Book Review: SAWKILL GIRLS by Claire Legrand

Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand

Blurb:

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.

My Review:

Earlier this year I read Furyborn by this author and I didn't really like it. But when I saw the blurb for this one and it sounded so amazing I had to give it a chance. 

Furyborn and Sawkill Girls are night and day. Sawkill girls is a story beautifully steeped in legend, bone-chilling thrills, and three very different girls. Once I picked it up I didn't want to pick it down and it was one of those rare books where I liked all of the characters whose perspectives the story is told in. I found myself feeling sympathy for Val, the girl cast as the mean girl, I cheered for shy mousy Marion as she came out of her shell, and I felt the struggle Zoey lived with every day. 

My one issue with the writing was the author's description of people. Describing someone as just a black man or a white man doesn't give me a real good picture. Not all people of the same race look the same, give me broad shoulders, and military buzz cuts and scars beneath one eye... something to tell me what the person looks like. 

I did like that the author chose to go with an LGBTQ romance as well as delving into an asexual character in this book. It was refreshing and I've actually never read a book where the character was asexual.

Overall, I really loved this book and it completely turned me around for this author's books. 

My Rating:

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

4.75 of 5 Stars! 

Book Review: The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich

The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich

Blurb:

Three students: dead. 

Carly Johnson: vanished without a trace. 

Two decades have passed since an inferno swept through Elmbridge High, claiming the lives of three teenagers and causing one student, Carly Johnson, to disappear. The main suspect: Kaitlyn, "the girl of nowhere." 

Kaitlyn's diary, discovered in the ruins of Elmbridge High, reveals the thoughts of a disturbed mind. Its charred pages tell a sinister version of events that took place that tragic night, and the girl of nowhere is caught in the center of it all. But many claim Kaitlyn doesn't exist, and in a way, she doesn't - because she is the alter ego of Carly Johnson. 

Carly gets the day. Kaitlyn has the night. It's during the night that a mystery surrounding the Dead House unravels and a dark, twisted magic ruins the lives of each student that dares touch it. 

Debut author Dawn Kurtagich masterfully weaves together a thrilling and terrifying story using psychiatric reports, witness testimonials, video footage, and the discovered diary - and as the mystery grows, the horrifying truth about what happened that night unfolds.

My Review:

I first read this book about two years ago when it first came out. At the time, reading it late at night gave me such unsettling vibes that I couldn't finish it but I loved the cover so much that I couldn't get rid of the book. 

About a year ago I read Dawn Kurtagich's sophomore novel, And The Trees Crept In and loved it. Deciding that since I got through that book I'd give this book another try. One thing is abundantly clear after rereading The Dead House again: I clearly did not read the entire book the last time and the sections that terrified me I had read out of context. 

Rereading The Dead House was a breeze. This book is easy to read because of the format it's written in - comprised of journal entries, video and interview transcriptions with plenty of creepy photos, illustrations, and notes. 

This book is really more psychological than gory horror and it makes you think about what you believe as you read it. Is Kaitlyn the alter or is Carly really the alternate personality - or are they really what Naida believes: "two souls in one body." Are Carly and Kaitlyn really insane or is there something more sinister at work? Did Naida and the others help the situation or just make it worse; would any of it have even happened without the introduction of Mala?

I have my own opinions, I like to think Kaitlyn was the main personality (since we mostly see things in her perspective, not Carly's) and that the paranormal stuff was plausible, but I'm a fool who wishes to believe in the narrators of the books I read. 

Overall, this book was much better the second time and I can truly say that I loved it! Once I got started reading it I kept telling myself, "okay you'll go to sleep after this chapter ends," but with such short chapters I knew I was lying to myself. I devoured all 400 pages in no time at all! Allow this book into your life, let The Dead House infect your mind I dare you - you won't regret it! 

My Rating:

★★★★★

5 of 5 Stars!