Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand

 

 DNF @ 18%

There's been an increase in horror novels being targeted at young women and I'm super into that, because they tend to be less focused on gore and more on psychological and atmospheric elements, which are the two things that I really love in my horror stories when I choose to read them. It's more Gothic and less, you know, splatterpunk.

I've read four such books pretty recently. WHAT BIG TEETH, WILDER GIRLS, HOUSE OF HOLLOW, and now SAWKILL GIRLS. I loved HoH, I really liked WBT, I hated WG, and I was really bored by SG, sadly. It's not the worst of the lot but it felt very over-written to me because unlike some of the other stories, which gradually build up to the dark reveal, we're spoiled pretty early on into seeing what's really happening and then we're just expected to sit around and wait while it unfolds. I think my friend jade said it best in their review, when they describe the pacing as "glacial." There's three POVs and they're all filled with this purple prose style of writing that I might have liked when I was fourteen but feels slightly embarrassing now. I tried to stick it out but I'm not feeling this one. Your mileage may vary.

2 out of 5 stars