Book Review- Sadie

Sadie by Courtney Summers

★★★★★

Title: Sadie
Author: Courtney Summers
Publisher & Year Published: Wednesday Books, 2018
Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, Mystery, Young Adult
Format: Audiobook


Plot: ★★★★★
World Building: ★★★★★
Characters: ★★★★★
Flow: ★★★★★

Synopsis:

A missing girl on a journey of revenge. A Serial―like podcast following the clues she's left behind. And an ending you won't be able to stop talking about.

Sadie hasn't had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she's been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water.

But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie's entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister's killer to justice and hits the road following a few meager clues to find him.

When West McCray―a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America―overhears Sadie's story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie's journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it's too late.

Courtney Summers has written the breakout book of her career. Sadie is propulsive and harrowing and will keep you riveted until the last page.

Review*:

   I saw a lot of people talking about this book when it came out, and although I do enjoy mystery/thrillers on the occasion, I didn't see myself picking this book up. Then while I was browsing Libby for a new book to listen to at work, I figured why not. I am so glad I chose to listen to this as an audiobook. I'm sure it's great as a physical book, however I get picky about audiobooks and this is set up similarly to a true crime podcast. I highly suggest checking if your local library has this on audiobook or if you have a audible credit to burn to pick this up as a fairly easy read.
    The format of the book in general is really awesome. There is a cast to the audiobook, so it switches depending on what POV we are currently in. There are also different formats to the POV. There is one dude who is from a radio station, another part sounds like its being read from a diary. Almost like there are parallels to the same story from two different formats and POV.
   As far as the content, it does get pretty deep and dark. Sadie has been abused, and it's pretty clear that she has spent her life up until this point trying to survive. Her sister Mattie was murdered and Sadie is looking for the killer to seek revenge.
   The story is fairly simple, however the details Summers adds really creates a picture of what these girls went through that can be hard to read and definitely makes you feel sorry for them. You realize how big of a monster the guy shes looking for is and the level of manipulation he's used on people through the years.
   I did think the ending would be a little bit better than it was. As we are in Sadie's POV, we follow her up until she is confronted by her sisters killer and then it switches back to the podcast. We learn from the podcast POV that the murderer died due to a stab wound that became infected. What we don't learn is what exactly happened to Sadie,which is half of the whole point of the book.
   I would have given Sadie a higher rating, if it wasn't for the unsatisfying ending. The rest of the story was kind of generic, though I really enjoyed Summer's writing and the relationship between Sadie and Mattie. The gentle letdown at the end is really the reason I couldn't put this at 4 stars.

*This section may contain spoilers.