REVIEW: Sadie by Courtney Summers

OUR REVIEW:

I knew when I saw that Courtney Summers was working on Sadie that I'd have to have it. I knew I'd read it and that it would meld itself to me, just like All the Rage did. I was right. From the first page I was hooked--the interesting set up of the podcast giving us the background that sometimes Sadie's narrative couldn't (just as her narrative sometimes gave us the narrative the podcast couldn't) + the bone deep melancholy, grief, and madness that seems to live in Sadie = my whole weekend living in the world that Courtney Summers created. I couldn't get enough and I had to know what happened so I stayed up late, woke up early, and read until I finished it. ...or did it finish me? Gahhhh the ending. I can't decide how I want it to play out beyond the last word. Am I realist or am I a hope-filled dreamer? What does Courtney Summers envision? I wish I knew.

Anyway.

I love that the publisher created The Girls as a companion to Sadie. I haven't listened to it yet but I'm intrigued by what I'm missing --or is it just the episodes as they were in the novel? I don't know. It's on my list of things to do.

What I do know is that while I couldn't live in the gritty, sad, angry space that Summers's characters find themselves in, I recognize that I'm lucky that I haven't had to and I hate that anyone ever has or would have to live there. And as much as I hate that those spaces exist, I love that she's written about them, made me feel so much and think really hard about how being a woman in the world isn't a singular experience. That there are things that unite us all and things that many of us don't know about.

Courtney Summers's novels make me feel angry and empowered and I want everyone I know to read them so that they see what I've seen, feel what I've felt, and wants to change the world like her characters inspire me to want to do.

Buy it on AMAZON.

Synopsis:

A New York Times bestseller! 

4 Starred Reviews from Kirkus, School Library Journal, Booklist, Publishers Weekly!

"Sadie: a novel for readers of any age, and a character as indelible as a scar. Flat-out dazzling." —A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

"Sadie is an electrifying, high-stakes road trip. Clear your schedule. You're not going anywhere until you've reached the end." —Stephanie Perkins, New York Times bestselling author of There's Someone Inside Your House and Anna and the French Kiss 

"A haunting, gut-wrenching, and relentlessly compelling read." —Veronica Roth, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Carve the Mark and the Divergent series

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.