Hello everyone!
I am back with another book review, Sadie by Courtney Summers. Thanks so much for NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book for an honest review, as always, all opinions are my own.
This book follows Sadie, a nineteen-year-old girl whose little sister has been found brutally murdered. After their mother left them to fend for themselves, Sadie has always taken care of Mattie - but she couldn't keep her safe in the end - and Sadie herself runs off to try to find Mattie's killer. I don't really want to say too much more about the plot, so I'll just get into the rest of my thoughts.
This book is told in the form of a podcast, which I thought was an interesting choice and a unique way to write a story. The main narrator is a journalist, West, who interviews people, following Sadie's trail. This storyline is also interrupted by sections from Sadie's perspective and we piece together what is happening from the two sources, usually one step closer than West, who obviously doesn't have Sadie's inner thoughts.
This book reminded me a bit of The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis and obviously, since I loved that book, I really enjoyed this one. There are, of course, differences between the two stories, but they both feature female leads who are at a lethal level above just your usual kick-butt heroine.
I've only read one other book by Summers but like that one, this was an emotional read. She writes about so many horrible things, but things that people sadly have to go through all the time. Everything from poverty to sexual abuse, physical violence to emotional trauma. She gives every gritty detail, never sparing the reader from the cruel life Sadie and her sister had to endure.
Overall, this is an extremely hard but extremely poignant book that you simply must pick up.