A review by _forestofpages
Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I enjoyed the writing immensely, it was creepy and immersive. I really enjoyed that each character was flawed in their own way and that none of them had a perfect relationship with their parents.

The mystery and the villain were super intriguing and I loved the symbolisms for feminism and the cruelty of man, though sometimes it seemed pretty heavy handed. I also liked that it had a Sapphic relationship, though I couldn't really enjoy it because of the context of the one character and her actions toward the other. Also, one of the main characters is ace and I really appreciated that since that orientation is very overlooked.

Now onto spoilers and why its not a four star read for me:

A big important plot point wasn't mentioned or revealed until act 3 which I find kind of weird. I also felt like the overt amount of feminism was unneeded. The second group of antagonists were all these horrible misogynists that didn't show up until act 3. It just felt really heavy-handed and really late in the story to introduce them. Just the likelihood of every one of those guys having the fact they hate women be the reason they do things the way they do them is unreal. Some of them had to want to do it because they wanted to live, or because they had a hero complex and it was for the "greater good" or something. Why were all of their motivations the same? Because it was convenient I would guess. The ending with that conflict felt rushed to me.

I did like the end and how Marian had grown so much that she was willing to die for them and for all the other girls. That was a great moment and I would say out of the three she was my favorite.


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