Killing Sadie by Rachel Peterson

The quick cut: A teen girl is murdered at a party, along with the killer. Chaos ensues as the cops speak to three teens who were there at the party that night. 

A real review: 

   Thank you to Simon Pulse for providing the arc for an honest review. 

 Crime often happens when emotions flare up and passions take control. Other times it's calculated, methodical, and deliberate in nature. When seventeen-year-old Sadie is murdered and witnesses appear saying the dead Mason killed her, it would seem straightforward what occurred. That's hardly the case though for the three narrators Liz, Jayne, and Ben. 

 Liz has been best friends with Sadie for years, much to the bane of her twin sister, Jayne. While the twins share a unique biological bond, Liz is the one who truly understands Sadie and shares a close connection with. Ben is well known to be Sadie's boyfriend. All three of them were at the infamous barn party at the McClain family farm where Sadie died, along with her killer, Mason Vreeland. Is Sadie's murder as clear cut as the three party attendees are indicating? Or is something else going on? 

 This story is told in a unique way with how the vast majority of the tale happens through police interviews. Rather than being the typical interview transcript format, it instead is written like a routine dialogue. Each of the three narrators have a different relationship to Sadie and each one has their own reason for being suspicious at best. 

 Liz shares a soul in many ways with Sadie as they both have a somewhat dark and twisted personality. Drinking and partying plays a big role in their social lives. Each one takes a certain level of joy out of chaos, especially when it's someone else's drama causing it. Does that make her guilty though? 

 Jayne is Sadie's twin sister and the two could not be more different. Jayne clearly doesn't like Liz and is in many ways jealous of the bond Liz & Sadie share. There are multiple scenarios where Jayne either rats out the two for their plans or gets jealous enough that Sadie feels the need to smooth it over with Jayne. If you felt like the backup to your sister, would that make you do something bad? 

 Ben is the well-known boyfriend of Sadie and from the outside, they seem like an amazing match. Appearances are rarely what they seem though and crime shows consistently indicate that the romantic partner is often the killer or criminal. Is that true here? 

 None of the three can be trusted as narrators, especially since each one has their own secrets that they were keeping specifically from Sadie. Each of them continues to not tell the cops the entire story, even when it is in their best interest. As a reader, you are left to make your own guesses until the final 20% where the narration flips to Sadie and you get her perspective on what occurred. 

 The actual story setup is interesting, the characters unlikable & not to be trusted, and an ending that tells you who committed the crime. Each of these elements contributed to making it a better story. The issue I have is that there were additional story changes made that would have contributed to the plot, but really just felt like a distraction. Telling everything through police interviews is different, but I think it would have been more dynamic if it was told using transcript formats. That might be my personal reading preference talking though. 

 While I was pleasantly surprised by the ending and it made me change how I viewed the main characters, the distractions kept me from staying fully engaged. A few key changes could've taken this from a different concept to an unforgettable tale. 

 A fun thriller with no one that can be trusted. 

My rating: 3.5 out of 5