Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Sadie by Courtney Summers

77 reviews

rmnedder's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-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

4.75

Sadie is a fast-paced split narrative novel that had me tuned in from the very start. It's tense and sharp, moving at break-neck speed, with an incredibly well-crafted atmosphere and a complex central character. It manages to handle incredibly challenging material with a surprising amount of grace; along with its themes of loss, it asks us about all the various forms of exploitation we're willing to stomach in our daily lives. The split narrative of Sadie and the podcast is inventive - I love a good chance to play with the form, and the use of the podcast transcript is clever, even if it did leave me longing for more than what's on the page. 

Stomach churning and deeply moving despite (or perhaps because of) its sharp edges, Sadie left me disturbed and uneasy, which is the highest praise I can offer for this kind of book. As always, read the content warnings. This one's a doozy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Vomit and Alcohol

fengxin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

i've been reading books with a different formatting recently and i love that this one was half podcast and half narration. especially when sadie's chapters repeated things that had been established in the podcast episodes; i thought it was a really cool way of experiencing her story in a more clinical setting versus her own personal version of it. as for the story itself, it made me so very sad. i feel conflicted about claire. on one hand, i'm sympathetic — addiction is a horrible thing and in this case was very much a product of environment and circumstances; but on the other hand, as someone who's experienced having a relative struggle with addiction and take everyone else down with them, i hate her. now keith? there's a very special place in hell reserved for him and his awful friend silas. in the end, i feel mostly conflicted and upset; the story wrapped up in a way that left me with little answers, which i'm sure was the point, and grieving for those girls. overall a pretty heavy story, but well written and i thought the topic was handled appropriately.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

kickitupanotch7's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

meeklovestoread's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I feel so bad for giving this book a 3.5/5. It wasn't a bad book by any means but I just didn't really feel much towards it while I was reading it. I felt for Sadie, I really did. But I honestly couldn't connect to her as a character or anyone else for that matter, so much so, that I found myself enjoying the mixed media POV more than hers. I figured out the "mystery" aspects to this story earlier on so yay me for that, but no yay to what actually transpires in this book because it really hurts my heart to know that stuff like this actually happens to people in real life. Like this story could be real! Which, in turn, made my stomach churn to read at times. Considering the book is YA it doesn't go into detail about these heinous crimes but it does tell you what's up.  I'd say, for me, the story didn't pick until the 80% mark. Overall, it was a fine read, but nothing really speculator. The ending was inconclusive and I got the bonus content version and things are still left unresolved which was so annoying because there were a few questions left unanswered.

Like what happened to Sadie? We went through this entire book looking at her looking for Keith/Darren/Jack and we don't even get to see their confrontation?! It's just assumed that her stab wound killed him. And it's just assumed that Keith/Darren/Jack killed Mattie because it's never said for sure. And if he did, why? What did he have to gain by doing that? Also, we never find out what happens to Sadie even in the bonus chapter. So annoying! And not the way I wanted it to end, But whatever. Oh and also, that bit of Sadie indirectly leading Mattie to her death was such an unnecessary detail. Sadie literally never brings it up or even alludes to that in her POV.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Grief, and Alcohol

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cancer, Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Murder

lias_library22's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Death, and Drug abuse

Minor: Rape and Blood

beth_gk28's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Violence, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Child death and Rape

Minor: Blood and Injury/Injury detail

samnash's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.75

Would have been so much better without the epilogue. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

mary_do_12's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

how did i expect courtney summers to write a single book that doesn’t have me sobbing like a baby…?

sadie is the definition of female rage and i love her for it

and i hope she’s okay and she probably isn’t and, goodness, i can’t start crying again.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Blood, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death of parent

ckashley's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Quick read. Very difficult context. Still worth it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

As a parent of teenaged daughters in the "man or bear" Era, this is a tough read. But it's so important.

reedandright's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism and Cursing