My Review: Sawkill Girls: by Claire Legrand

Total Star Rating: 3 Stars

One of the worst things of being an avid reader is that it ruins a lot of other books for you. You’ve read so many amazing stories with rich, complex worlds and memorable characters that you followed with along their journey, and seeing anything that either feels like a copy of that or isn’t possibly up to the same standard as that last book that made you fall in love with reading just falls flat in your mind…

This title was recommended to me by a friend, and we’ve read a lot of the same titles and enjoyed them for the most part, so of course I snagged a copy of this when it arrived into the bookstore one day. I had high hopes that I’d found something spooky that would keep me up late into the night and make me jump at every shadow that I thought even slightly moved, but this one just didn’t do quite that.

It’s by no means a bad book at all; any book that has any sort of fanbase with those that are able to explain what they liked about it can be considered a great book to read. Certain writers, of course, are better than others, but thats another topic to get into some other time. The point I’m trying to make from earlier is that I didn’t connect with the book as much as I’d hoped.

Everything about it led me to believe that it would have everything necessary for me to absolutely love it: the beautiful cover design, the exciting blurb, and the personal recommendation from my friend. Unfortunately, for myself at least, it just wasn’t fully able to live up the hype.

What It’s About:

Marion Althouse moves to Sawkill Rock with her mother and older sister, Charlotte, as a way for them to hopefully move on in life after the unexpected death of her father. Sawkill Rock is an island town off the East coast (I believe), and the very day she steps foot on the island, Marion discovers that beneath the seemingly perfect, pristine town hides a deep, dark, terrible secret that goes centuries back into the past, a malevolent presence thats infiltrated the land from its wide trees to the stones and decay. Any sort of hope that Marion had for her and her family is swiftly taken away through the night when Charlotte goes missing, just like the others…

Zoey Harlow, the police chief’s daughter, is continuously haunted by the sudden disappearance of her best friend, Thora, that happened a year ago. Determined to find out what happened exactly happened, she makes the startling discovery that there have been disappearances of girls from the island for many years, and somehow it’s overlooked and covered to the point that hardly any of the townsfolk seem to notice. Somethings not right, and Zoey starts to suspect the elite Mortimer family who may know something, or even be involved…

Val Mortimer has been brought up in wealth and privilege with the generations of women in her family, but beneath the luminescent pearl necklace, the flawless hair, sharp smiles and the spotless, silky exterior hides a secret that they’ve kept hidden that could not only threaten their welfare, but the fate of everyone should it escape…

Beware of the woods and the dark, dank deep. He’ll follow you home, and he won’t let you sleep.”

– Claire Legrand, “Sawkill Girls”

The mysterious, hungry presence has preyed upon the young women of the island for so long, devouring them in its long, scythe-like claws, and it’s been slowly gaining strength to untether itself from its willing host and be able to freely walk on this world in which it doesn’t belong in. It’s a campfire story, a child’s folktale, a myth of an insidious monster that lurks in the shadows of the trees and is always watching, and is always hungry…

What I Liked:

1. The LGBTQ+ Representation! The three main characters are on the queer spectrum of sexual identity! Zoey is ace (asexual for those not with the lingo) along with being black, so she’s representing multiple groups within the story, and it’s revealed that both Marion and Val become openly queer as well and develop feelings for each other. Their mutual attraction felt somewhat out of the blue, but was still satisfying nonetheless.
2. The Mortimer Reveal Right Away! So there’s an actual big reveal of Val and her dark family secret rather early on in the story, and part of me was questioning as to why the author would have something like that not wait until later to make a shocking reveal, but as you read the story, it makes more sense for how it develops and Val’s character evolution, which is actually pretty amazing because I felt like her character had the most development within the story, even with her interesting initial position.
3. The Connection of the Three Girls! They didn’t know it at first, and neither did we to a degree, but the girl’s fates were all connected in a strong way that grew along with the story as more and more happened. All three of them have an initial connection– having lost something close to them from the monster (Marion – her sister, Zoey – her best friend, and Val – her freedom), but also learn that they’re connected in other supernatural forces that play a huge part in how things play out. A theme that sticks out is female friendship amongst these diverse characters, and the author illuminated that in a beautiful, if unorthodox way.

What I Didn’t Like:

1. The Book Unraveled Along with my Interest…The book started off with a bang; it brought up the main conflict almost within the first couple of chapters of the story, but really became a slow burn towards the middle, and I found myself struggling to keep going on for a lot of it. It’s not exactly a long story, but it took me so much longer than expected to actually finish it. I think honestly that it was because that most of the twists were revealed so early on in the story, and some were kind of predictable too. Everything after that, up until the climax, felt more like repetitive filler. I hate to say it, but part of me was considering to add it to my DNF (Did Not Finish) pile on several occasions. I just lost so much interest in it; it was like how I felt whenever I was assigned a book back in school. Somehow the required reading assignment always made me subconsciously want to read the book less.

Conclusion:

Overall, It wasn’t my favorite book, but it does hold quite a bit of potential, and my lack of excitement about it doesn’t mean it’s a bad book, or not worth checking out! The author’s style of writing is gorgeous and so well done in some areas, but this story just felt like it was missing something, like Claire Legrand needed to go another step further with it. I wish I could say what that was exactly, but unfortunately I can’t. All I can say is that I just didn’t connect with it as much as I’d hoped, which makes sense since it doesn’t exactly fall under what I normally read.

I recommend this book to anyone who’s looking for a thriller with strong diverse female lead characters, anyone wanting to add to their LGBTQ stacks of books, or those looking for a great feminine read.

Thanks For Reading!

— Nick Goodsell