Beware of the woods and the dark, dank deep. He’ll follow you home, and he won’t let you sleep. Who are the Sawkill Girls? Marion: the new girl. Awkward and plain, steady and dependable. Weighed down by tragedy and hungry for love she’s sure she’ll never find. Zoey: the pariah. Luckless and lonely, hurting but hiding it. Aching with grief and dreaming of vanished girls. Maybe she’s broken—or maybe everyone else is. Val: the queen bee. Gorgeous and privileged, ruthless and regal. Words like silk and eyes like knives, a heart made of secrets and a mouth full of lies. Their stories come together on the island of Sawkill Rock, where gleaming horses graze in rolling pastures and cold waves crash against black cliffs. Where kids whisper the legend of an insidious monster at parties and around campfires. Where girls have been disappearing for decades, stolen away by a ravenous evil no one has dared to fight… until now.
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0 0You'll LOVE it if...you crave horror that passes the Bechdel test.
The relationships between Marion, Zoey, and Val are all breathtaking in their complexity, nuance, and relatability. As the girls grapple with the horrifying occurrences on Sawkill Rock and the emerging powers those tragedies evoke, alliances are constantly shifting in ways that feel natural, rather than contrived. Each girl serves a purpose in the slow-forming trio, yet none of them ever come across as stereotypical or predictable. Readers will find something to love (and occasionally pity) in each of these characters; rather than feeling like "chosen ones" set apart from the crowd, Marion, Zoey, and Val develop as normal young women caught in extraordinary circumstances, driven to stand tall when no one else can or will.
Romance and sisterhood both blossom in the group, emphasizing the importance of female friendships at any age, while also providing strong, positive queer and asexual representation. Some moments of girl power and social awareness are a touch on the nose, but this is still a huge step in the right direction for girls in search of heroines who look, act, and feel like they do.
The nameless creature that preys upon the girls of Sawkill Rock delivers on terror in spades. Its predatory zeal would frighten even if it was one of a kind; as the three girls slowly band together and pool their knowledge of the Rock's tragic history though, the mythology behind the creature reveals even greater horrors. This made me think of Stranger Things and it was a great mix of page turner and intrigue because you want to figure out what the girls will do and if the town will survive. I got the suggestion to read this book from a you-tuber I trust and I find myself hoping that the next book by this author is just as great. I am not a young adult book kind of reader but this one I really enjoyed.
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