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4.1 AVERAGE
4.1 AVERAGE
Wow.
Courtney Summers has written a powerful punch of a book. It’s painful and raw and real, and it should take the world by storm when it releases in September.
The first thing I want to comment on is Summers portrayal of Sadie’s stutter. It’s always there, and it’s acknowledged often without becoming her most important character aspect. Reading this, I realized I’d never read a novel where the protagonist has a stutter- but I think that this was done perfectly.
And oh, Sadie. She hurts and her hurt kills me. I want nothing more than to protect her. What she’s been put through is something no one should ever be put through- and yet children are put through this, every day.
The juxtaposition between Sadie’s incredibly emotional POV and the detached POV of the podcast telling Sadie’s story works really well. It makes you really /feel/ the urgency.
I really don’t want to get into the details of this book too much as I think it’s better to go into this a little blind. Be aware that this book deals with horrific topics, but also be aware that Summers handles them in the best way possible.
Read this book. It hurts. It made me feel sick and horrified. But it’s powerful and well-done and important, so read it anyway.
TWs: drug abuse, pedophilia, sexual abuse.
A big thanks to Wednesday Books/St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an ARC of Sadie in exchange for an honest review.
Courtney Summers has written a powerful punch of a book. It’s painful and raw and real, and it should take the world by storm when it releases in September.
The first thing I want to comment on is Summers portrayal of Sadie’s stutter. It’s always there, and it’s acknowledged often without becoming her most important character aspect. Reading this, I realized I’d never read a novel where the protagonist has a stutter- but I think that this was done perfectly.
And oh, Sadie. She hurts and her hurt kills me. I want nothing more than to protect her. What she’s been put through is something no one should ever be put through- and yet children are put through this, every day.
The juxtaposition between Sadie’s incredibly emotional POV and the detached POV of the podcast telling Sadie’s story works really well. It makes you really /feel/ the urgency.
I really don’t want to get into the details of this book too much as I think it’s better to go into this a little blind. Be aware that this book deals with horrific topics, but also be aware that Summers handles them in the best way possible.
Read this book. It hurts. It made me feel sick and horrified. But it’s powerful and well-done and important, so read it anyway.
TWs: drug abuse, pedophilia, sexual abuse.
A big thanks to Wednesday Books/St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an ARC of Sadie in exchange for an honest review.
Loved the format for this, the audiobook really made the podcast sections come to life in contrast from Sadie’s narration. However, I definitely feel this was more of a contemporary than a thriller. There wasn’t really many twists or turns to this story, i felt like a lot of the time you would learn things from Sadie’s narrative and then be expected to be shocked when this was revealed in the podcast. This was a beautifully sad story but not as good as I was hoping.
It. Destroyed. Me.
That's the TL;DR version of my review. The long version starts with me finding the premise interesting, but the start of the book boring. "I don't think I will finish this soon" was my line of thinking, so I read the first ~60 pages in 2 days and then I just binged the rest in the 3rd day.
What had happened? One moment I couldn't relate to the main character and the next, it was like peeling away all those layers that made her and her story and revealing some deep hidden parts that are really hard to talk about. The premise starts with a simple enough "revenge story" of a young woman who wants to avenge her younger sister's death and it seems simple at first, a semi-adventure as she tries to find the murderer, while people are looking for her. However, it is so much more than that, exploring heavy themes such as abuse of various kinds, family estrangement, crimes, etc. and all through that, a 19-year-old woman who fights her way through to get what she wants.
There are 2 timelines; one is Sadie's point of view and the other is the search about her few months later. With every passing chapter of either side, there is a new side explored and while it is slow at first setting the stage and the characters on it, it becomes like a torrent of emotions and information the more you read until you cannot stop until you reach the end. Sadie's character gets richer and more painful simultaneously as her pain and desperation become yours. The 2 timelines complement each other perfectly, because Sadie is the 1st person POV, while the "search" is the 3rd person POV that we needed and it is done in a way that seems effortless as the 3rd POV is dialogue-heavy.
By the end of the book, I was bawling like a baby for a while hoping I could have done something to fix everything; the events that unfolded, the misunderstandings, the broken relationships, the hurt... everything. The ending was deceptively open, but in the end it may not even matter as the messages this story had to give were forcibly thrown at your face throughout this experience and you couldn't avoid them even if you wanted to.
That's the TL;DR version of my review. The long version starts with me finding the premise interesting, but the start of the book boring. "I don't think I will finish this soon" was my line of thinking, so I read the first ~60 pages in 2 days and then I just binged the rest in the 3rd day.
What had happened? One moment I couldn't relate to the main character and the next, it was like peeling away all those layers that made her and her story and revealing some deep hidden parts that are really hard to talk about. The premise starts with a simple enough "revenge story" of a young woman who wants to avenge her younger sister's death and it seems simple at first, a semi-adventure as she tries to find the murderer, while people are looking for her. However, it is so much more than that, exploring heavy themes such as abuse of various kinds, family estrangement, crimes, etc. and all through that, a 19-year-old woman who fights her way through to get what she wants.
There are 2 timelines; one is Sadie's point of view and the other is the search about her few months later. With every passing chapter of either side, there is a new side explored and while it is slow at first setting the stage and the characters on it, it becomes like a torrent of emotions and information the more you read until you cannot stop until you reach the end. Sadie's character gets richer and more painful simultaneously as her pain and desperation become yours. The 2 timelines complement each other perfectly, because Sadie is the 1st person POV, while the "search" is the 3rd person POV that we needed and it is done in a way that seems effortless as the 3rd POV is dialogue-heavy.
By the end of the book, I was bawling like a baby for a while hoping I could have done something to fix everything; the events that unfolded, the misunderstandings, the broken relationships, the hurt... everything. The ending was deceptively open, but in the end it may not even matter as the messages this story had to give were forcibly thrown at your face throughout this experience and you couldn't avoid them even if you wanted to.
This is the best audiobook I ever listened to. I think that it was also the first audiobook I ever listened with a full cast. The book feels like it's made to be listened to instead of to be read. It felt like I was reading a true crime podcast instead of a book which made the stakes feel way higher and while it's quite dark Courtney doesn't spell every bad thing that happens out for you. Highly recommend you to listen to this!
I would definitely skip this book... I think a lot of the reviews are based on the audiobook (which was done so well) but I could barely finish it because the characters are awful and the mystery plot is done horribly.
Sadie's story was brutal and heartbreaking to listen to. There are a lot of trigger warnings and the content is hard to read, but it’s an important story to tell. The ending is bittersweet and I really hoped that we'd find out what really happened to Sadie, but I get why Summers left it as an open ending. Still breaks my heart though
I’ve heard that this is a fantastic story and also a fantastic audiobook, and I agree.
Firstly, this book has a unique structure. There is one timeline following a girl Sadie, from her point of view. She has run away and the story is about her journey, and the audiobook is the standard style of audiobook format. The other half is about a journalist who is trying to find Sadie. His part isn’t told in the traditional narrative style. Instead it’s told as interviews with people he comes across in the investigation, and also him telling the story of his investigation in the format of podcast episodes which feels like a Sixty Minutes episode. It’s the journalists part that is really interesting to listen to. The writing does away with “he said”, “she said” and instead is plain dialogue, like a play. Instead of the narrator giving a voice for each person, they actually have a different people speaking each persons parts! The editing is amazing. If that wasn’t good enough, there are ambient sounds! For example, if two people are walking and talking outside, you hear footsteps and birds tweeting!
The unique production of the audiobook really gives a very visceral mood. It makes it feel like true crime, or a documentary about a real crime. It’s like the characters are actually real and we’re listening to real interviews. But it’s not just the unique production that gives a mood. It’s the actual content. It’s very dark. Not graphic like adult content is. But the subject matter if very confronting. Instead of giving specific details, it tells the story of the before and after and the impact on victims. In a way, that’s worse than being explicit. By worse, I mean it leaves a feeling. Not a pleasant one. This book isn’t a thriller. It isn’t even really a mystery. It’s more a frank contemporary and a narrative on the dark side of society. It’s completely unique for a YA book, but an incredibly important one and I’m glad it’s being sold instead of pretending the dark side of humanity doesn’t exist.
If you aren’t scared of dark subject matter, I would highly recommend this book as the content is thought provoking and would also highly recommend listening to it on audio just to appreciate the production quality. I hope this is a standard we can expect moving forward, not just for audiobooks, but for YA literature in general.
Firstly, this book has a unique structure. There is one timeline following a girl Sadie, from her point of view. She has run away and the story is about her journey, and the audiobook is the standard style of audiobook format. The other half is about a journalist who is trying to find Sadie. His part isn’t told in the traditional narrative style. Instead it’s told as interviews with people he comes across in the investigation, and also him telling the story of his investigation in the format of podcast episodes which feels like a Sixty Minutes episode. It’s the journalists part that is really interesting to listen to. The writing does away with “he said”, “she said” and instead is plain dialogue, like a play. Instead of the narrator giving a voice for each person, they actually have a different people speaking each persons parts! The editing is amazing. If that wasn’t good enough, there are ambient sounds! For example, if two people are walking and talking outside, you hear footsteps and birds tweeting!
The unique production of the audiobook really gives a very visceral mood. It makes it feel like true crime, or a documentary about a real crime. It’s like the characters are actually real and we’re listening to real interviews. But it’s not just the unique production that gives a mood. It’s the actual content. It’s very dark. Not graphic like adult content is. But the subject matter if very confronting. Instead of giving specific details, it tells the story of the before and after and the impact on victims. In a way, that’s worse than being explicit. By worse, I mean it leaves a feeling. Not a pleasant one. This book isn’t a thriller. It isn’t even really a mystery. It’s more a frank contemporary and a narrative on the dark side of society. It’s completely unique for a YA book, but an incredibly important one and I’m glad it’s being sold instead of pretending the dark side of humanity doesn’t exist.
If you aren’t scared of dark subject matter, I would highly recommend this book as the content is thought provoking and would also highly recommend listening to it on audio just to appreciate the production quality. I hope this is a standard we can expect moving forward, not just for audiobooks, but for YA literature in general.
Such a sad story, but such a necessary one. The audiobook was outstanding.
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes