Book reviews
This review is spoiler-free, as any plot points discussed can be learned from reading the inside of the book jacket.
[The switchblade] was his, a long time ago. It’s mine now. I’m going to carve my name into his soul. Like all of Courtney Summers’ books, Sadie focuses on the horrible things that happen to teenage girls. It begins with the reader learning about the disappearance and murder of 13-year-old Mattie. This crime leads her old sister, Sadie, to head off on her own in search of revenge. She tells no one where she is going and does her best to leave no trail behind her. The story is told in alternating sections. At times, we follow Sadie, seeing her reactions with people who can lead her to the man she believes killed her sister. Sadie is a unique character because she has a stutter that occasionally leaves her almost completely unable to speak. As she states in her internal monologue, I’m only fluent when I’m alone. While reading a character with a stutter can be a bit disconcerting at first, it didn’t take anything away from the story and, in fact, made the character of Sadie feel even more real. Due to her stutter, Sadie focuses on the ways other people speak, which helps her determine who is lying to her and who’s telling the truth. It also gives Courtney Summers an excuse to include descriptions like this: His voice sounds like a knife that sharpens itself on other people, intimidating enough that I can’t even imagine what it would sound like if he yelled. The parts of the story not narrated by Sadie are told through a true-crime podcast focusing on Mattie’s murder and Sadie’s disappearance. The podcaster, West McCray, is inspired to follow this case after speaking with the girls’ adoptive grandmother. After telling McCray about the girls and their bond, she pleads, “I can’t take another dead girl.” As a true-crime junkie, I loved reading this fictionalized version of a true-crime podcast (which was also made into a real podcast called The Girls). But the best part of this book for me was the relationship between Mattie and Sadie. I have two older sisters and six nieces and I would do anything for them, so I never questioned Sadie’s unrelenting desire to punish the man who killed her little sister. While there are many heartbreaking situations in this book (just like in every Courtney Summers’ book), the part that hit me the hardest came when Sadie finally slowed down for a few moments to think about how her sister’s death was truly affecting her. She’d taken care of Mattie for several years after their mother bailed on them, doing everything a parent is supposed to do while still being just a kid herself. She gave up her own childhood to ensure that her sister could have a somewhat normal upbringing, just to have it all destroyed. Grinding my bones to dust just to keep us holding on and when I lay it out like that, I don’t know how I did it. I don’t know where, underneath it all, you’d find my body. And I don’t care. I’d do it all again and again for eternity if I had to. I don’t know why that’s not enough to bring her back. Though Sadie is not what many would consider a “likable” character, it’s impossible to deny that she is an absolute badass. And while Sadie isn’t my favorite of Courtney Summers’ books, I still loved it and will likely read it a few more times over the years. I always forget fear is a conquerable thing but I learn it over and over again and that, I guess, is better than never learning it.
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Jacinta M. CarterProfessional Book Nerd Archives
March 2017
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