If this book review is more than just me screaming at you to buy this book and heart emojis, that will be an accomplishment. To say I liked this book would be an understatement. Sawkill Girls is a beautiful story of three girls who fight against monsters, men, and themselves to become who they were meant to be. Claire Legrand is a genius. Let’s get to the review!
Marion Althouse starts off the book moving to Sawkill Rock with her mother and sister, Charlotte, after losing their father in a car accident. This is supposed to be their new start, but Marion has her doubts. The mother she once knew has been vacant and sad since her father’s death and it has been up to Marion to take care of her as well as Charlotte.
But things do seem to be changing once they get to Sawkill, just not for the better. Almost as soon as they get to the island, Sheriff Harlow puts Marion on his horse, Nightingale. Horses are all over Sawkill, so it’s important that Marion gets used to them. But as soon as Marion is on the horse, the horse takes off and Marion’s head starts to buzz with a cry. A bone cry that will be one of her companions for much of the story.
Marion is such a soft, thoughtful, quiet, and beautiful character. But she’s also strong and trusts the things around her even if they don’t make any sense. Moths are talking to her, she is being transported to different places, and Val, the girl she should hate, is perhaps the one she trusts most of all. I love Marion. Even when the worst things happen to her, she is still there to fight. She is the type of strong female character we should strive for. She cries, expresses her feelings, loves so deeply she can hardly contain herself, and fights and sacrifices for the ones she loves.
Her relationship with Val is lovely. They are so devoted to each other. While their friendship and then romantic relationship starts off being about what information they can get out of each other, the way they come to feel about each one another makes that initial reasoning null and void pretty quickly. They are drawn to each other like a moth to the flame but they are both the moth and the flame. And it doesn’t hurt that they are drawn together for other reasons as well. (I am trying really hard not to include spoilers here)
Then there is Zooey. She is probably the character I relate to and connect with the most, although it really is a toss-up between Zooey and Marion. Zooey has sass. She has the best one-liners and at times I had to stop reading just to laugh. Zooey is Sheriff Harlow’s daughter but that doesn’t make her immune to hardship. She recently was in a relationship with her best friend, Grayson. They had sex and Zooey decided that she didn’t want to do that ever again. Grayson was hurt. Zooey was confused but ultimately figured out that she is asexual. When they broke up, the rumor mill started going a mile a minute in their small community. The fact that Grayson and Zooey come back to each other as friends (and maybe something more) is a testament to the strength of their relationship and how good of a person Grayson is. (Name 5 guys you know who would do the same. I’ll wait.)
Zooey has also recently lost her friend, Thora. Many girls have gone missing on the island over the years and Zooey is determined to find out what the hell is going on. She’s the Sheriff’s daughter after all and if she can slip her way into his office to find some clues, she’s gonna do it.
There are so many things I love about Zooey. Her relationship with her dad. Her friendship with Grayson. Her hatred of Val (I enjoy a grudge from time to time). Her devotion to finding out what happened to Thora even when, in her last days, Thora was more friends with Val than she was with Zooey. Zooey’s ability to throw around a baseball bat might be my favorite thing ever (can an autographed baseball bat be a special edition piece of merchandise to go with the book?!). I also love her ability to forgive. That is actually a big theme in this book that I didn’t realize after my first reading. Marion and Zooey have to forgive a lot, especially from Val, to be able to stop the monster that is taking the girls on the island.
I also love Zooey's belief in Marion. Zooey is the first one to befriend Marion when she moves to the Rock. Despite Marion’s sometimes-strangeness (the boney cry and the having moth’s talk to her), Zooey does not make her feel that way. She listens and doesn’t judge. Zooey is a true friend to all the people she deems worthy of her friendship and I love her for that.
I can really not say enough about Zooey. She is equal parts sleuth, badass, confused teenage girl, and everything I could ever want in a character.
Now let’s talk about Val Mortimer.
You will hate Val at the beginning of the book. It’s not your fault. You don’t get to fully understand her until later. And who doesn’t love to hate the “perfect” girl? But Val’s life is anything but perfect. Val has a secret that she can’t tell anyone but that is the reason that so many girls have been taken on Sawkill Rock over the years. Her family is tied to something evil and vicious that has been going on for generations. Trying not to give spoilers here is soooooo difficult lol.
Val also has to deal with an abusive mother and living a life she never wanted. But then she meets Marion and something clicks. When they touch, there is a warmth and a light that’s never been there before for either of them. To me, Marion gives Val hope for the first time in a while. Marion is Val’s saving grace in a lot of ways. Where Val never thought she could fight the evil connected to her family, Marion makes her see that it is possible.
And then there is Val and Zooey. *cackling* They do not like each other. I would say there is more dislike on Zooey’s side than Val’s because she suspects Val had something to do with Thora’s disappearance, but Val gives as good as she gets. I love their reluctant friendship. It warms my spite-filled heart.
There is really no other way to describe my feelings for Sawkill Girls than by saying it is unbelievably good! It is so well written I could cry (and I cried soooo much). Every character is so well developed. I also appreciated how the character’s sexualities were shown but it wasn’t there only defining characteristic. Seeing representation in more books makes me so happy. Everyone should have a character that makes them feel seen and less alone in the world. I will fight anyone who doesn’t at least appreciate that this book exists (where’s my baseball bat?!).
If you still have doubts about whether or not I enjoyed Sawkill Girls, I don’t know what to tell you. I’m giving it 5 out of 5 stars. It is such a magical, brilliantly-written, girl-power story. I cannot say enough good things about it.
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Reviews with images
Well written characters & creepy atmosphere.
Sawkill Girls is the story of three teenage girls who come together to face an ancient evil. It’s also about friendships and families and duty and the daily aches and pains and confusion that teenagers face.Marion, her sister and her mom have relocated to Sawkill to start a new life after the death of the girls’ father. Sawkill is an isolated place inhabited by mostly wealthy people but Marion seems ready to start anew but things go so terrible wrong.Zoey’s best friend is one of many girls who have disappeared on Sawkill. Zoey isn’t towing the line spouted by the residents who aren’t terribly alarmed by the disappearance. They assume she fell off a cliff and leave it at that. Zoey won’t let things go even when her police officer father insists she must. She snoops and she sniffs out trouble!Val is the town beauty. The high school Queen Bee whose “smile was made of diamonds and bee stings”. Everyone falls under Val’s spell except for Zoey. Zoey blames Val for the loss of her missing friend.So those are the girls. How they interact and the things that are uncovered make up the rest of the story and I was hooked for the first 2/3’s. There were some truly creeptastic scenes here, especially those with the devilish little “boy”. The atmosphere is also fantastic. The island breathes dread, drips spiders (ahhh!) and the reader is kept off kilter for quite a bit. I loved that. The writing is engaging and the characters are multi-faceted and, best of all, no one person is terrible and no one person is perfect. I loved that too. The only thing that I didn’t love was the insta-love relationship between two of the characters that seemed to have no believable build-up beforehand. I get it. They’re teens and lust happens but this didn’t feel real. Give us a little build-up first! There wasn’t any attraction noted before the big kiss. That always bugs me and feels like a cheat.Somewhere around the 2/3 mark things started to drag for me. I’m guessing it’s because the action took over and I’m not a huge action fan so this is on me and my personal preferences. I’d easily recommend it to someone looking for a young adult horror novel with well-drawn characters.
Top reviews from other countries
M.Long
A touching tale of friendship, rivalry, and a demon.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 14, 2018