Review: Sadie by Courtney Summers

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 meagre 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. ~ Goodreads

Source: arc provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review and I borrowed the audiobook from the library and switched back & forth

Review:

“And it begins, as so many stories do, with a dead girl.”

Dead girls make for good entertainment.

And Sadie is about a dead girl and the sister who sets out to avenge her death.

Summers takes the tired, lazy premise of using a dead girl as catalyst for a heroes story and flips the trope on it’s head to give the women voice and agency as this story unfolds.

Sadie has a fascinating format – it’s told in dual POV. The first Sadie – who has gone on the run to investigate and get revenge for her 11 year old sister, Mattie’s, murder. The second is through a podcast, hosted by West McCray. This allows you to be be both in Sadie’s head, learn backstory and  view the other players in Mattie and Sadie’s story from an outside perspective. It was incredibly well done.

Sadie’s grandmother first contacts McCray in desperation, hoping he can help find Sadie. She has no idea what happened to her. Was she taken by the same person who killed Mattie? Did she crack under the eight of the loss of the only person keeping her going?

McCray ponders whether Mattie's murder or Sadie's disappearance is interesting enough to hold the attention of his podcasts listeners. McCray is not a bad guy. He's just covered enough of these murders for entertainment to be a bit jaded. His feelings change as the story progresses and Sadie and her family become real people to him.

The podcast is always paralleling Sadie’s story as the mystery of Mattie’s murder and Sadie’s disappearance unfold.

What Sadie isn’t….it’s not a thriller. It’s not  crime solving mystery with a tidy ending. It’s not a kick ass girl wins the day kind of story. Sadie has elements of all those things but it refuses to be pigeonholed into one thing only or follow a traditional ending.

What it is is an exploration of women’s deaths used for entertainment. Of dangerous people lurking right under your nose camouflaged as saviors. It’s a story about 4 women – Mattie, Sadie, her mother and grandmother -  grappling with their parts in this unfolding story.

It’s bleak. Very bleak. There are hopeful elements. A few moments of comeuppance, a few people who are kind rather than callous, a few moments of reconciliation but there’s no Scooby Gang moment where everything gets wrapped up all tidy or of a hot boy to come save the day for the girl.

I love Courtney Summers This is Not a Test and the sequel Please Remain Calm. If you’ve read her books – then you know they’re bleak but powerful. I can understand why some people won’t want to go there - but if you do – I think Summers writes truly brilliant, fierce, unflinching stories with female protagonists.

* A note about the audio book. I had a physical arc and, as you may know, I've been dabbling (somewhat unsuccessfully) with audio books. Frankly, I put off reading Sadie because I wasn't ready for so dark a read. I missed the release date but heard good things about the audio format.

I highly recommend it! It has a full cast of narrators which lends itself perfectly to the podcast aspect. And the voice for Sadie was perfect - fierce yet vulnerable. While West McCray's was perfect for the initial aloof podcast host who transitions into someone who is truly wrapped up in Sadie's story.

All the trigger warnings...highlight to view ->pedophilia, sexual abuse, drug abuse, some violence both on and off page