Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - Sadie

Wow. This was, really, really hard to read. I truly believe that it was beautifully written - and the mix between Sadie's POV and the podcast transcripts was brilliant. It deserves all of the hype it gets because it was absolutely gut-wrenching for me. The only reason this is getting just a little less than four stars is merely my overall personal enjoyment while reading - it took me forever to finish and I was never truly motivated to finish it until the last quarter of the book. That could have been my reading mood, however, because I would still 100% recommend this book! Especially for those who love true-crime podcasts. (I might re-visit and update my star-rating later).

Another reason why I am semi-disappointed is the ending. We do not have Sadie's death entirely confirmed and I would rather know than not. HOWEVER, it does work well with the podcast layout as with most true-crime podcasts there are no true 'ends' after investigations. So I am at a cross-roads between completely hating the ending, and applauding it for its correlation to the realm of true-crime podcasts.

Just be cautious and review the content warnings before reading.

Content Warnings

hakeema17h's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Content Warnings

lisa_m's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated

3.0

⚠️❗Trigger Warning: child abuse, rape, molestation, pedophilia, death, depression, drug abuse and murder❗⚠️

This book was quite a ride and also quite out of my comfortzone. That is also the reason why you shouldn't let my review of only 3⭐ make you not want to read the book.

It is incredibly written and I can absolutely appreciate it for what it is. The representation of stuttering (which I have never ever read in a book before!) was something you have to get used to but its definitely worth it.

What made it hard for me to get through was mainly the themes of the book. I have put the Trigger Warnings on top and as you can see there's a lot of them. All of those topics are definitely issues that have to be adressed. I read the book knowing it was going to be hard to get through but I did it and I'm glad I did. The book never made me feel like it was exploiting Sadies experiences and memories. She had flashbacks and she described what she experienced but it was never in extreme detail.
I'm not a fan of horror/gore/thrillers and the book isn't that at all. It's a YA-contemporary mystery with very heavy topics. If you feel like you are able to read it, I would definitely recommend it. It made me think a lot for sure.

Content Warnings

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