Sadie by Courtney Summers

Sadie by Courtney Summers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher, and I might not have picked up otherwise. I have no familiarity with the author, and I often find myself disappointed with YA because I can be a bit of a snob, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Sadie.
Anyone with familiarity with true crime can tell you that there any many cases that don't receive a lot of police attention because of the victim's race, prior history, or sheer lack of resources. For that reason, I think it was very smart for Summers to have this as a split narrative between Sadie and radio/podcast host West McCray. At first, it felt a little gimmicky, but I progressed in the book, it started to feel much smoother. McCray gives us more background on Sadie, her town, and the places she stops. It's not simply supplementary - it's a narrative of it's own, and you see him pick up the pieces. You have questions about how reliable Sadie is as a narrator or is everyone she runs into massively sketchy?
I had issues with Sadie as a character, because I had trouble believing that her entire life revolved around her sister to the point where she had no friends or acquaintances. Summers explains that Sadie was bullied for her stutter, and she felt like she had to step up and take care of Mattie, but I'm supposed to believe there are no other weird kids in this town that have literally no one else to eat lunch with? That she was never friendly with anyone at her job? I understand wanting to keep a tight narrative and not introduce a character who will never be present again, but there are ways to work around that. I got stuck on that, even if the point is that Mattie was all Sadie had, and now Sadie has nothing.
The ending felt believable to me, and that's why I'm stuck on it. In the interest of not giving spoilers for a book that hasn't been formally released at the time of this review, I grew attached to Sadie. I felt bad for this girl who never had a chance her whole life. I wanted her to be happy, or at the very least, at peace. The ambiguity of the ending lays heavy, like one dead girl and another missing.

View all my reviews