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. (Pub Date: Sep 04, 2018)
This is not a book that will make you feel good.
Sadie has lost her younger sister, whom she raised like her own daughter, since their addict mother seemed incapable of accomplishing. Now Mattie is dead, Sadie leaves their small town after the only reason she has to stay alive—revenge. Months later, a reporter starts a radio series on the two girls, one dead, one missing. What happened to Sadie between her departure and the series?
I'm not sure why this has been marketed as YA, the story goes very dark from the very beginning and Sadie is far from being a teenager maturity-wise.
We basically follow Sadie as she looks for the person she blames for her sister's death, while the reporter tries to fill us in on the sisters' lives before it all happened. I'm not into flashbacks, but I really liked the proposal. To be honest, I think the book could have survived only with Sadie's parts, but I liked a lot the dynamic taste the radio show offered.
This was a very hectic story, making Sadie travel all over the country and meet some dangerous characters. But it's also very deep. After each sit I had to stop a while to think of all that had happened there. I won't say all characters but most were complex, leaving their psyche open to interpretations. After all, there can be many sides to a story, and it's more than true here.
The book wasn't perfect, though. Some parts were unnecessarily long and with the dual timeline, it got repetitive. As I said, I liked the effect but it doesn't mean the execution was perfect, especially when it didn't add enough to the story—and most of the discoveries got me screaming back for him to just call the police. I don't get why it took him that long. The reporter as a character was actually an unnecessary distraction, I think it could have been better if he was just a reporter, since his own story made no difference.
But it was a great book. A solid four-star and one of the best I read this year. It could have been even more cutting some of the text, as it could start getting boring or silly in some parts.
For what it's worth, it reminded me a little of Everything You Want Me to Be, by Mindy Mejia. I do prefer Mejia's because it gave me more feels, but the writing in Sadie is more mature, on point.
As for the conclusion... all I can say is that I wasn't surprised—this book won't bring many plot twists—; and yet, I still have a hole in my heart.
I recommend it to those looking after an emotional thriller.
Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
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