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A review by votesforwomen
Sadie by Courtney Summers
4.0
I don't know how to rate this.
I don't know how to talk about this.
All I can say is that this book made me feel things I haven't felt from a book in a while.
Darkly lyrical. Brooding. And yet with such an undercurrent of desperation. I felt Sadie's pain. Every step she took, I could feel. I had to look away from the page when she was hurt, when she slammed her fist through a window and when she was punched into a steering wheel. Her terror and resolve as she gripped her switchblade. The utter lack of hopelessness she felt as she drove deeper and deeper into the dark.
I didn't cry. But I did lose my breath a couple of times and I found myself whispering "no, no, no..." as I read on.
The deepest and heaviest thing about this book is that it is REAL.
Sexual predators exist. They prey on little children, the most innocent of our society, and they trick others into thinking they're totally normal and they go from kid to kid getting what they want. The most harsh thing in this entire book is that Sadie's story IS NOT FICTIONAL. She may be a fictional person, but what happened to her is not a made-up story. It is reality for thousands of children. And that is so heavy, so dark, so hopeless, that it breaks my heart and makes me fall on my knees and pray to my God to end this corruption and this abuse of his smallest and most delicate.
As such, this is not a book for the faint of heart. It's heavy. It's chock-full of language, from the lightest words to the very heaviest, and they're everywhere--not in a "The Hate U Give" kind of way, where there were f-words than any other word and I had to DNF it, but still very present. There's lots of violence, lots of darkness, lots of death threats--but what else are we expecting from a book of this nature? It's not a mild look at abuse. It is incredibly honest, very real, and depicts it all as it actually happens.
"But he was such a nice guy! He'd never do anything like that!" people protest throughout the story of the man--the monster--who destroyed Sadie and Mattie's lives. It's telling that they're all people he could present the "proper" side of himself to. The people who really knew him? They knew the truth. And that was the most heart-breaking thing of all.
One element that I was pretty sure I was going to hate was when Sadie meant a guy who danced with her and took her out for lunch and was acting interested in her--this story had no room for romance, and I was worried that Summers would try to shoehorn that in. But, to her credit, she didn't. The guy who did this ended up playing a pivotal role and never truly became a "love interest," to my gratitude.
Something else, something that I would normally complain about, was the girl-girl kiss at one point in the story. However, this time I'm going to let it slide, for one simple reason: IT'S REALISTIC. I doubt Sadie would identify as bisexual or even let herself consider whether she liked girls vs. boys. That's not something on her radar. However, because she is someone who's been abused as a child, and by a man, it makes sense that she would feel safer with a girl. This is not a real romance; it's not even, really, a particularly meaningful event. It does happen, and that may turn some people off. But this is not pushing an agenda. It's merely showing a reality. (The thing that I found less compelling was West, the radio host, being married to a man. I just didn't feel like that was necessary. But I digress.)
A story with such a lack of hope would not normally resonate so much with me. But this one did. Because I feel like it has to. Because these are stories that we need to read if there's ever to be change. Children need to be protected; young girls need protection. As I said above, for thousands of little girls, Sadie's story is their story.
And that's why I'm rating this the way I am.
I wouldn't recommend this for sensitive readers, or for the faint of heart. But for those who are willing to brave the darkness and get fired up to DO something, I would definitely recommend it.
Because none of us should be able to take another dead girl.
I don't know how to talk about this.
All I can say is that this book made me feel things I haven't felt from a book in a while.
Darkly lyrical. Brooding. And yet with such an undercurrent of desperation. I felt Sadie's pain. Every step she took, I could feel. I had to look away from the page when she was hurt, when she slammed her fist through a window and when she was punched into a steering wheel. Her terror and resolve as she gripped her switchblade. The utter lack of hopelessness she felt as she drove deeper and deeper into the dark.
I didn't cry. But I did lose my breath a couple of times and I found myself whispering "no, no, no..." as I read on.
The deepest and heaviest thing about this book is that it is REAL.
Sexual predators exist. They prey on little children, the most innocent of our society, and they trick others into thinking they're totally normal and they go from kid to kid getting what they want. The most harsh thing in this entire book is that Sadie's story IS NOT FICTIONAL. She may be a fictional person, but what happened to her is not a made-up story. It is reality for thousands of children. And that is so heavy, so dark, so hopeless, that it breaks my heart and makes me fall on my knees and pray to my God to end this corruption and this abuse of his smallest and most delicate.
As such, this is not a book for the faint of heart. It's heavy. It's chock-full of language, from the lightest words to the very heaviest, and they're everywhere--not in a "The Hate U Give" kind of way, where there were f-words than any other word and I had to DNF it, but still very present. There's lots of violence, lots of darkness, lots of death threats--but what else are we expecting from a book of this nature? It's not a mild look at abuse. It is incredibly honest, very real, and depicts it all as it actually happens.
"But he was such a nice guy! He'd never do anything like that!" people protest throughout the story of the man--the monster--who destroyed Sadie and Mattie's lives. It's telling that they're all people he could present the "proper" side of himself to. The people who really knew him? They knew the truth. And that was the most heart-breaking thing of all.
One element that I was pretty sure I was going to hate was when Sadie meant a guy who danced with her and took her out for lunch and was acting interested in her--this story had no room for romance, and I was worried that Summers would try to shoehorn that in. But, to her credit, she didn't. The guy who did this ended up playing a pivotal role and never truly became a "love interest," to my gratitude.
Something else, something that I would normally complain about, was the girl-girl kiss at one point in the story. However, this time I'm going to let it slide, for one simple reason: IT'S REALISTIC. I doubt Sadie would identify as bisexual or even let herself consider whether she liked girls vs. boys. That's not something on her radar. However, because she is someone who's been abused as a child, and by a man, it makes sense that she would feel safer with a girl. This is not a real romance; it's not even, really, a particularly meaningful event. It does happen, and that may turn some people off. But this is not pushing an agenda. It's merely showing a reality. (The thing that I found less compelling was West, the radio host, being married to a man. I just didn't feel like that was necessary. But I digress.)
A story with such a lack of hope would not normally resonate so much with me. But this one did. Because I feel like it has to. Because these are stories that we need to read if there's ever to be change. Children need to be protected; young girls need protection. As I said above, for thousands of little girls, Sadie's story is their story.
And that's why I'm rating this the way I am.
I wouldn't recommend this for sensitive readers, or for the faint of heart. But for those who are willing to brave the darkness and get fired up to DO something, I would definitely recommend it.
Because none of us should be able to take another dead girl.