Sadie

Sadie
by Courtney Summers
Wednesday Books, 2018. 311 pages. Young Adult

Sadie is used to taking care of things herself. Even before their mom left, Sadie was more a mother than a sister to Mattie. She never minded despite the sacrifice; Mattie has been her whole world since she was born. And that world is shattered when Mattie is found murdered. Months later, the case already gone cold, Sadie decides to take care of things again. Like always.

West McCray remembers hearing about Mattie's murder while traveling doing research for his radio show. To his surprise, nearly a year later he's contacted by a family friend of Sadie and Mattie, pleading for help. For Sadie. She's been missing for months, her car apparently abandoned. Reluctant at first, West soon becomes obsessed with finding Sadie, starting a new podcast to track his investigation of Sadie's journey, desperate to find her before it's too late.

Read this book. Just do it. Better yet, listen to the audiobook, which makes the podcast chapters (West's perspective) really come to life! There's theme music, and sound effects like sound quality of recorded phone calls and crickets chirping in the background of an outdoor, nighttime interview. Alternating between West's chapters/podcast and Sadie's perspective, this story is a brilliant melding of grief, hardship, mystery, and thriller. Sadie is a wonderfully developed protagonist, and really so is every other character. I've never heard/read anything quite like this before. This story feels so real; as a podcast and true crime fan myself, this book felt exactly like listening to podcasts like Serial. SADIE is masterful storytelling done in such a clever and compelling way.  I can't stop thinking or talking about this book! Fellow podcast fans, particularly my fellow true crime fans, will eat this up.

MW