Reviews tagging 'Death'

Sadie by Courtney Summers

168 reviews

bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

4.5

It’s a dark, heartbreaking book with twists I didn’t see coming. I loved the switches from Sadie’s POV to the podcast with West! It’s a unique concept for a novel, which made it even more interesting to read. It took some time to get into the story as the first half was a bit slower and more detailed, especially from Sadie’s chapters. By the second half I flew through the pages, not wanting to put it down.

I think the ending was perfect for this type of story. The pacing overall was also fairly well done, with nothing being rushed or dragged out! There’s a lot of characters so although we only get to really know a few of them, the side characters are still well written. We get enough of a description to picture them but most of them we only get passing glimpses rather than any depth as we take the journey with Sadie. I know I’m going to be thinking about this one for a long time!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Blood, Grief, and Abandonment

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Death and Suicide attempt

daisyfont's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Car accident

vincentedward16's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Car accident

hypofemmadchen's review against another edition

dark 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I HATE this book. It's a book that slowly drags you down a tunnel that is constantly getting smaller and smaller. By the time you get half way through, the tunnel you are in completely darkness, and you can feel your bones  breaking. By the time you reach the end being squeezed out the tunnel you will be nothing more than a mangled tube of meat, the only positive being the fact that you're able to see the sky again. However what was once the shining bright midday sun, now only a eastern band of gold holding the promise of a new day, but only if you are willing to wait. This is my new favorite book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual violence, Violence, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Eating disorder, Gore, Blood, Medical content, Car accident, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

kennedyslibrary's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

Sadie was a decent read; the writing kept you engaged with the alternating narration styles (Sadie's point of view and the podcast episode transcriptions focusing on the investigation of her disappearance). At times, the content was slightly difficult to read but definitely not the worst out there. Some of the characters were more developed than others. Specifically, I thought West's personality could have shown through more but he was not the focus of the story by any means, so that's okay. I was left disappointed with the conclusion (or lack thereof) to the novel, and that contributes majorly to my 3 star rating.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Abandonment

Minor: Murder

sosocrafty's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Pedophilia, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug abuse and Death of parent

cdelgado88284's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Grief, and Murder

sarah_shelf's review against another edition

dark emotional sad

4.0

I’m not quite sure how to begin with this book. It’s powerful and heavy and so vastly different from what I thought it was going to be. And I know this is going to sit with me for a long time.

This book is described like a mystery, but it’s really not about that at all. At least not in the way I think of traditional mysteries. The narrative is told from the perspective of Sadie searching for her little sister Mattie’s killer and from Wes McCray a podcast journalist who has picked up Sadie’s story after she has gone missing. The general whodunit and why that I was expecting isn’t really a part of it. Sadie knows what happened (even if it takes a while for her to explain that to us) and Wes’ investigation is largely parallel and two steps behind Sadie’s journey. Rather, the focus is on the sisters’ relationship: how much Sadie loves Mattie as well as the things she is willing to do for that love because no one else will. 

I was not prepared for the monster Keith/Darren/Jack was. (Seriously check the content warnings. I was caught off guard and even more unsettled because of it). So much of Sadie’s journey involves the effects and reactions to his abuse, which is never fully described on the page. Instead we get disturbing flashback scenes of creepy behavior, the emotional turmoil of the evidence he and Silas kept, as well as testimonies from a host of characters who thought they were great guys. All of that makes this so much more real because “girls go missing all the time” but rarely are we forced into the true aftermath of these stories.

There was no other way to end this book. Apparently the ending is contentious, and I get that because usually such an open-ending feels unfinished and unsatisfying, but it would have hurt the story to do things differently.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, and Grief

Minor: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

blue_is_at_sea's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Very good book! 
I highly recommend that you listen to the audiobook version of this story. It has great sound design and has multiple voice actors to add to the story. 

It’s absolutely heartbreaking reading about Sadie and her life and what she goes through. It’s amazing and highly recommended. 
It has very dark themes so keep that in mind. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Blood, Grief, and Abandonment

Moderate: Addiction, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Stalking, Murder, and Classism

agentlywildrebellion's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail