Sadie - Courtney Summers

Drama/Thriller

Rating: 7.5/10

For the life of me I cannot figure out how this book got categorized as Young Adult.  I’m the first in line to rail against censoring reads for those under eighteen, but in reading this I have found my limit.  Books that depict a real life brutality rather than one mostly fabricated by a talented author.  This is one of those books…

As Sadie departs on a road trip to find the killer of her baby sister you won’t be able to shake the feeling that this isn’t going to end well. But that’s not the toughest part, that would be the pedophilia that hovers in the backstory.  While never described, it is without question implied. Both harrowing and propulsive this read will leave a mark.

Regardless of my personal feelings, this author delivers a springboard to discussing painful experiences wrapped in extremely well written thriller.

Further to that is a very clever story structure, alternating with our titular character and a podcaster following the story in tandem.

Footnote: The world is full of stories about terrible things, prepare yourself if you pick this book up that you will see behind the curtain of more than one of them.