A Review of Sadie by Courtney Summers

Wow.

Sadie hit me a lot harder than I expected, which makes sense because there was nothing expected about this read.

Sadie is another multi-perspective novel (it seems 90% of books are now) and it alternates between the perspective of Sadie and the perspective of West, a journalist (?) who is doing a story for a podcast. Sadie is on an odyssey to process her grief over the tragic loss (murder) of her 13 year old sister Mattie.

What follows is a gritty, harrowing look at what happens when children are raised in deprivation. There's more to it than that, of course, and I won't give spoilers for this one, but at its heart, this novel encourages readers to ask themselves how things would have been different if Sadie and Mattie would've grown up with some love and support. It really brings up a lot of questions, some that we find ourselves struggling with every day: does blame really matter? Can people be redeemed? What responsibility do we have to act when we see a stranger in need?

At first, I had a lot of trouble reading this book. I don't always love it when I don't know what to expect and there was something about Sadie that defied all my expectations for what it "should" be. I expected it to be a thriller/mystery type book based on the description. A book about a young girl hitting the road to bring justice to her sister's killer sounds like it should be the next big thriller. It's not that, though. Sure, there are clues, witnesses, false identities, etc. There are all the elements of a mystery, but Sadie (much like Sadie) resists those expectations. Is it a drama, then? A family drama? That doesn't quite feel right either. While we learn about Sadie's neglect at the hands of her drug addicted mother, the rivalry she has with her mother for the love of her sister, and even a surrogate grandma who resents the mom, calling it a drama feels too easy. Nothing in this book fits an easy formula.

I definitely recommend this book. It's as deeply satisfying as it is unsettling, and while it's occasionally hard to read, it's so worth it.

4/5

Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC I was given in exchange for a fair and honest review.