A thrill ride of a novel, perfect for true crime fans, podcast lovers, and anyone who enjoys a good mystery. I loved Sadie and it has a permanent place on the recommendation display at my library.

This book was so perfect, I didn’t want it to end! The characters were relatable, the storyline pulled me in...just all around wonderful.

Sadie was one of the most atmospheric and "like-able" villain stories. Sadie, looking for her sister's killer and looking to bring the killer to justice gave me a Dexter-like feel (like-able villian!). Add a podcast into the mix and you have a winner! I can't get enough of the immersive pod-cast stories. You're rooting for Sadie the whole time, following her on the rollercoaster that is her life and piecing together the final days of her sister. Prepare for a wild ride.

It has been months since I read this and I still can’t accurately put my feelings into words. I know this is the best Courtney Summers book I have read to date and left me emotionally wrecked. It is dark, and hard to read, and what can be ugly about the world, but it is a story of love and strength too. It broke my heart into tiny pieces and worth every sliver. Sadie was a broken girl and justice was her only way to deal with how truly demolished she was. But even with all the sadness and the pain Sadie is worth the read. Not only is the format awesome and something new/now, you will feel for these characters like you have never felt for fictional people before. This is a must read.

Another girl has gone missing, but this time, she left on purpose. Unfortunately, she did not tell anyone of her plans. Thus begins the story of 19-year-old Sadie, who sets off on a quest to avenge the death of her 13-year-old sister, Mattie, whom she cared for as a mother due to their actual mother’s abandonment. Sadie’s story is told in two parts: her own, as she searches for her sister’s killer with a singular focus and vitriolic determination that blasts through everyone she encounters, and that of West McCray, a true-crime podcaster who has been called by Sadie’s neighbor and surrogate grandmother, May Beth, to track the disappearance of another girl from impoverished, small-town Colorado whose case does not seem to rank with the local police. Sadie’s narration takes us through her tenacious pursuit of Mattie’s killer, one of the many scary men who her drug-addicted mother brought into their lives. McCray’s component, including frequent interviews and off-the-record content, tracks Sadie months later, as her abandoned car is found, providing scant clues to her current whereabouts. The two parts come together in a raw, gritty, heart-wrenching story that will stick with readers well after the final page. Kids who are up for a dark story will love this book. It’s gripping, intense and does not pull any punches or talk down to teen readers. The podcast format, ala Serial, will appeal to teens as it mimics familiar media and makes the book a quick read due to the inclusion of so much dialogue. I really appreciated the inclusion of Sadie’s struggle with a stutter. Stuttering is so rarely portrayed in books, and Summers does it very well. Sadie’s stutter frustrates her and poses a constant challenge to her communication, but she works around it, as she always has, and still manages to be terrifyingly effective at getting her message across. Sadie is full of rough language, violence, and rage, but the powerful story is worth reading through some of the haunting details.

I wanted to like this more than I did. The story as a whole is well done, brutal, and heart-breaking, but the path it took to get there was too winding and uneventful.

Well this isn't exactly your typical YA read, now is it?

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

Talk about an opening... what a way to set the tone for the novel! Courtney Summers delivers a very tragic story of two sisters, one of them is dead, and the other is searching desperately for her killer. Sadie and Mattie grew up in a troubled home, one filled with abuse, and a mother that was indifferent, a mother that lacked the ability to nurture her children as a mother should. Sadie became Mattie's protector, until, the tragic night when she wasn't there. She wasn't there to stop her sister from making the biggest mistake of her life that ultimately led to her murder.

Sadie has nothing left at this point other than her anger which fuels her need for revenge. She sets out on a path to find her sister's killer to bring him to justice... justice delivered by her own hand.

"I’m going to kill a man. I’m going to steal the light from his eyes. I want to watch it go out."

"I’m going to carve my name into his soul."

The character development given to Sadie is magnetic, you're pulled in from the start given her speech impediment, her determination, but mostly her loss. Summers writing style gives the reader originality and depth. The epistolary narrative we get from the podcasts gives todays reader a modern perspective. This alternates between a first-person narrative of Sadie's accounts. This slowly pieces together a story so tragic by the end, you're left wondering if this isn't perhaps a work of non-fiction.

I can see why the ending is very controversial, but I rather appreciated the more realistic approach Summers gives. It very much reminded me of an episode of Disappeared from The Investigation Discovery Channel. Sometimes you don't always have all the answers, and that's what will keep this novel on everyone's minds. Children are being abused, and people go missing daily and there are people out there living with the horrors of this reality.

As long as there is love, there is loss. For Sadie, there was no greater loss than her sister. In the end, this set forth a series of events that she herself likely never envisioned. Finding peace in the face of tragedy that is the toughest obstacle of all.

This is my first Courtney Summers novel, but I have recently purchased All the Rage, and very much look forward to reading this one.

I want to thank NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Courtney Summers for allowing me the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for my review.

I absolutely loved this title...it definitely lived up to the hype. The format was original and added so much to the story. While the content was disturbing, the characters were fleshed out, and I genuinely cared. Wow! Such a powerful read.

LOVE this book, the format was innovative and extremely interesting. I read along with the audiobook which was fantastic. Can't wait to purchase my own copy of Sadie.

Sadie was an interesting read to say the least. The start of the book was very slow, I personally had a hard time getting into it. But once the book reached a point that caught my attention I didn’t want to put it down. I did enjoy reading Sadie’s side of everything more, I felt like her side of everything was a bit more exciting. The way the author told the story with the podcast was intriguing, it was a little harder to get into. When I got to the ending of the book, I was very upset with how it ended. I felt like the author left a cliff hanger. I actually went back and reread Sadie’s side to make sure I didn’t miss something. I was frustrated with the book, from the slow beginning to the cliff hanging ending. I think the book would be a good read for someone who likes the constant change of characters and that mystery feel about it. I personally am not the biggest fan of mysteries. I think others would highly enjoy the read more than I did myself.

This was one of my favorite books of 2018. TW for sexual assault, abuse. The interspersed podcasts add an interesting change to the prose. Highly recommended.

The format of this book made it a very quick read. I liked this book and would definitely recommend it.

This book was highly anticipated and I was so appreciative to receive an e-arc from Netgalley.

It's such a cool premise and I'be heard nothing but good things about this. The audiobook is receiving especially high praise. Unfortunately, due to personal life experiences and triggers, I personally was unable to finish the book.

I'm giving it a four star rating based on what I was able to finish, the amazing audiobook, and the incredible marketing.

Very engrossing, and the format is really exciting. The back and forth between the podcast and Sadie's journey created a lot of tension. While the mystery wasn't the most exciting thing I'd ever read, and readers could see right through it, the format was exciting, especially since true crime podcasts are so popular.

I cannot express how grateful I am to have gotten to read this book. This may just have come at the right time in my life – and maybe the right time in many peoples lives. It made me sad, and angry, and curious… I felt weighed down by guilt. That is not normally a feeling a book evokes from me, but in this case, it was right. This book is doing something really interesting too – its including modern popular media.

I know I am not the only person addicted too and riveted by murder and crime podcasts. There is one in particular that always stood above the rest to me, called Up and Vanished. It’s about this kind of average Joe, who sets out to find out what happened to a woman who had been missing for over 10 years, and it’s amazing what he does. As soon as I started reading Sadie, I immediately got those UAV vibes. I could hear it all perfectly in my head. At the time, I had not yet discovered that Macmillan was putting out actual podcast episode leading up to the release of the book. I love this form of mixed media, it really helps add to the chapters that are the podcast transcripts, and it makes the book feel that much more somber, like you are carrying the weight of every person they interview during the course of it.

Okay, now that I’ve raved about how interesting that is, lets get to more important things – the story.

I almost don’t know where to begin. My heart still feels so heavy. That’s great description for this book, heavy. Mattie’s death alone is dripping in sadness. A young girl, gone so quickly, no explanation, in such a devastating way…. just like something ripped from today’s headlines. This lead Sadie down a dangerous path, looking for both vengeance for herself and her sister, and redemption, I think, for herself alone. She knew the world had turned it’s back on her, like so often happens to young people in these situations, so she had to take it into her own hands.

We follow Sadie and the podcast in alternating chapters, the podcast seemingly on the Sadie’s trail, but with months in between. Pieces of a puzzle all slowly creep together, leaving you feeling unsettled and grim. When long buried secrets are brought into the light of day, it’s shocking and heartbreaking.

This book is oozing sadness and loneliness. It’s weeping for childhoods lost in time, lost to monsters. It’s heart aches for children from broken families, where there is no one to be there for you but YOU. The amount of guilt that settled in me after reading this was enough to send me looking for my own answers, to questions I wish I hadn’t asked. After I found myself down a Google black hole of statistics on missing women and children, on how many were found alive, found dead, had been abused, or never found at all, I felt so guilty and sad that there is nothing I can do. I imagine what they could have gone through, possibly very similar to events in this book. This book forced me to think about what is happening around me, in the most painful way, but in a way that we all need. We need to be aware.

Maybe this book will make you long for answers and want to hold your family closer at night. Maybe you will read this and feel fine, complacent in your safe bubble. But I hope it makes everyone just spend some time thinking about the reality of this book, and all the lives lost to the monsters hiding in plain sight.

A very, very powerful read. To be perfectly honest, I did not realize that this was classified as young adult fiction when I was reading this book. In fact, I wouldn't recommend it for younger teens.. The themes, tone, action, everything are geared more toward older readers. The book is very dark and often depressing. But I couldn't put it down.

This is not a book you forget easily. It stays with you long after the last page. The chapters alternate between the perspectives of Sadie, a handicapped teenager who has runaway from home following the death of her sister, and the host of an internet blog who is investigating Sadie's disappearance months later. The narration style took me a couple of chapters to get used to, but I enjoyed fitting the pieces of the story together.. Not many of the characters are particularly likable, but that's OK. In this book, you don't expect them to be.

As for the mystery of why Sadie ran away, the audience will figure it out pretty quickly. But that's OK, too. Like I said, the true power of the book is following along with the investigator months later and as he puts together the pieces of Sadie's flight, often giving new meaning to the events that the reader has already seen Sadie take part in.

The ending realistic, but I found it satisfying. To me, there was a hint of redemption for some characters at the end, and that gave me hope. that what Sadie and her sister went through will cause other characters to grow and try to be better.

Again, it's a powerful book that I recommend; but not for younger audiences.

This book was INCREDIBLE!! I keep recommending it to people. What a unique and very important story. I loved every minute of it.

It's been a long time since I cursed in a review, but I have to put it out there: Sadie fucked me up. It left me pretty hollow, but I guess that's what the author's trying to accomplish. Remember when Courtney Summers wrecked me with All the Rage? Well, she decided to come back for part two with Sadie.

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


☎ Sadie is about, well, Sadie, who's looking for the man who killed her little sister. She grew up as Mattie's mother figure, so when Mattie's body was found dead, Sadie set off on a dangerous mission to bring justice down to the killer's door. This book was about Sadie's journey to seek closure for her sister's death, at whatever cost it took.

☎ There aren't a lot of characters in this book, which is okay. We get to focus on Sadie, who is a character with so much depth. She's always had to mature faster, since her mother wasn't the best mother out there. This made her incredibly strong, and her love for her little sister was off the charts. I had so much respect for her, and I don't know how I would've handled being in her situation--plus she also had a stutter, which made it hard for people to take her seriously.

That being said, it was so hard for me to really get into Sadie's head. I probably wasn't in the right mood when I read this, but I felt detached from her somehow. Or maybe it's because she herself felt detached from the world when she lost her sister. I can't really say, but this made it hard for me to really fall in love with her and her story.

☎ We don't just read from Sadie's perspective! Half of this book is told via a podcast, narrated by West McCray. It was incredibly interesting seeing an outsider's perspective on everything, and it made the story that much more real and modern. (If you love audiobooks, I do highly recommend listening to this book for a more 3D experience!)

☎ This book is so raw and totally relevant. Courtney Summers is basically the Queen of Heavy Themes Done Right. There's no sugarcoating in her books. (TW/CW) In Sadie, we dealt with pedophilia, child abuse, sexual assault, and murder--but we focused more on Sadie herself, and her struggle for justice. It was about fear, regret, and recklessness.

☎ The ending left me broken. I don't want to talk much about it to save you from spoilers, but let's just say that it really worked with the rest of the book.

Sadie was a shock of a book i didn't know i needed. I enjoy true crime shows, probably because its possible to feel like you learn things but remain detached. It was harder to stay detached with this book. The duel perspectives running concurrently were half podcast and half real time/flashback. Seeing the hurt and pain in Sadie in real time was hard. But the book was raw and it was real and im beyond glad that i read it. the pacing was solid and you dont ever want to stop because the action is always moving. But you almost need to pause because you have to process, and being so immersed in it makes you feel raw. All of the stars. This was an amazing book i wish never ever had to be written.

Sadie was an amazing roller coaster of action and emotion. The podcast connection felt very current and never forced. It was a great plot device. The true crime aspect will be very appealing to teens. In a market that is flooded with "Gone Girl" type stories, this one is unique. Highly recommended.