Sadie by Courtney Summers

Well, fuck me…

Genres: Mystery, Crime
Published: 4th September, 2018
Series: N/A
Rating: 5

A missing girl on a journey of revenge. A Serial―like podcast following the clues she’s left behind. And an ending you won’t be able to stop talking about.
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.

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I’ve been postponing reading this one, because I knew it will be depressing. Can’t say I was wrong. It’s absolutely heartbreaking. Yet, it’s one of those stories that needs to be read.

West McCray, the dude who creates the podcast about Sadie’s case is not convinced in the beginning that he should go ahead with this project. But at the insistence of May Beth, friend and quasi-grandma of Sadie, he starts investigating and soon finds himself obsessed with the missing girl.

The contrast between Sadie’s and West’s chapters is striking. Utter darkness and hopelessness versus careful optimism. It doesn’t take long to shatter all positive feeling West has ever harboured though.

All that talk about child abuse and murder is surely not going to leave anyone feeling all fuzzy on the inside, but what was the worst for me personally is to put up with all the ignorance. The story just felt too real and too plausible to skim over such details, because unfortunately these things happen for real on a daily basis.

Even worst than that? Sometimes this ignorance doesn’t come from coldness or lack of compassion. Quite often good and sensible people are completely blind to such horrors because they either never had to face them, or because they are just good, they sort of assume others have such goodness in them too. *shudder*

“People don’t change. They just get better at hiding who they really are.”

The audio book companion was amazing. Full cast, sound effects, you name it. I highly recommend listening along while you read this. Sadie has a stutter, and the narrator nailed it pretty well. You know, just something to keep in mind if that sort of thing would bother you.