Sadie (Review)

Sadie

by Courtney Summers

Pages: 311 // Published: September 4, 2018 // Genre: Young Adult, Mystery

Synopsis

Sadie hasn’t had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she’s been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water.

But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie’s entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister’s killer to justice and hits the road following a few meagre clues to find him.

When West McCray—a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America—overhears Sadie’s story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie’s journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it’s too late.

My Thoughts

If you’ve been surfing the blogosphere and bookstagram, you may have seen a recent surge of Sadie hitting the social medias. I was one of the lucky nerds to get a copy of the physcial ARC, and I am so glad I was able to read this one.

I live for out of the box ways to tell a story, similar to Illuminae Files, Sadie takes a different approach and it ended up being highly entertaining.

What I loved…

• PODCASTS! So this is where Sadie is unique – it goes back and forth between Sadie’s (the protagonist) perspective and podcast transcripts of a fictional radio host West McCray. So if you’re a fan of podcasts, especially The Serial, then buckle up – this book is for you. They also created the podcasts IRL so you can listen along as you read and I LOVED it. It just added that “je ne sais quoi”.
• ALL THE FEELS! This books is not a light read. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Courtney has a way of connecting with the reader very quickly, and you quickly have that lump in your throat and awful pit in the stomach as you read this heartbreaking story.
• PACING! I really enjoyed the pacing of the story, and how the podcast was just a few steps behind Sadie’s storyline. So as the reader we knew more about what happened than the folks in the podcast majority of the book because we have Sadie’s insight first. What the podcast offers is more perspectives of the people she met along the way and as well as her mother and “grandmother”.

What I didn’t love…

• THE MYSTERY: So I entered this book thinking there would be more of a twist or a mystery, but it early on shows to be more of a revenge mission. Which I totally get, I was just hoping for more twists and jaw drop moments.
• THE ENDING: Boo. I need to know more! Boooo.

Trigger warnings: Child Murder, Child Molestation and Abuse, Violence

I highly recommend this read if you’re into True Criime or Podcasts, especially The Serial, or if you’re looking to expand your reading experience by combining it with the podcasts.

You can check out “The Girls” podcasts on The Stitcher or your apple podcasts app.

Thank you to Raincoast Books for sending me an advanced readers copy of Sadie in exchange for an honest review. 

About the Author

Courtney Summers was born in Belleville, Ontario, 1986. At age 14, she dropped out of high school. At age 18, she wrote her first novel. Cracked Up to Be was published in 2008, when she was 22 and went on to win the 2009 CYBIL award in YA fiction. Since then, she’s published four more critically acclaimed books: Some Girls Are, Fall for Anything, This is Not a Test and All the Rage, as well as an e-novella, Please Remain Calm which is a sequel to This is Not a Test. Her new novel, Sadie, is available now wherever books are sold. #findsadie
In 2016, Courtney was named one of Flare Magazine’s 60 under 30.

instagram: summerscourtney
twitter: @courtney_s
tumblr: summerscourtney.
official website: courtneysummers.ca