Sadie: List 1

by Courtney Summers
After her sister is murdered, 19-year-old Sadie is determined to track down the killer. In the meantime, a popular podcast focuses on Sadie herself.

This list covers pages 1–45 in the 2018 Wednesday Books edition.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4
40 words 161 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. preempt
    take the place of or have precedence over
    Today, we're pre-empting your regularly scheduled episode of Always Out There to launch the first episode of our new serialized podcast, The Girls.
  2. gainful
    providing money; profitable
    Cold Creek's luckiest—the gainfully employed—work at the local grocery store, the gas station and a few other staple businesses along the strip.
  3. staple
    necessary or important, regarding food or commodities
    Cold Creek's luckiest—the gainfully employed—work at the local grocery store, the gas station and a few other staple businesses along the strip.
  4. dilapidated
    in a state of decay, ruin, or deterioration
    The highway out is interrupted by veins of dirt roads leading to nowhere as often as they lead to pockets of dilapidated houses or trailer parks in even worse shape.
  5. subsidize
    support, as through grants or other funds
    In the summertime, a food bus comes with free lunches for the kids until school resumes, where they are guaranteed at least two subsidized meals a day.
  6. sheer
    complete and without restriction
    The sheer amount of space is humbling, almost divine.
  7. humble
    cause to be unpretentious
    The sheer amount of space is humbling, almost divine.
  8. aspire
    have an ambitious plan or a lofty goal
    Cold Creek is home to a quality of life we're raised to aspire beyond, if we're born privileged enough to have the choice.
  9. petty
    preoccupied with unimportant matters in a spiteful way
    Here, everyone's working so hard to care for their families and keep their heads above water that, if they wasted time on the petty dramas, scandals and personal grudges that seem to define small towns in our nation's imagination, they would not survive.
  10. respite
    a relief from harm or discomfort
    There's almost something romantic about it, something that feels like respite from the rest of the world.
  11. mar
    cause to become imperfect
    He'd barely begun his commute when he noticed black smoke marring the early morning horizon.
  12. compel
    force somebody to do something
    I'm still not sure what compelled me to stick around because I couldn't afford to miss the work, but I stayed 'til the cops and the firemen came.
  13. surrogate
    providing nurture though not related by blood or legal ties
    Mattie left behind a nineteen-year-old sister, Sadie; a surrogate grandmother, May Beth; and her mother, Claire; but Claire's been out of the picture for a while.
  14. grisly
    shockingly repellent; inspiring horror
    The grisly facts didn't inspire me to stick around.
  15. effects
    property of a personal character that is portable
    They'd found a 2007 black Chevy parked on the side of the road and inside of it, a green bag full of personal effects belonging to Mattie's older sister, Sadie Hunter, who had disappeared that June.
  16. cursory
    hasty and without attention to detail; not thorough
    After a cursory investigation, Sadie was declared a runaway by local law enforcement, and, having exhausted all possible avenues available to her, May Beth Foster reached out to me.
  17. riddle
    spread or diffuse through
    It was offered up in a hastily written ad in a sea of hastily written ads, but this one riddled with spelling errors that suggested a special kind of desperation.
  18. inherent
    existing as an essential constituent or characteristic
    “Jesus,” Becki says and I know it’s not because of the inherent sadness of what I’ve just told her, it’s because of the broken way it came out of my mouth.
  19. subtle
    difficult to detect or grasp by the mind or analyze
    “Should you—I mean, can you drive?”
    It’s one of the more subtle ways someone has asked me if I’m stupid, but that doesn’t make it any less maddening coming from a woman who can’t even spell the word please.
  20. affront
    a deliberately offensive act
    The bugs find me an affront to their territory and make a feast of my pale white, freckled skin.
  21. kismet
    fate or fortune
    It seemed a little kismet, he thought, that I was in the area when Mattie died.
  22. dismay
    the feeling of despair in the face of obstacles
    He expresses dismay over the lack of leads, but given the circumstances, he's not necessarily surprised there are so few.
  23. heinous
    extremely wicked or deeply criminal
    It's impossible for residents of Cold Creek to accept that a crime so heinously and chaotically executed would go unsolved.
  24. compromise
    expose or make liable to danger, suspicion, or disrepute
    We got a call about a fire and unfortunately, much of the crime scene was compromised by the fire department's efforts to put it out.
  25. inconclusive
    not putting an end to doubt or question
    WEST McCRAY: The DNA evidence they've recovered has been inconclusive and in need of a match. So far, there's no real suspect pool to pull from.
  26. spare
    lacking embellishment or ornamentation
    I don't know what I'm expecting when I step inside, but the place is spare and clean.
  27. cynical
    believing the worst of human nature and motives
    Mattie was scrawny in a way that was underdeveloped and awkward, but there’s a special kind of softness that goes along with that, something less visually cynical compared to my makings.
  28. askew
    turned or twisted to one side
    I head for the diner, Ray’s written in cursive paint on a sign that’s too small for the building it rests atop, making everything appear dizzyingly askew.
  29. nostalgia
    a longing for something past
    Bobby Vinton plays on an honest-to-God jukebox in the corner and I stand there, absorbing the nostalgia, the gravy-and-potatoes smell of it all, before I make my way to the counter at the back.
  30. spectacle
    a blunder that makes you look ridiculous
    I have talking to do here but I don’t want to waste a possible spectacle on someone I’m not sure will give me what I need, so I clear my throat and grab the small, laminated menu next to a basket of napkins and skim it for something cheap.
  31. coax
    influence or persuade by gentle and persistent urging
    I remember that day, how hot and uncomfortable it was, and how I could not be coaxed to pose alongside them until my mom finally said, Fine, we’ll do it without you, and that didn’t feel right to me either so I crept into the frame and became the moment’s blurry edges.
  32. saccharine
    overly sweet
    She slides the photo back to me, the tone of her voice taking a saccharine turn.
  33. contour
    form the outlines of
    He’s leaned against one of them, contoured by darkness that, for one moment, almost gives him extra dimension until my eyes adjust and I see how pathetically built he really is.
  34. incredulous
    not disposed or willing to believe; unbelieving
    “Gotta say, kid, I don’t see much of a resemblance.” I raise my chin and he chuffs softly, slightly incredulous as his gaze returns to the photo.
  35. tentatively
    in a hesitant manner
    He tilts his head to the side, his eyes drifting over me and then—a little more tentatively than he did the last time—he puts his hand on my arm and walks me farther into the darkness.
  36. supersede
    take the place or move into the position of
    Claire's addiction superseded all affection, and left her daughter attention-starved.
  37. reconcile
    bring into consonance or accord
    The pictures of Mattie are difficult to look at. She had shiny, stick-straight blond hair, sparkling blue eyes and Claire's heart-shaped face. It's nearly impossible to reconcile with that kind of vitality knowing how her story ends.
  38. vitality
    a healthy capacity for vigorous activity
    She had shiny, stick-straight blond hair, sparkling blue eyes and Claire's heart-shaped face. It's nearly impossible to reconcile with that kind of vitality knowing how her story ends.
  39. reverence
    a feeling of profound respect for someone or something
    WEST McCRAY [TO MAY BETH]: I can't help but notice Mattie doesn't look at Sadie with quite the same reverence.
  40. sprawl
    sit or lie with one's limbs spread out
    WEST McCRAY [STUDIO]: She turns the album to me. On one side is a photo of the girls. They're sprawled on May Beth's plastic-covered couch, a red-and-orange knitted blanket shared between them.
Created on Wed May 29 10:45:08 EDT 2019 (updated Thu Aug 22 14:00:37 EDT 2019)

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