A review by jamiee_f
Sadie by Courtney Summers

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

4.5

Teetering between 4 and 5 stars. A good book, but not at all what I expected. I saw this marketed as a YA book about a girl solving her sisters murder and got.....a young woman avenging her sister's death and her own years of sexual abuse. 

I listened to the audiobook, which was immaculately produced and put together. I highly recommend that format, given the podcast components of the book. Once I realized it wasn't the book I was expecting, I fell for the book. It was compelling, sad, real, and I was rooting for Sadie. The way the story unfurled kept me intrigued, and I couldn't put it down.

This book explores how good people have to do bad things to survive, and bad people do good things to fly under the radar. Sadie is angry and hurt and on a mission, but she is driven by deep love. She is an angry, messy protagonist and I didn't mind not having an explicit ending for her. Her final scene was beautifully written and I felt the emotion from the moment she started talking to the little girl on the stoop.

I also think the author's use of the podcast narrative was a great way to force the reader/listener to grapple with consumption of true crime. I thought the mother character was treated with compassion, and I agreed when she asked West WHY he was doing this. Having the podcast host be a man helped establish the....commentary on the true crime industrial complex.


I do think this is an adult book, but I do recommend it. Characters were fleshed out and complex, and the audiobook was excellent.
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