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A review by godofwar
Saint X by Alexis Schaitkin
1.0
agonizingly overwritten, brutally slow... saint x really challenged my patience in numerous ways. the approach to the plot was unique, but wore thin rather quickly, the author opting for endlessly wordy paragraphs over genuine character exploration. what should have been a vibrant setting, a relatable narrator, a tragic story, simply becomes a mess of poorly-used cliches, a gross display of privilege, the fetishization and dehumanization of the nonwhite characters - their cultures decimated in a terrible attempt at "authenticity", but it's difficult to be authentic when you don't actually see them as people. the primary characters are two incredibly privileged white girls who do little but acknowledge how "scared" they are of black men in particular, one even going so far as to express her relief when a black man who worked for her family died, since she wouldn't have to see him. but it doesn't stop there, with both emily/claire (the primary narrator) and her alison (her dead sister) lamenting over how much "better" they have it than everyone else, feeling sorry for themselves because of their position in life, though rather than acknowledge the system in place that put them there they just continue to victimize themselves for being rich and white and pretty - emily/claire complaining about how out of place she feels in "their" neighborhoods residing on the outskirts of "their cultures". it's messy, it's gross, it's tone-deaf and insensitive and unrelenting, and far from the only issue i had.
because there's also a disgusting issue with the sexualization of alison and how she dies so young, constant references to her youth and beauty even in death, becoming overbearing in the presentation of her body and relationships. it does not present itself as the attempt to comment on how young women are never in control of themselves but merely another addition to the problem; it's disgusting. the highly aesthetic, romanticized way her death is written about is not the defiant reclamation i think schaitkin intended it to be.
to be honest, it's just boring. there's hardly anything mysterious, there's no thriller aspect, no pulse-pounding moments of suspense; the story drags, snagging constantly on the unsympathetic portrayal of emily/claire's grief, stagnant and frustrating, trying so hard to present itself as clever and sharp when it's not.
because there's also a disgusting issue with the sexualization of alison and how she dies so young, constant references to her youth and beauty even in death, becoming overbearing in the presentation of her body and relationships. it does not present itself as the attempt to comment on how young women are never in control of themselves but merely another addition to the problem; it's disgusting. the highly aesthetic, romanticized way her death is written about is not the defiant reclamation i think schaitkin intended it to be.
to be honest, it's just boring. there's hardly anything mysterious, there's no thriller aspect, no pulse-pounding moments of suspense; the story drags, snagging constantly on the unsympathetic portrayal of emily/claire's grief, stagnant and frustrating, trying so hard to present itself as clever and sharp when it's not.