Sawkill Girls

By: Claire Legrand

Narrated by: Lauren Ezzo

Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's Summary

From the New York Times best-selling author of Furyborn comes a breathtaking and spine-tingling novel about three teenage girls who face off against an insidious monster that preys upon young women. Perfect for fans of Victoria Schwab and Stranger Things.

Who are the Sawkill Girls?

Marion: The newbie. 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.

©2018 Claire Legrand (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic Reviews

“Reader, hang on for dear life. Sawkill Girls is a wild, gorgeous, and rich coming-of-age story about complicity, female camaraderie, and power.” (Sarah Gailey, author of River of Teeth)

“An eerie, atmospheric assertion of female strength.” (Mindy McGinnis, author of The Female of the Species)

BEAUTIFUL!!

I’ve had 𝒮𝒶𝓌𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝒢𝒾𝓇𝓁𝓈 in my wishlist for a while now, holding off on getting it because of the reviews. I am SO GLAD I finally went for it! This story is beautifully written, and at no point did I feel there was any “man hating” messages being pushed. There are a group of men in the story who may be chauvinistic, and of course the main female characters feel a reaction to that (what female wouldn’t?) but it’s not a theme whatsoever.

Listening to this story was like running my hands through silk, it progressed so smoothly (and right from the start, I might add) with the mixture of love, horror and action having been woven together seamlessly. I am sure Lauren Ezzo’s lovely voice added to this sensation, I completely forgot she was there! She had no weird or annoying quirks to her narration, it made it so easy to get lost in the story.

5 ☆ all around! Absolutely recommend!

lgbtqia+, monsters, and magic

This book was well written, held my attention, and made me wish I had a book like this when I was a teen.

Too good to put into words

You know how when a story is really good, but you know if you try to explain it it would sound lame? (EX: “Game of Thrones is about a bunch of non-princes trying to take back a throne from an incestuous, murderous twin—all before zombies and their zombie dragons kill everybody.” Sounds lame, but is probably the most awesome show on television right now.) That is what this book is. I can explain what it’s about and what it’s like, but it will come out unfairly lame, and this book is fantastic!

I was sucked in almost instantly. There is so much mystery and wonder. The relationships are complex and strong. The themes are positive and plentiful. The characters have layers and growth. I binge-listened. I can’t wait to binge it again. The narration is spot on. This book made me want more. I’ll be purchasing more books by this author (and narrator while I’m at it!)

Favorite Read of the Year!

Wow! That was an awesome read! It's like Holly Black had a book baby with Grady Hendrix and raised it in a creepy mansion on the corner of Science Fiction and Fantasy. This is the first book I've read from Claire Legrand and she now has a permanent residence on my Favorite Authors list.

AMAZING BOOK!

I loved this book completely and furiously. It's thrilling and surprising and gorgeously written. Read it!

Disappointed

I started this book because I was looking for an interesting listen while I was cleaning. I really enjoyed it at the beginning. The main characters are interesting and the story was creepy and gripping. Sadly, the story turned 180 in the last 3 hours of the audiobook.

It was great character building and conflict until then, but it turned into a man hating muck. I consider myself a feminist but this just feels icky for me to even listen to. It feels like the girl empowerment was built relatively well and then have it all thrown away with the man hating descriptions that came out of nowhere. It's so cartoonishly sexist and was deliberately written to put down the male gender. I can't even finish this book after a certain chapter in the book. Also the main characters reasoning became very questionable from then onward.

The narrator is decent, but I don't like how over eager she gets in tenser chapters. It's like she doesn't control her volume and it gets way too loud. I did not enjoy the narrator yelling in my ears.

New favorite!

Instantly a new addition to my "favorites" shelf. Sawkill Girls is a masterwork of narration and Lauren Ezzo's narration is equally haunting and hypnotizing. The plot moves along at a constant and active pace but is structured well enough that the reader does not get left behind. The three main characters are lovable and compelling, and are all developed splendidly.

I Didn't Love It

I wanted to love it. This book has an excellent concept. interesting characters, and a fantastic setting. I feel like I should have loved it.

I didn't.

The two main culprits that kept me at arm's length was the excessive purple prose and the heavy handed gender agitation. I get that books like this need to exist, especially for young readers, but I'm just not into the us versus them vibe that came in hard like Zoey's swinging bat.

This book has a lot of hard grit and lacks refinement at its core... but I did like it to some extent. I'd read another, maybe where the girls travel or teach. I'd be happy to find out that they ended up monster hunters.

As of right now, at the end of this book, I'm feeling like 3 stars is fitting and possibly somewhat generous considering how hard it was to hype myself up into picking it back up time and time again. Seriously, that prose gets to be a bit much way too often.

Strange Little Book

This book wasn't bad, but wasn't great. the narrator did a good job but the story was just a bit weird. I'm not sure I loved the ending, but we chose it for book club.

Never bored

Throughout this entire book, there was not one single moment that I found myself bored or my attention drifting elsewhere. The switching between characters added a fantastic layer to the story. I was always wanting for the next perspective while simultaneously not wanting to leave the present one. When I started the book, it felt almost like I landed several hours in rather than at the beginning. But it was done SO WELL!

Give it a shot! If you don’t like it, that’s okay! But if you’re at all interested then you should give it a try!

good once it gets going

I really enjoyed the second half of this book but it takes a while for the plot to really get exciting.

brilliant

I loved this, I think I will have to buy the physical copy soon though as I feel like I will be able to really immerse myself in the Sawkill world then.