Nineteen-year-old Sadie’s life hasn’t been easy. Raised by a mum who is at best indifferent, she realizes early on that she is going to have to get by on her own. She is fiercely protective of her little sister, Mattie, and tries her best to take care of her after their mother, Claire, runs away. Then Mattie is found dead. The police investigate but nothing conclusive comes out of it. Sadie knows who murdered Mattie and she is determined to bring the killer to justice.
Sadie buys a cheap car that’s quite literally falling apart and, with only a few meager clues to follow up on, hits the road. Along the way she meets many characters who take the story down different interesting paths. There’s a cranky waitress at a diner, a young woman on the run whom Sadie picks up as hitchhiker, and some high school kids whose lives are on the opposite spectrum of Sadie’s.
The basic premise is simple and straightforward but ‘Sadie’ by Courtney Summers is essentially a dark, heartbreaking YA novel about the price children end up paying when their parents make bad decisions. As Sadie searches for her sisters’ killer, you see how her entire life has always revolved around being there for Mattie, filling a place where their mother should have been. In fact, ‘Sadie’, I believe, shouldn’t really be slotted as YA. It will appeal to adults as well and make us value the things we have, so far, taken for granted. The beauty of ‘Sadie’ is that at no point does it just feel like a thriller novel. There’s a social drama element to it that makes it relatable and real.
The book alternates between chapters from Sadie’s perspective as she tries to track down a man who seems to have many identities and a true crime radio show transcript run by West McCray. He is trying to find Sadie by following whatever information May Beth Foster, Sadie’s surrogate grandmother, and the police are able to provide him.
The narrative is compelling and Summers is great at building anticipation and making you work your grey cells to try and figure out what might have happened. I remember reading somewhere that Summers, who has many other fantastic books to her credit, doesn’t believe in neat, happy endings. But what happened in the end in this book blew me away. I can’t get the story out of my head—and I have already read two other books and some short stories after completing ‘Sadie’. It still haunts me. And I think it will for a long, long time.
What makes the book so good?
The format in which it is written, alternating between the protagonist’s perspective and a radio show transcript.
Courtney Summer’s restrained and sparse writing that makes for a gripping narrative.
Interesting characters that Sadie meets along the way that don’t let the story take on a one-track mundane tone. You enjoy getting to know these fascinating, at times weird and disturbed people.
Rating: 3.5
Fiction
Sadie
Courtney Summers
Published: 2018
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Pages: 322, Paperback
