter didn't feel as though it was included for shock value. Instead Sadie's story was believable, especially in today's throwaway society. By the end of it, I felt her rage at the world, knowing that had something similar happened to me, I would have contemplated following the same path.

I have but one grievance with the entire thing - I like ends to be tied and everything to be in a pretty little finished package unless you have a sequel coming. This left things in the air and I don't know how to feel about it. My heart hurts and I am confused but sad and angry that I can't close this novel and be done. It's going to be in my head for days (I know that's the point but still).

I could honestly write pages and pages on what I loved in this novel and still have more to say. The use of so many intense themes could have overtaken the story however I felt it was less centred around abuse and more about one woman's quest to make things right, even though it was unlawful it kind of felt morally grey rather than outright wrong. To put it plainly, I loved it and will continue loving it. So much so I am heading to my local bookstore tomorrow to preorder a physical copy so as I can lend it to people then watch as their soul is slowly crushed into a thousand tiny pieces.

I really enjoyed this mystery although at times I got lost. I cannot believe it ended on a cliffhanger leaving the reader to decide what happened.

Sadie the Savage. That's exactly what she is. 

I enjoyed everything about this book from the podcast type story-line to the killer (pun intended) characters. The journey throughout this book was one that had me waiting for what would, could, and should happen next. After reading Courtney's other book, All the Rage, I was practically begging for a more memorable story from her and boy did this one succeed.

I was committed to Sadie from the get go. I literally could not turn the pages of this book fast enough. To me, Courtney fully grasped what it's like to be inside of a teenage girl's mind. Sadie did not disappoint. And when I say that I don't mean the book, I mean the girl named Sadie. She was a spectacular protagonist. From the get go Sadie was intriguing and vulnerable and a vigilante that I wanted to stand behind a thousand times over again.

I love love love the podcast story-line that this book follows. I always worry how much I will enjoy a YA novel each time I open a book but experiencing this specific one through the podcast type style really helped me. Seeing the people that surround Mattie and Sadie talk about the events taking place was cathartic and compelling. 

I think that the narratives and structure of this story was absolutely PERFECT. The author splits the POVs between West McCray, a podcast author, as he investigates Sadie’s disappearance, and the POV of Sadie herself as she embarks on her mission that she has committed to fulfill. 

I wasn't satisfied with the ending (hence my four stars). I didn't like how open it was. I am still struggling with that but when I sit here and think more about it I think of all the things that could be happening to Sadie or that could have happened to her. I like to think she's still out there- surviving.

This book doesn't have much of a mystery aspect, I think the author does a wonderful job at laying all of the details out there for you but that doesn't mean it isn't worth the ride that Courtney Summers takes you on. Sadie is going to be unforgettable. Both the book and the character.

Sadie was everything I wished for and so much forking more.
I always try to keep my expectations low, especially if it’s a debut author, an overhyped book or a book by an author that I’ve never read before. If I do not keep my expectations in check, they will get out of control, like children running towards a playground, screaming from excitement. And then they realise the swings and everything else has been burned down. Yeah. I don’t want my expectations burned to the ground. I don’t want any crying children.
Sadie, however, added a swimming pool, a bouncy castle and a super cool cave to the playground. But don’t kid yourself, this book is so not funny. I actually want to join the crying children, that’s how forking depressing it was. Aaand this metaphor officially got out of hands, but you know what I mean.

I honestly cannot find anything to criticise. And I’m nitpicky, believe me. So if you want my word for it, just go and read the book now, because from here on this review will stop being spoiler-free.
The characters are fantastic. Sadie is absolutely relatable. She is a caring, protective woman who will fight with everything she’s got for the people she loves. Her life is far from easy; many would go so far and say that it sucks big time. But she has her sister, Mattie, and that’s a life worth living.
When Mattie is found dead, Sadie’s world shatters to pieces. But she knows who killed her and she will find a way to take revenge for every injustice that has been done to her sister – and to herself. Sadie disappears. And here, Wes McCray joins the game.

West McCray is a journalist who stumbles upon the story of a girl found dead and a second girl reported missing. His side of the story is told in form of a podcast titled The Girls. On his journey to find Sadie he interviews a great number of people and reports all his findings to his listeners. The combination of these two narratives – Sadie’s point of view and Wes’ podcast – was so intriguing that I could not close the book. That and the excruciating cliffhangers at the end of every chapter nearly killed me. And killed one or the other fictional character in the process.

I will shove this book under every person’s nose who will tell me All the Ugly and Wonderful Things is suuuuch a good book. Sadie is the anti-christ to All the Ugly and Wonderful Things. Or rather, the Harry to his Voldemort.
If you have not already realised it yourself, adult men who have sex with children and teenagers are very forking bad and the devil incarnate. And Sadie has come to end them. This book is basically young adult Kill Bill.

I appreciated that the author managed to not shy away from the grim reality of sexual abuse while staying away from painting a too vivid and explicit picture of the horrible crimes at the same time. It left enough room for your imagination to fill the gaps and protected the reader – especially younger ones – from possible nightmares.

Also, let’s talk about sexuality. We’re finally at this stage (at least in YA literature) where a character’s sexuality doesn’t define their plot. It’s a part of them that is no longer discussed, like the fact that someone’s favourite colour is blue. I know it sounds stupid to point this out, but it made me so happy. Every time in this novel when a character’s sexuality was brought up, it lacked a positive/negative/surprised reaction because PEOPLE ARE GAY KAREN GET OVER IT. No, really, it made me seriously happy.

Sadie was one of my favourite reads of 2018 and I hope it will get super famous so that I can talk to people about it.

This was such a interesting and engrossing read. Written half like a podcast and half as Sadie's one recollections about what is happening I loved being able to read about multiple views of the same events. While the stories talked about in this book are not the happiest, I kept wanting to know what was happening as we followed Sadie across state lines and as she searches for a man who hurt her and her sister deeply. Overall I really enjoyed this book; how it brought in a podcast into a written book, how I connected to Sadie so quickly, and how crazy her adventure became.

<i>Girls go missing all the time.</i>

SADIE is not easy reading. It's about abuse, addiction, grief, and how far we'll go when we have nothing left.

<i>How do you forgive the people who are supposed to protect you?</i>

The majority of this story is told in interview/pod-cast format, ala <i>Serial</i>, as the narrative tries to retrace Sadie's steps in her efforts to exact vengeance for her sister, while simultaneously living out Sadie's thoughts and motivations, her successes and her stumbles, and it was so fucking compelling. I couldn't be pulled away from this. I devoured it in one sitting. I was really enjoying it, despite the topic, and yet.. that ending..? God.

<i>I forget that at times, I was a kid, that I did kid things.</i>

This is a challenging read that doesn't go out of its way to push your limits. Summers writing, the emotions, they do that without resorting to any flashy or brutal tactics. It's heartbreaking, heartwrenching, beautiful, bittersweet, awful, and just.. so many things. Where before I found myself unable to rate my one and only previous read by this author (ALL THE RAGE), this one deserves all the stars. I felt so much, I was drawn in completely, and the story, for all the horror, didn't have horrifying things splashed around in gruesome detail on every page. It was real, it was raw, and I'm left reeling (and crying) and wanting more for Sadie. Wanting more for Mattie. For Nell, for Claire, for all <u>The Girls</u>, as the podcast came to be called.

<i>My body is sharp enough to cut glass and in desperate need of rounding out, but sometimes I don't mind. A body might not always be beautiful, but a body can be a beautiful deception. I'm stronger than I look.</i>

Somehow this author just gets into the minds of young girls and lays it all out there. The good, the bad, the ugly; and that isn't even counting all the external factors at play. Despite all the potential triggers, I highly recommend this one. I'll be thinking about it for a long time.

4.75 "the thing I tell myself to dull the sharp edges of everything that's surely left to come : the worst has already happened" stars

Book: Sadie
Author: Courtney Summers
Rating: 5 Out of 5 Stars

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher, Wednesday Books, for providing me with this ARC.

So, this book has been appearing on my feed a lot. To be honest whenever I put my name in for an ARC, I wasn’t even sure what Sadie was about. I was taken by surprise and this surprise ended up being a good one. I really enjoyed it. This is my first Courtney Summers book and I know I will be back for more.

Courtney digs into the darkest parts of the real world-parts that we really don’t want to go into. While most young adult books feature main characters who live a rather comfortable life, the characters in Sadie are faced everyday with struggles and darkness. We are taken into the deepest and darkest parts of a teenage girl’s mind-one that most people think doesn’t actually exist. We get to experience grief, hardship, hope, love, and fear. It is like you are a teenager again, expect I’m sure that many of us haven’t been through what Sadie has.

Courtney makes you feel really deeply for both Sadie and Mattie. You become a part of their daily lives and just simply really feel for them. Mattie is Sadie’s entire world and once she loses her, she will do anything and everything to make it right. I know, I know, you’re probably thinking we’ve had this a million times, but I truly did feel something for them. Everything is a lot more complicated than what it looks on the surface and you will find yourself drawn to them. I promise….

Sadie isn’t your normal young adult lead either. She’s not perfect. She has a severe stutter, which I think is a nice touch. How many strong young adult characters do we come across with a speech disorder? Not very many. And how many kids have them? A lot! I think it will draw a lot of readers to Sadie’s character…Anyway…She is determined to find out who killed her sister and will do anything to avenge her sister’s death. She is determined, loyal, and not afraid to get her hands dirty. Unlike so many characters, she does have to bring out the claws and it’s so heartbreaking. She is alone and has no one. Those who should be there for her aren’t.

I think what really adds to the story is the writing. We switch back and forth between Sadie and a radio show. Now, I personally thought that this was a nice mix. I don’t know if everyone else feels this way, but I enjoyed it. McCray is not really involved in the situation, but at the same time, he is. It kind of reminded me of those crime investigation shows on TV-can’t think of what they are called at the moment. Anyway….I thought it added an extra punch to the story.
So, we really don’t find out what happened to Sadie at the end. It really does make you wonder and leave you wanting for me. However, I don’t know if a second book is needed. Sadie going into the unknown just kind of fits her character.

There are a few trigger warnings though. This book does deal with drug abuse, sex abuse, and pedophilia. I would not recommend Sadie to younger readers.

Overall, a great read! I really enjoyed it.

This book comes out September 4, 2018.


(Review is already on Goodreads and will be posted on Amazon on release date.)

Amazing!!!!! Very thrilling. Great characters! Kept twisting and turning. Loved it! I especially loved the main character of Sadie. She felt very authentic and real! Her mother Claire felt authentic as well. Like I would hear about them or read about them in the paper. Overall an excellent read. This was my first Courtney Summers Book and it will not be my last!

I loved this book! I've been a Courtney Summers fan for years, but I think this is one of her strongest books yet. It's dark, raw, and unflinching. I flew through it because I couldn't put it down. Sadie's voice is perfect, and Summers' writing is as strong as ever. The podcast transcriptions add a really unique element, too. Definitely recommend to YA readers looking for something dark and gripping.


(Links to this review on Goodreads and social media will be added closer to publication date.)

This is my first Courtney Summers novel, and I really enjoyed it. I've been meaning to read All The Rage for a while now, but I just haven't gotten around to it. I have read and enjoyed The Walls Around Us and Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma, whose storytelling is very similar though. So I knew I was likely to like Sadie.

I read Sadie in less than a day. At 320 pages, this mystery YA was a fast-paced, exciting read. It's one of those stories that you have to know the ending to, which will make you say, out loud, "Just one more chapter," even when you should be going to bed.

Half of the chapters are written in the form of a podcast, like Serial or even Limetown, and the other half of the chapters are told from Sadie's point of view. At first, I wasn't sure if I was going to like this format, but as I got deeper into the story, I have to say that I enjoyed being able to read the different characters' dialogue without the addition of dialogue tags in the podcast chapters.

We, as readers, are given a lot more information than those listening to the fictional podcast, due to Sadie's chapters. There are some very dark things that happen to Sadie, but most of them happen off-screen, so to speak, and are implied rather than grimly written out, which I also appreciated. Sadie's chapters, overall, were well done in the sense that I felt like I knew Sadie. I was definitely rooting for her all the way to the end. Her relationship with her little sister, Mattie, made her especially relatable to me, since I also have a younger sister.

This book would make an excellent audiobook, and I hope that they do, in fact, make one with a cast, since the podcast includes mock interviews with a variety of characters who Sadie stumbles upon in her quest. Voice actors could really bring this book alive, although the reading experience was also excellent.

I won't say much about the ending, but it nearly killed me. I know why it was written the way it was, but it definitely left me feeling a bit hopeless. The people who you think are good people are often <i>not</i> good people, a lesson we all have to learn. Sadie learns this lesson early. She never really had a childhood, and Mattie's was cut short. I would say the books is definitely a little critical of the whole "true crime" genre. Who are these stories for? Why are people fascinated by train wrecks, so to speak? Sadie and Mattie are people, they're real people (well, not really), not tales to revel in. And why don't we ever do something to help the people in our lives who need the help the most, rather than just ogling at them?

(Side Note: Has Courtney Summers spent time in Colorado? I mostly liked her fictional Colorado setting. There were a few times, though, that I was like, is this really Colorado [i.e., the apple orchard], although at other times, it was spot on [i.e. poverty on the Eastern Plains versus the suburban developments, that were probably near Colorado Springs or Denver].)