Blog Tour: Sadie by Courtney Summers

Welcome to my stop on the Sadie Blog Tour! I’ve been a Courtney Summers fan for a long time. I’m also a big fan of true crime podcasts (like Serial and Killing on the Cape). So I was beyond excited to try this book!

First, a little more about Sadie:

Sadie by Courtney Summers

Published on September 4, 2018 by Wednesday Books

I received this ARC at Book Expo.

Synopsis from Goodreads: 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.

Here are a few thoughts from Courtney Summers on the writing of the book:

What gave you the idea for SADIE?

One of the things that inspired Sadie was the way we consume violence against women and girls as a form of entertainment. When we do that, we reduce its victims to objects, which suggests a level of disposability—that a girl’s pain is only valuable to us if we’re being entertained by it. But it’s not her responsibility to entertain us. What is our responsibility to us? I really wanted to explore that and the way we dismiss missing girls and what the cost of that ultimately is.

Do you have a favorite scene, quote, or moment from Sadie?

My favorite moment is a spoiler, but my favorite quote is this: “I wish this was a love story.”

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Review of Sadie:

One of my favorite things about Courtney Summers’ books is their raw emotion. She’s a master at creating and portraying female characters who are somehow both broken and strong. Sadie was no exception. She’s been through a lot, and it’s impossible not to feel and understand her heartbreak. As the book opens, Sadie has disappeared following the death of her beloved younger sister, Mattie. Sadie and Mattie are also the subjects of a podcast that focuses on Mattie’s death and Sadie’s disappearance.

I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about this dual narrative, as I’m not often a fan of epistolary fiction. But I thought the podcast transcripts worked really well to connect Sadie’s narrative to the wider world, to add details about Mattie’s death, to introduce us to other characters (like Sadie’s mother) who aren’t part of her first-person account.

The one thing about Sadie that surprised me was that I was expecting more of a mystery and more focus on clues and suspects. Instead, this was more of a story of Sadie and all the things that led up to her disappearance. I’d call it more of a story of one girl’s heartache and quest for vengeance. Given the quote about from Summers about crime and entertainment, I can see why she made this narrative choice.

Definitely check this one out if you are a Courtney Summers fan or love deeply moving and emotional stories! Have you read this or other Courtney Summers books? Tell me in comments!