I received this book free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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.

About Courtney Summers

Courtney Summers was born in Belleville, Ontario, Canada in 1986 and currently resides in a small town not far from there. At age 14, and with her parents' blessing, Courtney dropped out of high school to pursue her education independently. At age 18, she wrote her first novel and never looked back. Her first book, Cracked Up to Be, was published in 2008, when she was 22. To date, she has authored five novels and is best known for her unapologetic, difficult female protagonists. In 2016, Courtney was named one of Flare Magazine's 60 under 30.

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“Sometimes I don’t know what I miss more; everything I’ve lost or everything I never had.”.

When Sadie’s 13-year-old sister Mattie is murdered and left in an apple orchard, Sadie is determined to take on the responsibility of her death just as she took on the responsibility of keeping her alive. Their mother, Claire, was a drug addict and never cared for the girls the way they should have been and for years now, Sadie has been the one to care for Mattie and to make sure that life didn’t end up being nearly as bad as it could have been. And then one day Claire disappeared. She sent a postcard 3 months later from Los Angeles, addressed only to Mattie, and from that point on Mattie was convinced that the girls had to find their mother but Sadie knew that was impossible for so many reasons. And then one day Mattie got into a truck headed to California and she was next found in an apple orchard.

“Mattie never would’ve done something like that if she’d never got that postcard. I know it haunted Sadie and I know … I know if Sadie’s out there right now, it’s still haunting her.”

Courtney Summers writes some of the most gritty and uncompromising stories that manage to get under your skin with their unrelenting realism. Sadie was such a difficult yet mesmerizing read that completely captured my attention until the final page. This story is a brilliant combination of a coming of age/gritty crime mystery and podcasts which have become so incredibly popular in this day and age. Despite the audio aspects of podcasts, this book worked just as brilliantly in print. Sadie’s chapters are told in first-person narration as she leaves her small town of Cold Creek, Colorado in search of the man she believes is responsible for the death of her sister. Sadie’s thoughts are imbued with a single-minded determination to avenge her sister despite her own harrowing backstory. Her story is full of retrospection on everything that transpired and how it led up to the moment she finds herself in. She never berates herself for things that occurred, knowing that doing so won’t change anything, but only continue walking the dark path of revenge she’s set herself on.

Mixed into Sadie’s story, are transcripts from the (fictional) podcast The Girls hosted by radio reporter West McCray who is investigating Sadie’s disappearance. McCray’s investigation manages to fill in the blanks of Sadie’s story as he follows the evidence she left in her wake. These transcripts also served to make Sadie and Mattie’s stories feel both personal and factual in a way that was almost unsettling. It reads much like any true crime podcast where McCray discusses his investigation, the evidence he uncovers, and the interviews he conducts. There are six episodes in total and they can be listened to before or after the book’s release, but only the book will include Sadie’s first-person accounting. Either way, it’s definitely worth a listen. Whoever came up with the concept to actually produce the podcast in correlation with the book’s release is a genius. You can listen to the first episode embedded in this post below with the other episodes available on Apple Podcasts and Stitcher.

Sadie is a haunting yet must-read thriller for readers of all ages that tells the empowering story of a ‘victim’ who refuses to conform to the label.