2024 EDIT: 'Sadie' is one of the sickest and most disturbing books I've ever read; even sicker is the fact that it needs to exist, that everyone needs to read it, and something like it. It reflects reality.
This is the kind of world we live in. We allow horrifying, unthinkable, monstrous things to happen, all the time. All because society at large doesn't give a shit about women and girls, and loves, rewards and exonerates men, and especially men in positions of power and prestige. Privilege is an evil that needs to be undone. It allows monsters to exist and thrive.
'Sadie' is not something I need in my life right now. It's far too dark, bleak and anxiety-inducing for me to handle. I'm still shaking. It should not have been marketed as YA. And some books should only be read once, for once is enough.
I still recommend it.
REEDIT: You know what? I both hate and love this novel, and I am keeping it. It is too important not to. Not to mention, it is incredibly engaging and morbidly addictive. Like true crime, it is traumatic, but vital to know about; about the world.
Final Score: 3.5/5
Original Review:
An utterly unputdownable (don't care if that's not a word), thrilling, realistic, apprehensive, heartbreaking book.
'Sadie' is a revenge road journey story (plus an outsider's investigation into it, which I will elaborate on later) that is set in the smallest, most unassuming areas in America; that reveals horrifying universal truths about the patriarchy and rape culture. It's an ugly, vile, mold-infested, creeping, shattering sickness that is hiding in plain sight.
And due to apathy and normalisation, we let it spread daily.
Because girls go missing all the time, right?
Things beginning and ending with a dead girl is an unwritten rule in society and culture.
Why are there too many stories - in real life and fiction - about women and girls being sexually assaulted and/or murdered? And have it be about other people?
But nineteen-year-old Sadie Hunter will make her story of revenge about her and her small, murdered sister Mattie. Let anyone dare to try and tell her story any differently.
Short but deadly; snapshot moments and people in life that add up to a system that is far, far bigger than a single lifetime - that is what this book cuts across.
'Sadie' is about love and what we do with it, what we do for it, and what it does to us. Especially when all is lost. It is about guilt, and being held accountable for your actions, or inactions.
Silence and selfish protection are not enough.
The reader will love Sadie, who grew up in a trailer park, and struggled with a drug addict mother who was distant to the point of being a ghost, and who kept bringing home men. Sadie would never want anyone to pity her, however. I dare anyone not to be shaken by how her grief over her little sister Mattie's murder affects her - it's a precious, complicated, dependable, powerful and loving relationship between sisters that is tragically long gone now. The writing is so good when it talks about Sadie and Mattie, and not just Sadie. Mattie always remains important to the story; she's not a cheap, cliched plot device. Death is not cheap.
Sadie can never get her so-alive and beloved baby sister back and she knows it, but the girl who has nothing left is defeated, devastated. Lost. Her only goal - her motive to survive - her drive to live when her sister is no longer living - is to track down the killer: A man they both once knew and were supposed to trust.
The young woman with nothing but a switchblade is on the road to some major breakdowns, in more ways than one. Can she ever be saved? Is it already too late?
But she can end up saving others on her single-minded journey. Taking power away from abusive men saves lives.
In additional character traits, Sadie has a stutter (which doesn't magically go away at any part of the book, because she is not anyone's trope), and she may be bisexual. Her's is a subtle book. She will have an impact on you without having to say a word.
The conclusion to 'Sadie' is rather unsatisfactory in many ways, considering the buildup, but I understand why the author chose to go that route. No story ends. No real story of revenge ends well. Nothing is finished in a neat bow in real life.
Also, awful parents are awful.
Unforgettable characters (even if you wish you could forget, some are so terrible), a bleak, haunting, depressingly real but exciting atmosphere, a poverty and class divide theme, a sense of foreboding, and all around a brave, unconventional YA novel. 'Sadie' also has a podcast narrative device, set in the future between Sadie's own POV chapters, hosted by a guy investigating her disappearance and Mattie's murder, albeit reluctantly at first. The deeper he goes, the more he deals with, the more he might come to understand Sadie.
Not that she has to answer to anyone but herself.
Hopefully if one man can finally understand the world as it is and the women and girls who have to live in it, outside of his tiny privileged bubble, then it's a step toward change.
Chilling, is 'Sadie'. It gets under that comfortable skin of yours during and after reading. Its impact on the psyche tests you, challenges you. It's what you would expect from Courtney Summers, the author of 'All the Rage'.
And there is a lot of rage to be had still. And tears.
“People don't change. They just get better at hiding who they really are.”
'I wish his darkness lived outside of him, because you have to know it's there to see it. Like all real monsters, he hides in plain sight.'
'[..] I tried not to think about that kind of stuff, because it was painful, because I thought I could ever have it, but when I did end up liking someone, it always made me ache right down to my core. I realized pretty early on that the who didn't really matter so much. That anybody who listens to me, I end up loving them just a little.'
Final Score: 4/5
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