The Quick Cut: A girl goes looking for vengeance after her younger sister is murdered and ends up missing herself. The drama unfolds as a podcast unravels what happened to both sisters over multiple episodes.
A Real Review:
Thank you to St. Martin's Press for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Not many people get to live a charmed life. In fact, most (if not everyone) get to push and crawl their way through hard times, difficult situations, and unbearable people standing in the way of personal progress. In the book "Sadie", our lead ladies have experienced the worst of the worst: having no parents to rely on, Sadie has worked hard to provide for her younger sister Mattie and raise her the best she can. However, when Mattie is found dead outside their hometown of Cold Creek, Colorado - Sadie changes course and disappears with barely a trace. Leaving behind a car and some of her things, a journalist named West McCray comes upon the story of the two sisters and becomes intrigued... which is where the real story begins.
I enjoyed a lot of elements in this book, but the narrative here was definitely my favorite. The switching between the podcast and Sadie's point of view was an interesting way to see what was really going on while also following the chaos of interviewing all those people involved in the girls' lives. Reading the transcripts from the podcast was really my preferred parts of the book. Sadie was a good enough narrator, but some of her sections plod along a little bit and I didn't connect with her as strongly as many others did. A big element to Sadie's character is the fact that she has a stutter - which continues throughout the book and that the journalist explains has no known cause.
Forewarning: this book is dark when it comes to the material it covers and it does include sexual abuse of minors by adults. Being aware of these elements going in is definitely something you should be aware of, especially depending on what age you are reading this one. I wouldn't recommend anyone on the younger scale of teenage read this one due to the sensitive material here. The ending is also a bit frustrating considering its very open ended, but I understand the reasoning behind that decision.
A powerful story about two sisters who stood together, this book will leave you on the edge of your seat wondering what happened and why the other disappeared.
My rating: 4 out of 5