Reviews with content warning for Ableism - Sadie

Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

Sadie by Courtney Summers

32 reviews

chronicloser's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

this was so damn powerful, and I had no idea how much it’d hit me. it’s hardship, it’s love, it’s hurt, it’s love wrapped around hurt and hurt wrapped around love. it’s what a lot of these “mysterious” and “plot twist-y” books can’t, for the life of them, grasp onto. it’s what they always forget to highlight. with the twists and turns, with the “ooooh, what happens next?” there should always be a sadie. and thats not to say it’s something authors don’t try to accomplish, I can appreciate the efforts, but its so easy to tell when the story is made around the character, aka sadie, vs when the character is made around the story. even if the plot was born first, courtney summers made it so sadie was prioritized first. this wasn’t a book about a crime, a murder, about finding answers. it has that, well, most of that, sure, but it’s not about that; it’s about way more. it was an honor to cry at work while finishing it, knowing I had read something that hit me right where it was meant to hit

Content Warnings

michelle_my_belle's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

grays_opinion's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I would recommend Sadie to anyone interested in a gritty, dark revenge novel and can handle the subject matter (more on that later.) I loved how the story was told, with the narration switching back and forth between Sadie and West, a podcaster covering Sadie's disappearance months after she went missing. It definitely helped build suspense and give the reader more information as to what exactly was going on. West in particular has an interesting arc, going from resistant and unwilling to cover Sadie's disappearance to becoming invested not only in her story, but also in the lives of others involved in her life. Sadie herself doesn't actually undergo any character development, but it's definitely not a bad thing; it helps show her determination in her mission and how deeply she is grieving her sister. I didn't necessarily find myself loving West or Sadie either. I definitely didn't hate them (although I didn't like West's initial dismissal of Sadie's story) but I never really found myself loving them. They're both characters on a mission; I found myself more invested in their stories than the characters themselves. As for why I said "it's complicated" when referring to the diversity of the cast, the characters are largely not racially diverse, if that's something you're looking for. Both Sadie and West are LGBTQ+, but that's not a big part of the book (or even a small part of it.) What I'm trying to say is that if you are looking for a book that includes a lot of diversity and has a lot of focus on it, Sadie is not that book.

The reason I gave Sadie 4 stars and not 5 is because of the subject matter of child sexual abuse and pedophilia. It was difficult to process and generally something that I don't like to read about. However, I thought that the topics were handled well and in a sensitive manner. If you choose to read this book, definitely heed any and all content warnings you find.

Overall, Sadie is a really gripping book. I was invested in Sadie and her mission. She and West make for somewhat compelling characters, although the story focuses more on the plot than the characters. It's a very interesting story, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes true crime. This book does kind of have a true crime feel to it, except it's fictional haha. This is a very interesting, but very dark book; a good read overall.

Content Warnings

violet_pages's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

mysterymom46's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Content Warnings

ghostlyprince's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

lilliansbooks's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

amazing read but taking off a star because what was that ending. i am in severe emotional distress WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT

Content Warnings

danicampbell0506's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Content Warnings

nyoomie's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

delilahbooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This is one of two books I have ever felt the compulsion to write a review of. The content warnings for this book are incredibly extensive, the most prevalent of which being the sexual assault of minors. I have never before read a book that truly, deeply disturbed me. I have read psychological thrillers that made me paranoid, but I have never been unsettled in the same way I was when I read this book. Not much bothers me. This book bothered me. I will admit that this issue is partially my fault for not doing proper research into how extensive this discussion of sexual assault was. Regardless of whether I was aware of how much this was explored in Sadie, I felt that it was incredibly excessive. I have read books that handle assault in a beautiful way while not forcing it down the reader's throat. This was not the case with Saide. There is a very fine line, in my opinion, between trauma for character/plot development's sake and trauma for trauma's sake. This book pole-vaulted over that line. While I understand that the things displayed in this book are a reality for some, I thought the way in which they were presented was incredibly poorly handled. While reading, I got the feeling that the author was not interested in giving their character depth, but instead in writing about the sexual assault of children because they wanted to. Let me make myself clear. I am NOT calling the author a pedophile. I am simply saying they seemed to be fixated on the idea of bringing up these elements at every turn regardless of whether it was necessary or beneficial to the story. They seem to be screaming "This book is dark! I promise!" with each available opportunity. An example of this is in the

Spoiler

last half of the book where Saide realizes a character who was quite literally just introduced is sexually abusing his Tball players. This revelation does not provide any character development nor does it help move the story along. It is only referenced once more in the book and even then, all that is said is that it happened. Why include that detail if it seems to serve no purpose?

In addition to the overzealous attempt at a traumatic backstory, I found the main character, Sadie, to be just as artificial. I think now is a good time to mention that I have never personally been in any situation akin to what she experienced in this book, so take what I am saying with a grain of salt. However, Saide seemed like a middle-aged man's interpretation of an antisocial teenage girl. While it would be entirely appropriate and expected for her to be detached and somber, she seemed comically moody and jaded. To me, she came across as a caricature of what she should have been. She was insufferable and I was counting the pages until I didn't have to listen to her anymore.
Despite these repulsive aspects of the book, there were some ideas I did appreciate. In the synopsis of the book which The StoryGraph has provided, they explain that this book alternates chapters between Sadie's point of view and the podcaster's. I always enjoy it when authors experiment with the format of a "traditional" book to bring something new to the table and I thought the podcast transcripts were creative enough to be refreshing while also being orthodox enough to not be jarring. This brings me to the second thing about this book I enjoyed. I listened to portions of this book as an audiobook as well as read it in a physical form. The podcast chapters were well executed on the audiobook and if I wasn't aware I was listening to a book, I could have thought it truly was a podcast. I would highly recommend both reading physically and listening to the podcast chapters (although that is not necessary for the Saide chapters). Unfortunately, that is where my praise ends.
Overall, the idea for this book was commendable, but the execution was not. I personally am a big fan of psychological thrillers as well as murder mystery books, but this book was not thrilling enough to be a thriller nor mysterious enough to be a mystery. It simply fell short in every category.

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