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.

4,5 ⭐️

Unexpectedly “Sadie” was very good. And I’m not often so fond of books I’ve requested on the NetGalley.

I loved the format of the book: some chapters as a transcription of podcast “The Girls” about a missing girl (Sadie) and others are narrated by Sadie herself.

I felt like I was listening to an ordinary podcast-show while reading podcast’s chapters. I was interested in the story, how it would end, wanted to discover all the mysteries of Sadie’s case and understand her motives. In Sadie’s chapters everything was explained.

Because of such format it was so magnetizing to follow this story.

The main theme of the book is child abuse. The most terrifying thing was that those monsters who abuse children can live near us or within a family and no one will suspect anything just because he “seems” like such a nice person.

“It was a terrible thing, sure, but we live in a world that has no shortage of terrible things. You can’t stop for all of them.”

I liked this quote because it reminded me that we cannot fight for everything and worry about everything. But we need to fight for something that’s important for us. As Sadie, who fought for her little sister and all the other kids who could have been abused.

I hope my review is not too messy. But it is always hard to find the right words for the book that still can’t let me go. It wasn’t the best book I’ve ever read or something I would re-read. Still I really liked it and I want my friends to read it so I can have someone to discuss it with!

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.

Courtney Summers is one of my favorite YA authors, so I couldn't wait to read Sadie. The thing about Sadie is the book is very heavy. Like extremely dark and depressing and very hard to stomach. There are all sorts of triggers and I just felt there was never a glimmer of any hopefulness anywhere in the book. The format also didn't work for me. The podcast chapters were strong and engaging and I almost wished it was told entirely in that way. Sadie's POV sections felt flat in comparison. Although I gave the book 3 stars, I would still recommend it. Just wasn't quite in the mood for a very depressing read.

Review posted on Goodreads and Amazon

This was one of my most anticipated books of 2018 and it didn't disappoint me. First thing that made the book much more interesting is the radio sections. It felt much more realistic. The story captured me immediatelly without really trying hard and i can for sure tell that i will read all the books that she will publish. She has an amazing writing style, which makes thr whole story just fly by. I hope to read all the new books that she will write.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book and chose to review it. This in no way impacts my opinion.

"It'll h-heal f-fine."

"It'll heal ugly."

But most things do.

This was such a unique book, especially with its writing style. I love Courtney Summer's writing style and believe she is one of the most creative authors in the game. Having this set up as a podcast with different perspectives from Sadie was a stylistic choice that wouldn't have worked if it was anyone but Courtney Summers writing it.

I loved seeing how Sadie made connections and went along with her vengeance. I would have liked a bit more at the beginning or in the middle to show how she determined how she knew the answer to the problem because it did seem like she just knew without actually showing us. But I loved watching Sadie figure it out and have West follow in her footsteps. I think it was such a good choice to make.

And West was incredible too. I liked seeing how he didn't necessarily want to write or follow this story but he knew it was important. He also realized it became more important as he went along, which was how I also felt. It was just such a good way to bring the reader into the story and get them to buy into the story.

I really liked the writing style and narrative to this one. I like when books are written in transcripts! But I felt a little underwhelmed at times. I thought there could have been more to some of the interactions than what we got. But overall it is something unique and different! If you’ve liked Courtney Summers previous works, you’ll enjoy this as well.

So, I think this is an extremely creatively written story, going back and forth between Sadie's POV and the podcast. I loved the writing style. But, seeing as it a thriller, there was nothing exceptionally thrilling about the storyline. I mean, I was invested well enough in the story and characters, but nothing really happened that had me sitting at the edge of my seat for much of the time. At first, I was a little frustrated with the ending, but now I do think it works for the story. I really did like it overall, and I do keep thinking about it weeks after I finished. I just think that part of my problem is I just didn't get what I was expecting.

Sadie's sister Mattie was murdered and Sadie sets out to avenge her death. This is a harrowing and powerful story of a broken, grieving girl seeking vengeance for her sister. A reporter catches wind of the story while visiting a local gas station and becomes hesitantly compelled to find her. Wes McCray starts a podcast retracing Sadie's steps but is always a few steps behind. Will they find Sadie or will she be 'just another dead girl?' Riveting until the end. Haunting. I couldn't put it down. I appreciated listening to the podcast when getting to each episode in the book and was disappointed that they didn't carry it through the book's entirety.

This story was brilliantly written! It left you wondering....but amazing sad and heart felt!!! I have personally never lost anyone like that, but if i did I would go through all the great lengths and measures that sadie did!

This book was on my best of 2018 list. I very much liked how well the alternating timelines were handled, the voice was excellent, and it was incredibly gripping.
Reviewed in full in this video: http://www.thebookrat.com/2018/09/three-recent-book-loves-sadie-dance-of.html

This book is incredible. It is quite powerful and will make a great addition to classrooms. I will be adopting it for my college-level course of preservice teachers in the Fall.

Loved this novel, kept me on my toes and definitely pulled me in right from the start. I don’t know what I would do if my sister went missing. Probably anything that I could like this story follows.

So I really don't know who was who but this audio was like going to the theater! I've never listened to anything like this before and I've listened to several hundred audiobooks. It was amazingly creative! I loved how you could hear the background during the podcast interviews... hearing the cafe noises or hearing people inhale and exhale while smoking.

As far as the storyline, this was a great one. It was interesting and a bit vague but ultra interesting! I do wish I had some definite answers to the story but not knowing everything makes it seem real.

Sadie was a dark, sad, and inspiring book at once. The characters' motivations are divulged over the book through Sadie's story as well as the podcast. The reveals are careful and loaded, and it was a great read.

Generally I enjoy Courtney Summers books but this one left me bored. The podcast component annoyed me more than anything and I disliked it being part of the story. I understand that a lot of readers would enjoy this part but I'm not a huge podcast person myself, I actually only listen to them when my husband puts them on and usually feel pretty meh about them. Also, this was meant to be a thriller of sorts I suppose, but it felt very classic YA to me rather than having any actual edge/thrilling aspect to it. Ultimately I was bored and did not terribly care about the MC or the story.

....................................................................................................

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

I must warn you that if you have a heart at all…then this book will absolutely slay you. Seriously, like no coming back from it, can’t sleep or eat until you have finished it, even after you have finished it-it is still with you slay you. REMEMBER…You have all been warned.

This book was horrifically heart shattering. The story is told in two different POV’s. Sadie is a nineteen year old whose little sister was murdered. She has a horrible stutter which she feels completely self conscious about. And she is looking for Mattie’s murderer and will literally stop at nothing to find him. The second POV is West McCray. He is a reporter for the podcast “The Girls” and was hired by Sadie’s caregiver to track down Sadie and try to piece together what had happened to Mattie.

I enjoyed the way Ms. Summers set up the book. We have Sadie giving us a background on their family while setting up to leave to find her sister’s killer. And West’s POV told kind of like we are listening to it on a tape being played back to us via an interview style.

"In our last episode, I introduced you to the two girls at the center of this podcast, Mattie Southern and Sadie Hunter. Mattie was murdered, her body left just outside her hometown of Cold Creek, Colorado. Sadie is missing, her car found, abandoned, thousands of miles away, with all her personal belongings still inside it. The girls’ surrogate grandmother, May Beth Foster, has enlisted my help in finding Sadie and bringing her home."

For those of you just tuning in, this is a serialized podcast, so if you haven’t listened to our first episode, you should do that now. We have more story than time to tell it – but I suppose that’s true for all of us.

Sadie’s life has been tough. Her Mom is an addict whom comes and goes. Sadie is left to raise her little sister whom she adores. The love that you can feel while reading for her sister is that of a mother and child. Sadie would walk through fire for Mattie and it is really a beautiful relationship. You would think that the book would be completely plot driven but it was absolutely character driven. These characters made the story and we meet a lot more along the way with Sadie’s Travels.

Imagine having to live every day knowing the person who killed your sister is breathing the air she can’t, filling his lungs with it, tasting its sweetness. Imagine him knowing the steady weight of the earth under his feet while her body is buried six feet below it.

The ending left me wanting so much more! I have never read a book like this and it really blew me away. I enjoyed it but it was also so exhausting. I had to get to the end. The writing was beautiful and I was able to capture the entire story. This one left me haunted and actually dreaming about it that night.

Thank you to the publisher for the review copy in exchange of an honest review.