Sadie - Review

Sadie

By: Courtney Summers

Publication: September 4th 2018 by Wednesday Books

320 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Mystery

Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!)

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Goodreads description--A gripping novel about the depth of a sister's love; poised to be the next book you won't be able to stop talking about.

A missing girl on a journey of revenge and a Serial-like podcast following the clues she's left behind.

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 meager 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.

I've read two Courtney Summers books before. One I loved. The other was just okay for me. When I first saw Sadie available for review, I decided to take a pass on it. But then I realized Courtney Summers was the author and I took a second look. Sadie isn't my typical preferred genre. While I occasionally like Mystery/Thriller/Suspense books, I usually prefer romance driven books. And well, there's not a romance in Sadie at all. But I try not to write books off entirely just because they're different from what I normally prefer because I've found in the past that sometimes I'll love a book that ends up changing my reading preferences. However, that was not the case with Sadie.

I really struggled with this book. The first 30% was very slow for me. And then I was probably 60% finished before I finally felt hooked into knowing what happened to Sadie and to Mattie. 60% is a long read when you're not fully invested. And I can't really give you a reason why I wasn't invested until that point because I liked Sadie. I liked the podcast and West McCray. I guess the pieces of the puzzle that we were given up until that point were slow for me. Of course, each piece is important for the overall story, but it was a process for me to get there.

The ending of Sadie was open. There's supposed to be the potential for hope, but it feels very faint to me. There's some justice which I think is intended to give the reader some satisfaction where the open ending might not fully satisfy. It wasn't a bad ending, but like I said, not completely satisfying either. I did read a note that Courtney Summers herself shared about the ending of the story which gave me a more comprehensive view of why the ending was left open, but I still can't say was satisfying.

Being a mother, the content and events of Sadie were hard for me to read as well. I don't ever want to imagine one of my children being brutally murdered, sexually assaulted, unloved, or missing. It's heartbreaking, and yet Sadie felt like such a real story. The events way too commonplace. It's heartbreaking when you think about any one piece much less all put together. *Spoiler alert* This is a sad story.

Sadie ended up being just an okay read for me. The genre is outside of my norm as I tend to prefer books driven by romantic relationships. The content was hard to swallow. And even though the characters were likable and I sympathized with them, they almost made the story harder to read. I had a hard time getting to a point where I felt fully invested, but once I did, I finished Sadie quickly. I'm giving Sadie 3 Stars. Have you read Sadie? What did you think? Let me know!