And another buddy read review! I read this book with my friend Grace again and I absolutely loved it. I loved the story, the varying formats, and the ending.

Sadie by Courtney Summers
Published: September 4, 2018
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Genre: YA Mystery Thriller
Pages: 308
Goodreads

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 meager 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.

Courtney Summers has written the breakout book of her career. Sadie is propulsive and harrowing and will keep you riveted until the last page.

I love mysteries and thrillers. Sadie starts off with the mystery – who killed Mattie? Her older sister Sadie is going to find out, even if it kills her.

I had so many questions going into this story. Why was Mattie trying to leave? Who’s truck would she get into? Why would someone want to kill her? Grace and I had a lot of theories on what we thought happened. We talked about who killed Mattie and why, but in the end, all of our theories were wrong.

And that’s why I loved this book so much. Through every chapter, every update, we thought we knew what was going to happen and even then, in the end, we were both wrong.

Plus, it has a changing format. It goes from Sadie’s POV in real time to a series of podcast episodes and interviews from someone looking into Sadie’s disappearance and Mattie’s murder. It was really cool to have Sadie’s friends, relatives, and the people she encountered giving statements on what happened. And how it lined up or differed from Sadie’s experience. It helped build up the mystery and made it way more intriguing to read.

In terms of plot, I was impressed with the series of events in this book. How Sadie was able to travel across the country to hunt down the man she thinks killed Mattie. We were supposed to read 50 pages a day, but about halfway through we said “f*** it” and we just decided to binge the rest to finish it. And the ending was SO GOOD.

I couldn’t put the book down and even when I finished, I was sitting there flabbergasted. I couldn’t believe the ending and I read it over and over again in stunned silence. This book was so good, a solid // 5 stars!