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Author- Courtney Summers
Series- N/A
Published- 2018
Page Count- 308 (1st Edition, Hardcover) audiobook- 7 hours 57 mins
Publishing House- Wednesday Books
Genre- YA Contemporary/Mystery
Rating- 5/5 stars
About the Author
Courtney Summers (born 1986 in Belleville, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian writer of young adult fiction. Her most famous known works are Cracked Up to Be, This is Not a Test, All the Rage, and Sadie.
Taken from Wikipedia
Plot
A missing girl on a journey of revenge. A Serial―like podcast following the clues she's left behind. And an ending you won't be able to stop talking about.
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.
Courtney Summers has written the breakout book of her career. Sadie is propulsive and harrowing and will keep you riveted until the last page.
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.
Courtney Summers has written the breakout book of her career. Sadie is propulsive and harrowing and will keep you riveted until the last page.
Taken from Goodreads
Opinions
Before I even start going into depth about my opinions on this book, I would highly recommend the audiobook for this book. It's partly the reason why I got my audible subscription. I had heard amazing things about it and it did not disappoint at all. It's a full cast recording, so pretty much every character is narrated by a different person. If you are looking for an incredible audiobook experience, then look no further.
Something I think is a universally liked thing about Sadie is the way it's written. The format of it being told through traditional storytelling elements and mixed media is really interesting. You go back and forth between Sadie's POV as the story is happening to her and the podcast told by West McCray after the events have happened. You almost have to piece the two storylines together to get the whole picture. You start and end from the POV of the podcast, which as someone studying writing, is a really interesting decision to make. The way it was written plus the audiobook adaptation meant I was hooked until the end. I cared about both storylines and was trying to work out what would come next after each chapter ended.
I'm not sure if it's just me but I found the killer to be somewhat predictable. When it was revealed that it was the ex-boyfriend of the mother, I wasn't really surprised. I would have liked for it to have been slightly more shocking than it was. This is pretty much the only negative thing I can think of about the book as I really enjoyed everything else about it.
I felt that the book handled the dark elements really well. As it deals with a young girls murder, it is to be expected that there are some dark themes in this book. These include drug abuse, paedophilia, sexual abuse, murder and destructive behaviour. All of these themes, plus some others that I'm fairly sure I've missed, were dealt with in a way that wasn't derogatory at all. Listening to some of the events being described made me feel sick to my stomach. Throughout the novel, it is hinted that Keith (the killer) sexually abused Sadie and then later Mattie. Although it is hinted constantly, the chapter which goes into some details made me shiver. Despite some of the characters truly awful behaviours, they were never dehumanised. They always felt human and I'm glad that these dark and somewhat disturbing themes were handled well.
I know it says it in the blurb that the ending will be one you cannot stop talking about, but that ending took my breath away. I am so desperate to learn what happened to Sadie as it is left to the reader's imagination. A part of me is pleased that Courtney didn't tell us that she was either found alive or dead, as that would have ruined the ending slightly, but I can't help but need to know what happened to her. I like to believe that she continues on her journey of helping all the girls that Keith abused, but there is a little voice in the back on my mind saying that she died during her fight with Keith. I hope one day it is revealed what happened to Sadie, but for now, it will remain a mystery.
