Sadie by Courtney Summers-- my heart is in tatters

Sadie

One girl is dead and another is missing.  Sadie's whole world was Mattie-- so when Mattie is found murdered, Sadie has nothing left but finding justice.  She leaves her small town in search of Mattie's killer and a few months later her car is found abandoned.  What happened to Sadie??

West McCray is a podcast producer who starts looking into what became of Sadie.  At first, he's not sure he wants to get involved-- but once he starts digging, he finds himself unable to stop thinking about The Girls.










To preface this review: I am Courtney Summers' #1 fan (she wrote it in my book-- it's now LAW😀).  I've been eagerly awaiting this book and it was everything I've been wanting and more.

The thing about Courtney Summers' books is that you will always get a complicated girl character.  She will be angry and unforgiving.  She will not be who you want her to be.  She will always be the girl that she is-- unapologetically.  This is something I PINE for when it comes to books.  I need characters that feel like real people and make me FEEL something (even if that feeling is frustration).

This book is told in 2 ways.  Most of the book is told from Sadie's perspective as she hunts down a man she believes in involved with her sister's murder.  She buys a car and travels hundreds of miles in her quest for vengeance-- and the journey is something so much more than what I originally thought.  It's fucking SHOCKING what she discovers along the way & turns this whole book into something way more than one girl's search for a killer.

The other part of the book is told through a podcast about Sadie-- it takes place after Sadie has already finished her quest and has gone missing.  It focused more on small-town America, how Sadie and Mattie grew up, and who Sadie was to the people who loved her.  I thought it added a unique element, although I definitely did prefer Sadie's parts.

Something I wasn't expecting: Sadie had a severe stutter.  I've never read a book where the main character had a stutter.  It sometimes made finding out information harder for her (because it was harder for her to communicate & some people felt they could treat her like shit because of it), but she was just like: OH WELL.  I just loved that it was another thing that made Sadie SADIE.  She is someone I will never forget & she might even haunt me for a while.

The ending of this book was pretty freaking perfect-- by my standards anyway.  Just to warn you, it's not all tied up in a bow and explained.  I love open endings when they come in books that shouldn't have everything answered.  This book is about topics that don't have good endings, that don't get explanations and happy endings.  This ending leaves you to make your own assumptions as to what happened & I totally have my theories.


OVERALL: Do you like Mystery? True Crime? Characters that will tear your emotions to shreds?  THIS is your book!!  The mystery of what happened to Sadie is so stark, captivating, and heart-breaking.  It's about things that are SO HARD to read about, but so worth it. Not recommended to people who can't deal with topics like: graphic violence & pedophilia.

Date Published: 9/4/2018
How I got this book: Thanks to Wednesday Books and ALA for providing me with an advanced copy to read and honestly review.
Publisher: Wednesday Books/St. Martin's Press

Add it to your To-Read List!!

My Rating: 5/5

Character: West McCray
Book: Courtney Summers entire library of work

• He seems like he's interested in society's view of violence against women-- I think reading all of Courtney Summers books would be a good place to start.