Sadie

This book was very poignant and well-done. I also really enjoyed listening to it as an audiobook and think the story is better that way.

This story is gripping, although I couldn't rush through it due to the subject matter. It reminded me of The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis.

Switching between The Girls podcast and Sadie's firsthand account is really clever. The reader has access to Sadie's personal experiences and memories, but her motives and backstory are not laid out because she's repressed a lot. Then you have episodes of the serial true crime podcast, where West is always at least one step behind Sadie. That being said, the podcast establishes connections and context through research and interviews.
The combination allows you to read certain chapters as Sadie herself, and other chapters as listeners of a podcast trying to figure out what happened to her. The narrative structure compliments points made about romanticization and/or dismissal of trauma, using a salient method of contemporary storytelling: podcasts.

At its core, this is a book about pain—whose pain is deemed par for the course, how we deal with pain when it becomes unbearable, how some of the ways we pretend to understand the pain others feel can dehumanize them and center our own discomfort.

Sadie is a suspenseful book with a dynamic protagonist who you feel for and root for even as her malicious intentions become more and more clear.

I've never understood the appeal of true crime pods–now I know. I really loved this. The audiobook is definitely the way to go, though–highly recommended. The narrators did an amazing job.

I really enjoyed the style of this book, with Sadie's perspective contrasted with the narrator of a podcast show investigating her disappearance. The audiobook reminds me of Illuminae, in that the fantastic narrators give it the feel of a radio play. You can feel the struggle as Sadie fights to get words out, even as her mental narrative slides smoothly along, it is beautifully acted. Sadie is a wonderfully complicated character, she feels broken and young, and all of her decisions seems kind of crazy but in a really honest way. She doesn't shy away from hurting herself in her pain and rage, blinded by her single minded focus. With nothing left to lose, why shouldn't she put everything into hunting down her little sister's murderer?

Also enjoyed this interview with the author https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/macmillan/the-girls-find-sadie/e/56218100

oof

This review can also be found on my blog.

cw: pedophilia, CSA, abuse, drug addiction
disclaimer: I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for review consideration. All of the opinions presented below are my own.

Every little thing about you can be a weapon, if you're clever enough.

It seems like nearly everyone has been talking about Sadie lately. Intriguingly, pieces of it felt like they tied pretty closely to The Female of the Species, which I read directly beforehand. The formatting is what was most interesting about it. Half of the book is a podcast – where I'd imagine the audiobook version would have come in very handy – and the other half is from Sadie's perspective directly. In this way, things that we could never necessarily know from one perspective are revealed to us through the other. While this method could be flawed in the wrong hands, Courtney Summers is able to carefully craft a chilling masterpiece, slowly (but not too slowly) revealing the full story to her readers.

content warning: sexual abuse, paedophilia, murder, violence, drug addiction

wow this was a tough tough read, and one with a somewhat open ended conclusion, but it's a story that i honestly absolutely loved.

i loved that sadie would've done absolutely anything for mattie. i loved that sadie might be out there taking down sexual predators and saving countless kids.

the format was also super interesting as well but i wasn't overly sold on it.

I voluntarily read and reviewed and ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

When I first began reading this book, I wasn't sure how to take it. It has an intense feel and most of the chapters are told like a podcast script. Once, I was able to ‘hear' the podcast feel of it I ended up really liking that part and then Sadie's part was just so intense... Make no mistake this is a gritty book and sometimes hard to read.
It is also really hard to put this down, let me warn you.

I'm still blown away by how much I really enjoyed this book. I was taking in every word, worried about Sadie and what was to become of her. Her chapters are really well done in getting you to connect with her – or at least root for her. Also, it is mentioned briefly that she isn't straight... I think she is bi. She also has a stutter.

The podcast chapters make connecting to the characters a different challenge, but those chapters blew so fast for me. So, the only character really we connect with is Sadie– no one else is really fleshed out except for Mattie, but I mean... she's dead. This isn't to say the other characters don't all feel distinct because they do. I could practically hear them in their own distinct voices.

There is so much more I want to say, but I'm worried I will be spoiling the book. I have so many feelings about the ending– SO MANY. I totally want to have a discussion about it.

So, let me end here and say if you like crime podcasts, girls out for revenge, and gritty reads you should check this out. If you liked Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis I also think you should read this one.

oh shit this book was too goddamn good and I stayed up too late to finish it

The structure is so smart, and it's such a good hook to have this partly-written in the format of a true crime Serial-style podcast. and: I don't even especially like true crime stories (though yeah duh I listened to Serial).

The voice here is haunting, I will never forget Sadie.