Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Sadie by Courtney Summers

133 reviews

shelbybowers20's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0


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crunchycrystals's review against another edition

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dark emotional
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

reading this on audiobook is a WHOLE different experience im gonna be processing the conclusion to the podcast for probably 2 weeks. its so hard for me to express this book in a star rating the writing is just really good i swear
i did cheer out loud when i found out keith died

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shreka's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75


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innastholiel's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5


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kelly_e's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Title: Sadie
Author: Courtney Summers
Genre: YA Mystery
Rating: 4.0
Pub Date: September 4 2018

T H R E E β€’ W O R D S

Gritty β€’ Fast-paced β€’ Unique

πŸ“– S Y N O P S I S

After the brutal murder of her sister and a botched investigation, Sadie disappears. She dead set on hunting down the man she feels destroyed her family. West McCray, a radio personality, becomes obsessed with finding Sadie. He starts his own podcast as he attempts to track her down, always a few steps behind and interviewing key players along the way, he hopes to find the missing girl before it's too late.

πŸ’­ T H O U G H T S

Sadie was recommended to me by a good friend, and I decided to go in completely blind. What can I say other than that this book hooked me from the very first page. The journey is complex, and the character development and pacing are both excellent. The structure is unlike anything else, alternating between Sadie's perspective and West's podcast transcripts. Don't get me wrong it is no easy read, filled with lots of sensitive subject matter, but the format helps break it up.

The true crime podcast aspect took this story to a whole different level, as did the audiobook! It's a full cast audio, and to say it is one of the most entertaining audiobooks I have listened to is an understatement. I decide to tandem read along with the audio, and it's definitely the way I recommend consuming it.

My one issue is the ending. It's not often an ambiguous ending is unsatisfying, but I'd have liked a more conclusive idea of Sadie's fate. Overall, a story filled with mystery and centering around revenge and how far we will go to protect our loved ones, Sadie is one that will stick with me for awhile. In my opinion, this book is geared towards a wider audience that just young adults.

πŸ“š R E C O M M E N D β€’ T O
β€’ true crime lovers
β€’ audiobook listeners
β€’ readers who like sister stories

πŸ”– F A V O U R I T E β€’ Q U O T E S

"But love is complicated, it’s messy. It can inspire selflessness, selfishness, our greatest accomplishments and our hardest mistakes. It brings us together and it can just as easily drive us apart."

"We have more story than time to tell it -- but I suppose that's true for all of us." 

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racheldkidder's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

      This is one of two books I have ever felt the compulsion to write a review of. The content warnings for this book are incredibly extensive, the most prevalent of which being the sexual assault of minors. I have never before read a book that truly, deeply disturbed me. I have read psychological thrillers that made me paranoid, but I have never been unsettled in the same way I was when I read this book. Not much bothers me. This book bothered me. I will admit that this issue is partially my fault for not doing proper research into how extensive this discussion of sexual assault was. Regardless of whether I was aware of how much this was explored in Sadie, I felt that it was incredibly excessive. I have read books that handle assault in a beautiful way while not forcing it down the reader's throat. This was not the case with Saide. There is a very fine line, in my opinion, between trauma for character/plot development's sake and trauma for trauma's sake. This book pole-vaulted over that line. While I understand that the things displayed in this book are a reality for some, I thought the way in which they were presented was incredibly poorly handled. While reading, I got the feeling that the author was not interested in giving their character depth, but instead in writing about the sexual assault of children because they wanted to. Let me make myself clear. I am NOT calling the author a pedophile. I am simply saying they seemed to be fixated on the idea of bringing up these elements at every turn regardless of whether it was necessary or beneficial to the story. They seem to be screaming "This book is dark! I promise!" with each available opportunity. An example of this is in the
last half of the book where Saide realizes a character who was quite literally just introduced is sexually abusing his Tball players. This revelation does not provide any character development nor does it help move the story along. It is only referenced once more in the book and even then, all that is said is that it happened. Why include that detail if it seems to serve no purpose?

     In addition to the overzealous attempt at a traumatic backstory, I found the main character, Sadie, to be just as artificial. I think now is a good time to mention that I have never personally been in any situation akin to what she experienced in this book, so take what I am saying with a grain of salt. However, Saide seemed like a middle-aged man's interpretation of an antisocial teenage girl. While it would be entirely appropriate and expected for her to be detached and somber, she seemed comically moody and jaded. To me, she came across as a caricature of what she should have been. She was insufferable and I was counting the pages until I didn't have to listen to her anymore.
     Despite these repulsive aspects of the book, there were some ideas I did appreciate. In the synopsis of the book which The StoryGraph has provided, they explain that this book alternates chapters between Sadie's point of view and the podcaster's. I always enjoy it when authors experiment with the format of a "traditional" book to bring something new to the table and I thought the podcast transcripts were creative enough to be refreshing while also being orthodox enough to not be jarring. This brings me to the second thing about this book I enjoyed. I listened to portions of this book as an audiobook as well as read it in a physical form. The podcast chapters were well executed on the audiobook and if I wasn't aware I was listening to a book, I could have thought it truly was a podcast. I would highly recommend both reading physically and listening to the podcast chapters (although that is not necessary for the Saide chapters). Unfortunately, that is where my praise ends.
     Overall, the idea for this book was commendable, but the execution was not. I personally am a big fan of psychological thrillers as well as murder mystery books, but this book was not thrilling enough to be a thriller nor mysterious enough to be a mystery. It simply fell short in every category.

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moni8's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0


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thehappylittleelf's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

As a person who regularly listens to true crime podcasts, this was an excellent format to present a story like this. I always think about the subjects in the story and what their life was like and what they went through. The book also does a good job of presenting these situations with a level of realism. It’s not a hero vs. villains story. It’s about a person trying to gain a little bit of control in her life when she had everything ripped away from her.

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tahmida's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

 I listened to this as an audiobook because many people were recommending to do so and my god, it was absolutely brilliant. There's a whole cast, a different voice for different characters, which is one of the things I loved. I haven't read many thriller/mystery novels, and this definitely was a break from what I usually read. Regardless, I think I have found one of my new favourite books of all time. I adored the main protagonist, Sadie. The way the story is unravelled and told has such a strong grasp on me. The dual POV of the podcast and Sadie was very well-established through the audiobook; if you want to read this book, I highly recommend listening to it as an audiobook. Please do check the content and trigger warnings before you read this book.
The ending left me absolutely numb. I was so invested in Sadie's story. When I realised there were no more Sadie POVs left and that the book was slowly coming to the end, I was dreading what would happen to her. After the audiobook was done, I sat there for a good 15 minutes trying to process everything and then I immediately jumped on the internet to see the theories and if there was a proper ending. I ranted to my clueless friend for another 10 minutes about the ending and the book as a whole. I needed the closure so bad.

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melissa_isreading's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

5.0


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