Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - Sadie

Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Sadie by Courtney Summers

143 reviews

bgmylc'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

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rmnedder's review against another edition

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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.

Content Warnings

boombaeyah's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.75

I listened to the audiobook and it was such a wonderful experience. The voice actors convey the characters extremely well. It really felt like listening to a podcast.

the book was captivating but also gut wrenching. I truly don’t know how I feel after finishing this book. Part of me wants to love it because its presentation was so good, but another part of me feels like something is wrong with the story. Maybe it’s the removal of Sadie’s narrative at the end of the book. Maybe it’s the lack of a set conclusion for Sadie’s story.

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fengxin's review against another edition

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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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alexefontaine's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad fast-paced

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

3.75

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gracefulxo's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book…. oh my gosh this book.

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kickitupanotch7's review against another edition

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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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amberacks12's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I initially picked this book up to read as my entry for Colorado in a personal Read Across America challenge involving reading one book set in every state. I picked Sadie because I didn’t want to read Stephen King, which I thought would be too dark for me. I really had no idea what I was getting myself into though, because Sadie is probably just as dark, but deals with real life horrors instead of fantastical ones.
I will say I did not enjoy this book, because how does anyone enjoy books with the kind of topics addressed here? But despite the difficulty I had with many of the topics addressed, this book still definitely left an impact.

Enjoyment: 2.5
Emotional impact: 4.5
Educational value: 5
=4 stars

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meeklovestoread's review against another edition

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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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garlicbread247's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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