A review by haileyhardcover
Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand
3.0
I wavered between giving this two or three stars, for several reasons. Though the story was entertaining and I enjoyed the characters, there were so many things I would’ve changed, and so much of what was there felt haphazardly thrown together.
First, aspects of the lore didn’t feel fully fleshed out or really thought through. I would’ve liked the paranormal & magical elements to have made a little more sense - drawing connections between reality and the imaginary makes the story feel more real, more plausible, in my opinion. I would’ve loved to see more time dedicated to making some sense of the WHY behind what is happening to the characters. So much is brushed off as a connection to the land (“the Rock”), but WHY do they have that connection? WHY do only those three characters have that connection? WHY would the Rock connect in that way to Zoey and Marion who are not even FROM that land? WHY is the Rock able to grant random powers to three girls? WHY only three? WHY those specific powers? (Only one of the three really made clear sense.) WHY does the Rock care about fighting off the villain (“the Collector”) at all? So, so many more questions, and I don’t even think that the author herself could answer them if I asked directly, because none of it was thought out.
The sister (Charlotte) and the whole the starfish thing. Ugh. So much missed opportunity in this relationship. I understand that the author tried to use Charlotte’s death as a catalyst, but it just simply wasn’t necessary. If all three of the main characters (+ Charlotte) had been born on this island, they all could’ve had a connection to the land, the death of ANY other girl (Thora!) on the island could’ve been a catalyst for them to get involved, and the vaguely magical and definitely strong connection that the two sisters had could’ve been used as another anchor point for the magical element AND the ultimate defeat of the villain. Four girls could’ve received random Rock-given powers just as easily as three; OR Val could’ve gone without powers and still turned against the Collector in the end.
The misogynistic cult… uff. The little bit of lore that we do get comes from them, but really we just get more questions than explanations. Also, they’re gross, and didn’t need to be in the story at all. We could’ve gotten all the lore we needed from Thora, or memories of Thora, or journals she had left behind… That would’ve made more sense to the story.
I’m also just perplexed by the inclusion of the horses. All of that felt so random and forced. In the Acknowledgments, the author states that the idea for this book was “crystallized” for her when a friend said, “You should write something creepy involving horses.” Involved, they were… but for no apparent reason. This story could’ve been written almost exactly the same way without any single mention of a horse. Their largest involvement in the story, near the end of the book, was utterly bizarre and I can think of several other ways the author could have wrapped up that side-conflict without any horses, that would’ve made more sense to the story. I can’t imagine how the mention of creepy horses could’ve crystallized anything in this plot for the writer, but I think she would’ve been better off ignoring her friend, or writing a separate creepy horse story.
The ending, frankly, was lazy. I was hoping for an epic final battle scene or SOMETHING, but all we get are a few rambling paragraphs of vague, out-of-body kind of experience; no real substance, no real resolution. I don’t know if the writer couldn’t think of a way to describe the experience of one of the main characters and the villain or if she was just simply too lazy to write it, but that aspect of the climax felt necessary, and it just wasn’t there at all.
In the end, I think the story itself is really only worthy of two stars, but I awarded it a third to credit the really appealing cover art, the fact that it had very short chapters which made it easy to binge-read, and the positive representation of asexuality, which is too often misrepresented, in one of the main characters. Go in with lower expectations, and you will not be too disappointed.
First, aspects of the lore didn’t feel fully fleshed out or really thought through. I would’ve liked the paranormal & magical elements to have made a little more sense - drawing connections between reality and the imaginary makes the story feel more real, more plausible, in my opinion. I would’ve loved to see more time dedicated to making some sense of the WHY behind what is happening to the characters. So much is brushed off as a connection to the land (“the Rock”), but WHY do they have that connection? WHY do only those three characters have that connection? WHY would the Rock connect in that way to Zoey and Marion who are not even FROM that land? WHY is the Rock able to grant random powers to three girls? WHY only three? WHY those specific powers? (Only one of the three really made clear sense.) WHY does the Rock care about fighting off the villain (“the Collector”) at all? So, so many more questions, and I don’t even think that the author herself could answer them if I asked directly, because none of it was thought out.
The sister (Charlotte) and the whole the starfish thing. Ugh. So much missed opportunity in this relationship. I understand that the author tried to use Charlotte’s death as a catalyst, but it just simply wasn’t necessary. If all three of the main characters (+ Charlotte) had been born on this island, they all could’ve had a connection to the land, the death of ANY other girl (Thora!) on the island could’ve been a catalyst for them to get involved, and the vaguely magical and definitely strong connection that the two sisters had could’ve been used as another anchor point for the magical element AND the ultimate defeat of the villain. Four girls could’ve received random Rock-given powers just as easily as three; OR Val could’ve gone without powers and still turned against the Collector in the end.
The misogynistic cult… uff. The little bit of lore that we do get comes from them, but really we just get more questions than explanations. Also, they’re gross, and didn’t need to be in the story at all. We could’ve gotten all the lore we needed from Thora, or memories of Thora, or journals she had left behind… That would’ve made more sense to the story.
I’m also just perplexed by the inclusion of the horses. All of that felt so random and forced. In the Acknowledgments, the author states that the idea for this book was “crystallized” for her when a friend said, “You should write something creepy involving horses.” Involved, they were… but for no apparent reason. This story could’ve been written almost exactly the same way without any single mention of a horse. Their largest involvement in the story, near the end of the book, was utterly bizarre and I can think of several other ways the author could have wrapped up that side-conflict without any horses, that would’ve made more sense to the story. I can’t imagine how the mention of creepy horses could’ve crystallized anything in this plot for the writer, but I think she would’ve been better off ignoring her friend, or writing a separate creepy horse story.
The ending, frankly, was lazy. I was hoping for an epic final battle scene or SOMETHING, but all we get are a few rambling paragraphs of vague, out-of-body kind of experience; no real substance, no real resolution. I don’t know if the writer couldn’t think of a way to describe the experience of one of the main characters and the villain or if she was just simply too lazy to write it, but that aspect of the climax felt necessary, and it just wasn’t there at all.
In the end, I think the story itself is really only worthy of two stars, but I awarded it a third to credit the really appealing cover art, the fact that it had very short chapters which made it easy to binge-read, and the positive representation of asexuality, which is too often misrepresented, in one of the main characters. Go in with lower expectations, and you will not be too disappointed.