Sadie by Courtney Summers
If you’re looking for an audiobook that will get you through a boring car drive, this could be just the ticket. It is performed by a full cast, so the voices are always changing, which helped me stay focused. And the story is quite suspenseful, about a murder and a disappearance of two sisters from a small town in Colorado.
The story unfolds in two ways. First, we hear individual perspectives in the voices of two main characters: Sadie, a nineteen-year-old who disappears after her 12-year-old sister is murdered; and West McCray, a radio personality, who begins a search for Sadie after her the discovery of her abandoned car suggests that she may have become a victim herself.
The story also unfolds in interspersed episodes of McCray’s resulting podcast: The Girls, which is like the infamous Serial podcast. McCray details his search for Sadie, but to do so, he has to retrace her steps and interview all the people she came into contact with to figure out who or what Sadie was trying to find, and why.
No spoilers here, but in the end, all but one of his questions are answered. It is very well done, and very entertaining. (It was the winner of the 2019 Audie Award for Young Adult Audiobooks.)
Other caveats: this is a story about not-very-nice-people doing not-very-nice things to themselves and to others. If you don’t enjoy hearing the details and harsh realities of the lives of the down-and-out, and/or don’t enjoy coarse language, this is probably not the book for you.
To request a copy of the audiobook, click here.
To request a copy of the print edition, click here.
Review by Roberta Jordan, Outreach and Instruction Librarian
