Missing Girls, Podcasts and Darkness: Sadie by Courtney Summers

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

It’s been a while since I was as mesmerized with a book as I was with Sadie. At one point in time, everyone had this on their TBR or they were reading it and everyone was talking about it. So I immediately wanted to pick it up. And I subscribe to Scribd and I saw that there was an audiobook of it on Scribd and I figured it’s now or never. And here’s the thing – I hate audiobooks. And I can confidently say that Sadie is the best audiobook to ever exist because I was obsessed with it. It made the reading experience a million times better and I cannot recommend it enough.

Sadie follows Sadie (a shocker, I know) whose sister Mattie was found dead recently and after that, Sadie goes missing. We learn about her story both from her perspective, but also from the podcast called The Girls, whose host is trying to find Sadie.

The concept of this book is amazing. I love true crime podcasts, and I really love what setting up a podcast added to this story. Moreover, if you listen to this in audiobook format, you’ll actually get the podcast experience and it adds so many layers to the story. It’s clever and while Sadie’s perspective is really subjective and internal, the podcast offers a different, more distanced perspective and I really enjoyed what that added to the narrative. Courtney Summers contrasts the things Sadie says about some people and then gives us interviews with those people on the podcast which is just such a new and fresh way to tell a story, which I really appreciated.

I loved Sadie a lot. Her character had so much depth and it was heartbreaking to read from her perspective. The way Courtney Summers wrote her is really raw and powerful, and I really loved her. I loved the exploration of reclaiming your own narrative and agency in this novel. Sadie decides to fight back and I always love a dark female character. Sadie was that – and more. There were a lot of layers to her personality and again, it was so interesting to see that contrast of how Sadie perceives herself versus how other people perceive her.

I have mentioned previously how weak I am for sister stories. I loved the way Sadie talked about Mattie. It was heartbreaking to read and I had a very visceral reaction to some points of this novel. Sadie defines herself through her relationship with her sister and it was devastating to read about her loss. Courtney Summers is an amazing writer and there were so many gut-wrenching sentences that I had to pause and step away from the book. It’s been a while since I was as affected by a book as I was by this one and a lot of that is due to the way Sadie talks about Mattie, and I loved how well-written that was.

This book is really addictive. I never wanted to stop reading it. I could not look away. This isn’t a long audiobook (it’s about 8 hours) but usually, that would take me a month to finish. I abandoned all of my obligations so I could read this and I was obsessed with it. It’s a really fast-paced and compelling read that manages to completely and entirely capture your attention. It’s a surprising and really gripping story.

I could not recommend this enough. I have read 83 books so far this year and this is only my third five star read. I really, highly suggest you pick this one up, and if you can, be sure to read it as an audiobook because it’s a full cast experience.

Final verdict: 5 stars

Gut-Wrenching, Compelling and Powerful

Let me know your thoughts about Sadie – do you have it on your TBR, did you read it, what were your thoughts? All the good stuff!

xxx

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