TW: violence, abuse, ableism

The story was a first for me in that some parts were narrated through a podcast. Though unique, I found that it really doesn't add much to the story. Wes, as a narrator, just fade away to the background.

Sadie though, was an effective narrator. Whatever myriad of emotions she experienced, I felt them along with her. How could I not with the amount of injustices she faced in her young life. Her verve was evocative.

Pushing aside the narration though, I thought the plot was pretty flat. It ended in an entirely dull manner for me. After going through the rush of emotions, driven by Sadie's sense for justice, it wasn't so much a culmination, as it was reaching a state of inertia. I'm a fan of open-ending, but only when it's done well. But I think there was just too big of gap in the plot for me, e.g., why would Keith/Jack return back to Cold Creek just to murder Mattie; everything about his history showed his too (sickeningly) meticulous in his planning to take such risk. Wes did talk about this for measly few lines, not enough to add the air of speculation I think it was aiming for - I wasn't baited by it.

In hindsight, whenever I thought the pace was picking up speed with chapters narrated by Sadie, Wes's part disrupted it. I thought Wes should add dimension to the story, but I think he was just a vessle to delineate information.

Overall, it was a pretty decent story. I think emotionally, it was quite rich. But unfortunately, the overall storyline - in terms of the mystery, or touching about the concept of justice - was inconsequential at the end.