Actual Rating: 3.5 Stars

I don't think I would actively recommend this novel, which is why I didn't round up to 4 stars.

Trigger Warnings: Child Sexual Abuse & Neglect

Okay.

So this novel was somewhat of a heavy read for me. At age 16, Sadie's younger sister, Mattie, gets murdered by a child predator - the same child predator that hunted on Sadie. With Mattie's death, Sadie somehow puts the pieces together and decides to get revenge. The only thing is, Sadie has now been declared missing. The novel is separated into two parts: a podcast in present time trying to follow Sadie's possible steps and Sadie's past point of view.

Before I go on a rant about the things I hated, let me talk about the few things I enjoyed, or rather, felt were accurately represented.

The Pros

1. Sadie has a speech impediment that is described exceptionally well and is consistent throughout the novel. Even better, it's not the sole label to her character. Sadie's stutter provided insight into how some of her character traits were developed. Moreover, responses to her impediment by supporting characters also facilitated in showing how ignorant people are of this disability.

2. This next point is going to drive me insane because I fucking hate that it's true but I still absolutely loath it.

The fact that so many adults knew or suspected that Keith/Darren/Christopher/Jack was a child predator and did nothing to report him because he was only ever a decent person to them. I hate this, I hate this so much but I work in the field with children with trauma-focused behaviors and I hear this shit all the fucking time. There are so many adults who don't report suspicions because they either 1. don't want to get involved with police drama or 2. feel guilty reporting a person who has only ever been nice to them and I CAN'T STAND THAT THIS IS THE WORLD WE LIVE IN BUT IT'S TRUE.

So although I fucking hate that this happened in the book, I respect it because this is the accurate, gritty realty of the world I work in.

*Sigh*

The Cons

1. The writing was a bit awkward. Sadie would sometimes experience flashbacks and the transitions just weren't very good tbh. I often had to go back and make sure I didn't accidentally miss a paragraph or something. Additionally, big reveals (i.e. the arrest of one of the child predators) were often presented as an afterthought. I just didn't understand why this information was given to us in the podcast segments, rather than in Sadie's? It was weird.

2. Stylistic Choices - I didn't care for the podcast sections for the first 50% of this novel. They just served to summarized what we had already gather from Sadie's POV, like... why? Toward the end of the novel the podcast started to pick up but I think that's only because Summers left us hanging with Sadie's point of view - which leads me up to my next point:

3. Cliffhanger. I don't like them. This story has a huge one with a solidly defining tone of finality; meaning we won't ever know what happens because that's just how life is! #YOLO

4. Plot holes - ****SPOILERS AHEAD***** It's never explained how Sadie knew Keith/Darren/Christopher/Jack was the one who murdered Mattie. Sadie seems to just jump to that conclusion on her own and follow her gut instinct when this guy hasn't even been around for <i>years</i> and has been described in the book as having moved on with life and sexually abusing other girls like the scumbag he is. How did Mattie know to contact him? Why did he come back for her when the families he has invaded tend to never hear from him again? Why kill Mattie in such a brutal and public matter when everything about his character yells out discretion (the million fake IDs and low profile)? It just didn't make sense to me. Like, yes I want him deader than dead but please tell me why you came to that conclusion about the murder. Did I miss something? I don't think so. I think it may have just been lazy writing.

That's it!

Maybe I'm too analytical of a reader but I can't help but be disappointed when stories have a great premise but are executed poorly. Sadie had so much potential to be a book that tackled a heavy topic well, but remained kinda... meh. I'm glad I read it, but I know for a fact that I'll never reread it.

**Thank you NetGalley for sending me an arc of this novel! Definitely an interesting read.*

I knew this book was going to ruin me before I even read the first page. I could tell from the synopsis. Then I saw the format of the story and knew it was going to kill me dead with feelings. I was not wrong. I don't even know how much I want to say in this review because I want everyone to read this book and have the suspense and the thrill that I had while reading it. But before I accidentally give something away, let's get to the review!

Synopsis (from Goodreads):
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.

Let's get into the format of the book first. I about died when I realized the book is split up into chapters that are written like a podcast transcript and chapters that are written from Sadie's point of view. I love a good podcast and when Serial first started, I listened to each episode the day they came out. When I started reading the first page and realized it was written like a podcast, I almost fell off the couch with excitement. West McCray is the host of the podcast, The Girls, and originally, doesn't really want this story when his boss gives it to him. But slowly, he starts to see that this is a story that needs to be told. He ends up going to Sadie's hometown of Cold Creek, Colorado where he visits Sadie and Mattie's aunt so he can start to understand what Mattie and Sadie's lives were like and what happened to them. He is a great narrator and lets the story of Sadie come through the people who lived with her and the ones she meets along her journey. His last lines are truly heart-wrenching.

Sadie's point of view is just as brilliant. Sadie is such a strong main character but not in the way most people talk about strong characters. She cries, feels thing intensely, and is scared at times but fights through her fear to try and find the man that killed her sister. She also does her fair share of fighting. And for someone with no investigative/detective experience, she does an amazing job finding clues, asking questions, and figuring out the answers she needs to get to the next step in her journey. I fell in love with Sadie and her story (told through the podcast and in her own words) and became completely invested in whether she succeeded or not (like I said: LOTS OF FEELINGS!).

Courtney Summers did a brilliant job with this book. Her writing is so good I could cry. The podcast/Sadie POV mix, the semi-cliffhanger-y ending, the slow but satisfying way the facts of Sadie and her sister's lives are revealed makes for a compelling, thrilling, and emotional read. If you can't tell from all the praise, I am giving Sadie 5 out of 5 stars. The book doesn't come out until September but you need to get this one on your TBR lists right now!

Sadie by Courtney Summers comes out September 4, 2018.

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Wednesday Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Absolute gem of a book. The story didnt have any lulls and is told in two cool varying viewpoints that fill in banks as you go. Love the ending, too. A great read from start to finish that combines Sadie's character development with a suspenseful tale. Thanks NetGalley! #netgalley #sadie

***ARC received for an honest review****

I adore Courtney Summers. And I’m sure you could hear my screams of delight from your house when I was approved for this ARC. I waited a little while before diving into it bc I knew that it would be dark. Ha. I had no idea.

<b>”I live in a place that’s only good for leaving, is all that needs to be said about it, and I don’t let myself look back.”</b>

There are a million triggers in this thing. The only way it’s manageable is the unique storytelling - which gives us another perspective and just enough distance so we’re not smothered.

Sadie’s sister is killed. And Sadie goes looking for the man who did it. Months later an radio producer creates a show where he goes looking for Sadie - bc now she’s missing.

<b>”A body might not always be beautiful, but a body can be a beautiful deception. I’m stronger than I look.”</b>

Short, tight and painful - it was everything I’ve expected from Summers. Right up through that ending. My heart hurts. And I’m glad i read this one when it was daylight. Courtney Summers remains a must-read. This book is another weapon in her arsenal of brilliant destruction.

<b>”But here’s the thing I tell myself to dull the sharp edges of everything that’s surely left to come: The worst has already happened.”</b>

<a href="http://www.alleskelle.com/"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1471716947r/20097901.jpg?v=1471716951482"width="400"></a>

So, so good. This one checks all my boxes. Fans of true crime podcasts will not want to miss this one. Summers has crafted a top-notch mystery/thriller that will keep readers turning the pages late into the night. Highly recommended.

This was a story about a girl on mission of vengeance. Sadie is out to find the man who stole her innocence and murdered her sister. In alternating chapters the host of a podcast is trying to follow Sadie's journey based on the clues she leaves behind. The story moves along quickly, however, the ending is a bit disappointing. I also think this would be a much better audio book than reading it. I think the podcast portions would come across better hearing them than reading it on paper or e-reader. Summers writing style and view on gender elevates this book to four stars for me.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

Summers writing style is just so, so good. The two narratives in this book were done perfectly. I was initially a little turned off by the idea of a book written in a podcast style, but the way she did it was wonderful. There are a lot of hard subjects covered in this book, but as usual the way Summer's writes about them makes it great. While you may think the story is about hate or revenge it really is about a sister's love. I could go on for days about how great this book was but really just read it, no review can do it justice.

First of all, thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for sending me an advanced reader copy! This is my first ARC from NetGalley and I am so honored that it is Courtney Summers upcoming novel.

I picked up my first Courtney Summers book in 2008 when I was fifteen. Unbeknownst to me it was her debut, Cracked Up to Be, and I will admit the beautiful cover is what drew me in. Needless to say, I fell in love with Summers raw storytelling and beautiful use of words. I have followed her publications throughout the years and have loved every single one. Sadie is definitely not an exception. I think this is her best work yet!

Summers is not shy to genre bend as she did with her release of a zombie thriller, This is Not a Test, in 2012. I will argue she has done it again as Sadie is like nothing she has written before. While the overall voice and dark tones are classic Summers, the formatting and pacing is a new and well executed take on contemporary young adult fiction. The shifting point of view and the podcast formatting is definitely a unique way to tell a story and I am glad Summers chose to tell Sadie’s story this way.

I have never read a book where the narrator has a speech impediment and before reading Sadie I could not guess how a stutter would translate on the page. Summers managed to successfully write a character with a speech impediment and creatively used dialogue to express it. I could not imagine Sadie without her difficulty forming words and expressing herself. As a reader you can feel her frustration as she attempts to communicate throughout this dangerous mission she is on.

I have seen other reviewers compare Sadie as a combination of Are You Sleeping by Kathleen Barber and The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis which is a very accurate comparison. However, I believe that compared to Are You Sleeping, the podcast formatting in Sadie was easier to navigate and worked really well with the pacing of the story.

This story leaves the reader with some questions answered and some new questions barely formed before the final lines are read. The ending is slightly open ended and up to interpretation. This normally drives me crazy, but with this story it works perfectly as it is gritty and extremely realistic.

You don’t finish Sadie after the last page. This book sits with you. It kept me up until almost three in the morning after I finished reading trying to process it. I still cannot stop thinking about it. It was a beautiful read from one of my all time favorite Y.A. authors and I highly recommend you pick up a copy.

Sadie will be released on September 4, 2018 by Wednesday Books.

Absolutely amazing. I love a story about sisters and the tragic nathrenof this one really hit me hard. I’ve been thinking about the ending ever since I finished.

One girl dead, another missing. Who gets to tell their story? Told in alternating chapters between Sadie’s narration and the true crime podcast investigating her disappearance, Sadie weaves a high stakes story of murder and revenge with an examination of violence against women and girls, and how and when society lets their stories be told. Sadie will have you holding your breath until the last page, and thinking about it for weeks afterward.

I’ve been a Courtney Summers superfan since Some Girls Are, and I think this is her best yet. I have this weird sense of English-teachery pride for how much she’s grown over the past (almost) decade. Yes, I know that I had absolutely nothing to do with her books getting steadily better, but it’s been a real pleasure to sit here on the sidelines and root her on while rabidly reading them all. Her books have always been brutally honest, tightly written, and engrossing, but this one transcends the rest. It’s that rare mix of writing so beautiful and true that it’s painful AND perfect pacing AND a compelling plot AND a thought-provoking theme. And not only does it have ALL of that – this one is formatted in a way that I’ve honestly never seen before.

The story unfolds through a mix of podcast transcripts from “The Girls” (a true-crime investigation type show a la “Serial”) and first person narration from Sadie, a teenage girl on a mission to find the man who hurt her sister, Mattie. At a very young age, Sadie took over almost complete responsibility for Mattie from their drug-addicted mother – a responsibility that she never saw as a burden. Rather, Mattie was Sadie’s entire world. Sadie took on the role of caregiver, disciplinarian, and even scapegoat – whatever Mattie needed her to be. When Mattie was murdered in a field outside their small trailer and the case went cold soon after, Sadie lost all direction in life except one: the trail left by her sister’s killer. She becomes so devoted to this goal that she foregoes food, sleep, and personal safety as she ricochets from place to place, single-mindedly tracking the killer’s movements.

Meanwhile, Sadie and Mattie’s story attracts the attention of West McCray, an NPR-ish radio host who begins following simple leads in the case and can’t seem to stop. We as readers get to essentially become omniscient spectators as we see Sadie ruthlessly track her prey and hear West follow…always too slow and many steps behind.

This mode of storytelling really brought home the futility of West’s search for me – although Sadie’s chapters kept me on the edge of my seat, always hoping that she would come through unscathed, I knew that there would be no happy ending for her. Indeed, upon coming to the final pages of this book, I purposely slowed down because I thought irrationally that maybe, somehow, if I slowed down then someone would get to Sadie in time and help her. I think that I jabbed my kindle at least three times trying to get to another page before I realized that the story was just…over.

What reverberates the most in this book are the stifled howls of girls who are in desperate situations but who know that no one is coming to save them. Courtney Summers paints a bleak but realistic picture of the world here: a world that’s really just an elaborate and painful obstacle course of trauma for girls. There comes a time when all of it is simply too much to carry.

This book is an excellent recommendation for someone who enjoyed The Female of the Species or Allegedly or even One of Us is Lying, and I can’t wait to book-talk the heck out of it in the library next year. My students are clamoring for twisty mysteries, and I think that this has the potential to be a real commercial success for Courtney Summers.

I absolutely loved this book. The storyline and characters were fantastic, and it was mysterious right until the end. The cover art is so eye-catching as well. I will be adding a copy to my classroom and to several of my literature circles units, as it will fit with several themes relevant to teens.

I love Courtney Summers. I’ve enjoyed the majority of her books but this one took me by surprise. I was hooked from the first page and the podcast format was tons of fun. this gave me “The Female of the Species” vibe, which I LOVED.

I’m a giant fan of Courtney Summers’ novels, so I was so excited when I was approved for an ARC of her latest. And it held up to my already high expectations!

Sadie is a mystery YA novel, presented both as a podcast investigating the crime, and alternating chapters in Sadie’s voice. Sadie is nineteen years old, reported missing by her surrogate grandmother. Months earlier, her younger sister had been murdered, a crime that has gone unsolved. Their grandmother begs the podcast creator to find out what happened to Sadie, to bring her back safely.

This was a harrowing read, but of course that’s to be expected with Summers’ novels. There are lots of triggers (sexual abuse among them), so this might not be the novel for everyone. But it’s a taut, mesmerizing book that follows Sadie as she tries to avenge her sister’s death, and the podcast’s valiant efforts to retrace her journey. The characters are fully realized, down to the girls’ addict mother and the people Sadie come into contact with along the way. Really, I can’t think of anything I would want to change.

The scariest thing is that these things happen to girls in real life EVERY day.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

I definitely was not prepared for this book and all the darkness. I went into it thinking that it would be an easy breeze - oh, I was so wrong. My heart was ripped out of my chest and stomped on repeatedly. I may never recover.
Sadie is a book which will live with me forever. It was that damn good.
I would like to now point out that this book has trigger warnings of Sexual Abuse and Paedophilia!

It's not possible for me to even begin to fault this book - so let me dive straight into the positives.

Sadie's little sister Maddie has been found dead after she tried to run away - she was only thirteen. Now Sadie, with belief that she knows who the killer is, sets on a dangerous path to bring down her sister's killer.

My heart went out to Sadie. The most important person in her life is now gone from the world. She feels as if there is nothing left for her - her mother has abandoned them both and doesn't know who her father is. Sadie comes from a small town where there's not much going - for anyone. She does the best that she can and even drops out of high-school, so can work full-time as to provide for Maddie.

Sadie has a real "f*ck you" attitude. Understandable considering everything she has been through. She's clever and people don't expect that from her because she has a stutter - they all assume she's "stupid".

She was a beautifully written character. We expect her to be broken, to give up but she always remains strong and determined, for her sister's sake.

I hated Sadie's mother. I had an overwhelming desired to slap the awful woman. She abandons her children, leaving them to fend for themselves and quite honestly only cares for herself. It made me so unbelievably furious.

I absolutely loved the way the story was told. Taking alternative turns the story is told from the POV of Sadie and in podcast form by West McCray. By doing this it opened the floor for a new perspective to the story, making it more interesting to read. I adored how the podcast chapters were written - it felt as if I was listening to West McCray.

The pace of the story was consistent throughout and there was never a time where I felt bored. In fact, I devoured this book as fast as I could. The story was so gripping that I was unable to put it down. I had to know what happened next.
I can only describe this wonderful book as a heartbreaking page-turner which will leave you staying up until the early hours of the morning. You must read this book.

Riveting. Summers has never been one to hold punches, but she's outdone herself in SADIE. Once you crack open this book, you won't be able to put it down until you've figured out what happened to Sadie.

I received a copy of SADIE on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the publisher and author.

Five stars and here's why:

I laughed. I cried. I wanted to throw my kindle app/phone against the wall more than once. Ms. Summers delivers a gut punch of a story. The author does a great job of sucking you right into the story with the conflict and soon you’re glued to the pages. Serious book hanger. I just loved it so much.

The book format takes some getting used to – it’s a transcript/podcast/Sadie POV. It’s a story about a girl’s love for her younger sister. Abandoned by their drug-addicted mom, Sadie raised her younger sister Mattie. She makes it her life mission to solve her sister’s murder. Sadie Hunter is out for blood. Her sister’s killer’s blood. And nothing is going to get in the way. Except for her own grief.

Prepare to start this story and not put it down until the very end. Highly recommend.

Sadie is missing. West is on a quest to find her, recording it all along the way as part of his Serial-type true crime podcast. The novel bounces between Sadie's story and the podcast, fleshing out her background and the people she meets on her way to find her sister's killer.

Sadie is a person obsessed with one desire: kill the man who killed her sister. Her story is fraught, filled with the horrors of a child overcoming the neglect and abandonment of a drug-addicted mother and the sexual abuse of her mother's boyfriend. She pours herself into mothering her baby sister, only to have her torn away from her too young. Sadie is a broken girl in all ways, from a broken family in a broken small town. There is no hope for Sadie. There is only guilt and blame and revenge as she sets out on this quest, thinking back on the love she had for her sister, the one bright spot in her broken world that has been snuffed out.

I really love that Courtney Summers takes on these terrifying topics, and for the most part does them well. Sadie is a story about abuse, true. But it's also a story about how gut-wrenching love often is--life-ending, paralyzing, all-encompassing. Losing her sister ended Sadie, not her single-minded attempt to find the killer, and it's this loss that really packs an emotional punch. As the mother of an eight-month-old daughter, I felt those punches acutely.

That said, there are weaknesses. The book drops plot threads in Sadie's story only to pick them up and tie them off well past the point of relevance for West's benefit. Then there's Sadie's rushed ending. The book gives preferential treatment to West's lingering questions about Sadie's whereabouts when West never feels more like a framing device to flesh out what Sadie is not capable of telling us herself. The story is Sadie's, not West's. And that the whole book is about this particularly driven girl, it feels like a disservice to her character to unceremoniously cut her short and then leave what happened to her to West, who will never truly know.

Overall, I am certain this is Summers's best novel to date.

I think my issues with this are more to do with how I dislike podcasts, so the format including transcripts of a "podcast" was difficult for me to get in to? I really enjoyed Sadie's sections though.

The ending also felt like it left me hanging a bit. It was fitting though so I can't really hold that against the book.

Being both a fan of true crime stories and Serial, I was naturally excited for this novel. Add to that the buzz it’s been receiving and you got me setting my expectations high, which is something I’m wary of because half the time I end up being disappointed in the book.

But Sadie more than held up.

Trigger warning: Pedophilia, child abuse, drug abuse

Sadie centers on 19-year old Sadie Hunter's quest to find her sister's killer and the subsequent search for her by radio personality West McCray.

Abandoned by their drug-addicted mother when she was sixteen, Sadie is left alone to fend for herself and raise her younger sister, Mattie. Sadie makes Mattie her purpose, taking every thing the young girl throws at her, so when Mattie is found dead, Sadie makes it her mission to hunt her sister's murderer.

I love this book! But let me warn you, Sadie is unapologetically dark and raw. Courtney Summers pulls no punches with this one, trust me.

Sadie will reel you in from its first word down to its last. It unfolds bit by bit, chapter after chapter, going back and forth between McCray's podcast transcripts from The Girls set five months after Sadie's disappearance and the titular main character's first-person perspective set immediately after she leaves her small town to begin her search.

It was the perfect way to tell the story.

It may be off-putting for some, but I cannot imagine having this particular story told another way. I loved reading both the podcast transcripts and Sadie's POV in equal measures. The alternating chapters, a modified before and after trade-off, flawlessly moved the narrative at the right pace, revealing enough of the story to keep readers guessing but not too much that it spoils the whole thing.

Another thing I loved is the writing. Courtney Summers is no stranger to writing hard topic books, just take All the Rage as an example. Summers’ writing is sharp and on point, and she created a realistic, complicated, very human protagonist in Sadie Hunter. I can't help feeling for her - sad at what she has been through and angry at what has been done to her. Then, there's West McCray - a reluctant character who becomes more and more invested as he gets to know Sadie through the eyes of the people who knew and loved and her. West's search for Sadie mirrors Sadie's search for her sister's murderer, and I think writing the these two characters' narrative this way will give readers a broader view of the story.

Still, Sadie's boundless love for Mattie is the heart of this story. Even though she starts out the determined to avenge her sister's death, the depth of Sadie's love, and the grief and the guilt she feels for her sister stands out.

Sadie will break you and make you care. It will keep you turning the page until you reach the end. Comparable to Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak and Louise O'Neill's Asking for It, Sadie will open up discussions about the realities of life that are hard to talk about. I definitely recommend this to everyone.