★★★★★
February 19th – 22nd
I really like crime stories and podcasts. Like a lot of people my age, I listened to the spin-off podcast by This American Life called Serial when it originally came out in 2014, bringing the murder of Hae Min Lee to the spotlight and questioning the conviction of her then-boyfriend Adnan Syed.
In Sadie, we have a very similar situation. After the murder of her sister, Sadie disappears without a trace. Her grandmother is desperate for answers and asks a radio station for help in tracking down Sadie. The podcast, titled The Girls follows Sadie’s path as she attempts to track down a man she’s calling her father, and follows the host’s (West’s) attempt to find her before she meets the same fate as her sister.
At the same time, we see Sadie’s side of the story. Sadie, who practically raised her younger sister Mattie was devastated by her murder and was never the same. She’s seeking revenge from a man who she believes did it, and she’ll stop at nothing to try and find him and make him pay.
Sadie’s chapters are full of anger for the loss of her sister, frustration at a stutter that makes it difficult for her to speak, and dedication to enact revenge on the man she knows is responsible. West’s chapters are told in the form of the podcast script, revealing information that goes in conjunction with Sadie’s journey and helping to uncover horrific things in Sadie’s past and help find her.
I both read this book physically and listened to the audiobook of it, but this is one audiobook that I highly recommend. It’s read by a full cast, all of whom are extremely talented. The podcast chapters are edited and mixed as an actual podcast, and the voice for Sadie is gripping and as angry as she’s written. I’ll get into some mild spoilers in a moment, but if you’re someone who needs content warnings for media, I would definitely look into the type of content that’s in this. That being said, I do believe that the best way to go into mysteries/thrillers is to go in as blind as possible, so I’d also recommend that.
Now for the spoilers.
This book tackles a lot of heavy topics: the murder and sudden death of a family member, dealing with an parent with addiction, the parentification of Sadie raising her younger sister and making excuses for her mother, as well as the strong prominence of child abuse and pedophilia which is unfortunately present in Sadie’s life. I think this book handles each of these topics in very sensitive ways, not shying away from the horror, but not making light of any of the situations.
The ending of the book I think is extremely strong, though I did see that this is the most divisive part of the book. I’m not someone who needs every answer to a mystery. It’s nice when it happens, but I find that it’s much more realistic for things to be left more open-ended. As with the podcast Serial there are so many possibilities, and we’re able to explore one of them.
This was the fist novel that I read by Courtney Summers. Though I’m not sure the plot of any of her older books appeal to me, I’ll definitely keep my eye on what she comes out with in the future.
-Siobhan
Ghost Shark Reads 