Author: Courtney Summers
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Genre: YA thriller, YA mystery
Pages: 311
Rating: 3/5 stars
Synopsis:
“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 meager 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.”
This book was haunting. The story was twisted, dark , and above all else brilliant. It’s a story that needs to be told, the type of story buried under news headlines with little significance. Stories like this are the ones that need to be screamed and shared and read thousands of times. This book will haunt you long after you turn the final page.
The unique formatting of this book was one of it’s strongest aspects. It’s told in Sadie’s real time journey and also through a podcast run by West McCray as he tries to figure out exactly what happened to Sadie. It makes the book a lot more chilling as you can see the pieces of her journey that have been left behind. The people, the places, it makes the book a dark slow burn thriller that I loved. I did listen to a small section of this book on audio, and the full cast narration is fantastic, but of course the print book is just as good. Having the physical copy in my hand made it really daunting as I just keep seeing the pages winding down with the only question in my head being: what happened to Sadie?
Sadie was a great character. I loved her heart, her determination, and her strength during a time of struggle. She was fascinating and smart and made for an amazing narrator. As a full picture of her was painted I really became upset. This book does a really good job of pulling on those sad emotions. It was hard reading about someone who I wanted to love so much but I knew was a missing girl, I was afraid to hope she would be alright and it made this book more suspenseful. With every passing page the thrill built and the story came together in an upsetting and distressing crescendo. It was written amazingly.
The only thing I was a little displeased with this book was that I thought it was a little underwhelming when it did finally built to the climax. It wasn’t bad by any means but I just had been expecting a little bit more from that moment.
I feel like this book will be in my head for a long time, and it hurts even more to know that girls go missing everyday and Sadie is really only one of many… and they all have their own stories that won’t be told. That’s what makes Sadie more haunting than most books in this genre. It touches so close to reality that it burns.
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