Recent Reads and Mini Reviews #2

Welcome to another recent reads and mini reviews! This is my second one and I certainly enjoyed writing the first one. If you missed it, you can check it out here. For today’s post, I will be talking about two books: No Exit and Sadie.

All my thoughts are spoiler free

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Title: No Exit
Author: Taylor Adams
Genre: Adult, Mystery, Thriller
Publisher: William Morrow
Rating: 3 stars

Synopsis:
On her way to Utah to see her dying mother, college student Darby Thorne gets caught in a fierce blizzard in the mountains of Colorado. With the roads impassable, she’s forced to wait out the storm at a remote highway rest stop. Inside, are some vending machines, a coffee maker, and four complete strangers.

Desperate to find a signal to call home, Darby goes back out into the storm . . . and makes a horrifying discovery. In the back of the van parked next to her car, a little girl is locked in an animal crate.

Who is the child? Why has she been taken? And how can Darby save her?

There is no cell phone reception, no telephone, and no way out. One of her fellow travelers is a kidnapper. But which one?

Trapped in an increasingly dangerous situation, with a child’s life and her own on the line, Darby must find a way to break the girl out of the van and escape.

But who can she trust?

Whew. Okay where to start? This book is fast paced and definitely a page turner which I enjoyed. It didn’t take long to get to the plot. We meet Darby Thorne who’s driving in the worst conditions ever to see her dying mother, however because it is dangerous to drive, she stops at a rest stop. She meets a few people there and everything seems normal till she’s looking for cell signal and while passing one of the cars, she sees a little girl trapped in a dog crate. Darby is low-key freaking out and at one point even thinks she’s hallucinating till she checks again later on and sees that she isn’t.

My problem with this book were the characterizations and the plot twists. At some points I found Darby to be bland and at others I was routing for her. I’m done with the book and still don’t know how to feel about her. The other characters were also “meh.” I love books that have unreliable or unlikable characters. However, this just felt like neither of the two. I didn’t care about what was going to happen to them. The reason for the girl being kidnapped and all that was behind the plot line was disappointing and I felt like it was incomplete. I asked myself “umm that’s it?” It was just okay to me. I was expecting so much more and I thought there was room for it to be better. It’s as if the author knew what he wanted the book to be about but didn’t execute it all that great.

The writing was well done and good. I liked the narration and how quick this book was. Overall, the book was a solid 3 stars.

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Title: Sadie
Author: Courtney Summers
Genre: YA Mystery
Publisher: Macmillan
Rating: 5 stars

Synopsis:
Sadie hasn’t had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she’s been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water.

But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie’s entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister’s killer to justice and hits the road following a few meagre clues to find him.

When West McCray—a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America—overhears Sadie’s story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie’s journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it’s too late.

This book contains trigger warnings for: sexual abuse, pedophilia, murder, blood, violence, and drug abuse.

This was my first audiobook ever!!! Well the first one to really grab my attention. I’ve tried other audiobooks years ago and couldn’t get into them at all. I found myself constantly bored. However, this one was perfection. It has a full cast. And because this book has chapters of a podcasts, it has all those elements to it which made it even better to listen too.

This book is hard-hitting and sad. We meet Sadie who’s life has never been easy but she’s always been second person to her little sister, Mattie, who is now dead. Sadie goes missing after Mattie’s death to try and avenge her death. She wants justice. When Sadie goes missing, a radio personality hears about the story and decides to go on a mission to find her and get to the bottom of the what happens. This book is told in alternating chapters of Sadie’s POV and “The Girls” Podcast.

From beginning to end this book had me at the edge of my seat. I loved all the characters involved and the way the author portrayed them each. Summers really showed how each of them experienced their own grief and how they handled it. Sadie being unstoppable and getting to the bottom of it, going through lengths.

I liked the plot, the style of the this book, all the emotions it left me with, and the themes of it as well. The realistic theme that people tend to forget about the missing girls, the dead girls, the forgotten girls. Summers didn’t shy from the theme of sexual abuse. I didn’t have to guess it, it was raw and to the point. This story although fiction, rings true. I highly recommend this 5 star read.

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That is all I have for today! Have you read these books? What are you currently reading? Have a great day xo

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