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A review by arubunwritten
Sadie by Courtney Summers
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
CW: abuse, paedophilia, drugs, neglect, violence
Sadie follows two threads of a story, the first is in the form of a podcast called The Girls, following the disappearance of Sadie Hunter after the murder of her sister. The second is Sadie's point of view as she sets on a path of revenge because she knows who killed her sister.
I don't usually listen to audiobooks but for Sadie it felt appropriate due to the podcast chapters and I definitely recommend it because they've done an excellent job. The podcast chapters are spot on, the voices are excellent and Sadie's actress is fantastic and displays such a good range of emotion.
Sadie is not an easy story to read by any means. It's about abuse, neglect, murder and there's a running thread throughout the book that girls go missing all of the time, bad things happen to runaways and poor girls and that seemingly good men can get away with hideous things for years. Summers tells you that this story isn't unique but that doesn't mean it shouldn't matter.
The story is compelling, each chapter has Sadie finding another clue and she moves another step towards revenge and the podcast chapters expand on the world and characters of the book. It makes the characters feel more realistic, seeing Sadie's perspective vs how they portray themselves when they are interviewed in the podcast. It made me think about all of the true crime podcasts I listen to and how one-sided or incomplete they must be.
There's an element of mystery and dramatic irony in the telling where the readers know what is happening to Sadie but the podcast is only just finding out and you so desperately want them to connect the dots.
I really fell in love with Sadie as a character. She's tough and she's angry but she is a product of her circumstances. Her anchor in life was her sister, Mattie, and when she is murdered, the only real choice she has is to exact revenge. She has so many facets to her character and Summers really takes you through her pain, her having to grow up so fast and how helpless she feels. Something Sadie wants desperately to believe is that she's dangerous to the men that can harm her, but over and over again, we are reminded that she's just a teenage girl - and one from an impoverished background at that.
I loved this book and I will be thinking about it for a long time.
Sadie follows two threads of a story, the first is in the form of a podcast called The Girls, following the disappearance of Sadie Hunter after the murder of her sister. The second is Sadie's point of view as she sets on a path of revenge because she knows who killed her sister.
I don't usually listen to audiobooks but for Sadie it felt appropriate due to the podcast chapters and I definitely recommend it because they've done an excellent job. The podcast chapters are spot on, the voices are excellent and Sadie's actress is fantastic and displays such a good range of emotion.
Sadie is not an easy story to read by any means. It's about abuse, neglect, murder and there's a running thread throughout the book that girls go missing all of the time, bad things happen to runaways and poor girls and that seemingly good men can get away with hideous things for years. Summers tells you that this story isn't unique but that doesn't mean it shouldn't matter.
The story is compelling, each chapter has Sadie finding another clue and she moves another step towards revenge and the podcast chapters expand on the world and characters of the book. It makes the characters feel more realistic, seeing Sadie's perspective vs how they portray themselves when they are interviewed in the podcast. It made me think about all of the true crime podcasts I listen to and how one-sided or incomplete they must be.
There's an element of mystery and dramatic irony in the telling where the readers know what is happening to Sadie but the podcast is only just finding out and you so desperately want them to connect the dots.
I really fell in love with Sadie as a character. She's tough and she's angry but she is a product of her circumstances. Her anchor in life was her sister, Mattie, and when she is murdered, the only real choice she has is to exact revenge. She has so many facets to her character and Summers really takes you through her pain, her having to grow up so fast and how helpless she feels. Something Sadie wants desperately to believe is that she's dangerous to the men that can harm her, but over and over again, we are reminded that she's just a teenage girl - and one from an impoverished background at that.
I loved this book and I will be thinking about it for a long time.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, Child abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Pedophilia