Sadie by Courtney Summers

Summary from Goodreads:

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 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.

Review:

This is actually my first Courtney Summers book. I have one or two of her books on my shelf, but I could never quite get to them. I guess this is because the author is known for writing intense YA, and I’m not always in the right mindset for that. That being said, there was something so compelling to me about this story, and I was craving a good thriller/suspense story.

I wasn’t expecting to be so fully engrossed in this. I’m not a podcast listener. I was thinking I’d probably be more invested in Sadie’s point of view than I was in the reporter’s. I was wrong. I was so gripped by the podcast. I almost was sad to get back to the point of view of Sadie. I think maybe because the podcast was a lot more innocent. There was just so much West McCray (podcast host) did not know, or was only beginning to unravel. Whereas Sadie’s chapters were all dark, intense, and full of all the things she could never un-know.

I like that juxtaposition of the two stories that were essentially telling the same thing. Sadie’s story was just focused on what she knew –her awful story and experiences. And I guess West’s story was about how sadly universal Sadie’s story could be. I feel like the book came out at the right time.  There’s so much going on right now in the time of #Metoo about the believability and power of women.

I also tend to be a sucker for a good revenge story. Sadie’s story was definitely that. She wanted revenge on her abuser and justice for what happened to her sister. There were definite Kill Bill/ Tarantino vibes going on here, but it also was a lot more than that. It was about a girl knowing and accepting the awful ways the world worked for her. It was about a girl who desperately needed to be heard and helped. But more than that, it was the story of a girl taking her power back the only way she had available to her.

This wasn’t an easy book to read. The abuse, rape, pedophilia, and murder made the story interesting, but also made it very dark and exceptionally sad. I cried at moments, reading this, and not even at the obvious times. I cried at the calm moments, when it all sank in for me. And at other times, my heart was pounding and I was biting my nails in horror of what might happen. This was a hard book to put down. I just had to know how it would all resolve.

I liked that Sadie did meet some good people along the way. Not everyone is terrible. And I like that some of the story did get resolution. There were some consequences for terrible acts that transpired. I was undecided on how much I liked the very end. At first I was mad that it cut off where it did. I wanted more. But, the more I think about it, and the more I look back on everything this story represents, the more I think it was exactly right. I can see this book bringing forth very important conversations. I can see people hating the ending or loving it. But all in all, I think this book is unbelievable in all that it accomplishes and I hope more people read it. I hope that things can change and more girls like Sadie can be heard. I give it a 10/10.