12/20/2021
The Handmaid’s Tale meets The Craft in this feminist standalone from Legrand (the Empirium trilogy), a fusion of horror and queer romantic fantasy that advocates unity, self-empowerment, and societal change. The village of Haven believes that generations ago, wicked women destroyed the world with their ambition, deceit, insolence, and lust. Only the most pious humans survived, banding together to form an all-white patriarchal settlement. Residents routinely gather to exhaust their rage and depravity by visiting it upon four teenage female “saints”—Mercy, Silence, Temperance, and newly anointed Amity. Amity hopes that her service will absolve her family of her adulterous exiled mother’s sins, and persuade God to halt the gruesome supernatural murders claiming the town’s men. When the killings continue, however, Amity realizes that more drastic measures are needed to save her neighbors. Upon discovering the existence of witches able to manipulate magical energy called extasia, Amity vows to learn their ways so she may summon the Devil—and banish him. Though the overstuffed plot retreads familiar tropes, readers will be riveted by Legrand’s fierce female characters and their harrowing emotional journey. Ages 14–up. Agent: Victoria Marini, Irene Goodman Agency. (Feb.)
"Legrand successfully brings a supernatural gruesomeness to her exploration of morality and agency."
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
Praise for Sawkill Girls : ★“Through this dank, atmospheric, and genuinely frightening narrative, Legrand weaves powerful threads about the dangerous journey of growing up female…an intensely character-driven story about girls who support each other, girls who betray each other, and girls who love each other in many complicated ways. Strange, eerie, and unforgettable.
ALA Booklist (starred review)
★”Cinematically, gorgeously creepy and horrific, sliding between breathlessly suspenseful and disturbingly grotesque.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)
★”Legrand accomplishes the kind of slow-building tension and mounting horror that will give readers night terrors. Read this book, then lock it in the freezer.
"Legrand crafts a fiercely unsubtle feminist fantasy that takes on the patriarchy and the toxicity of hate."
"Legrand crafts a fiercely unsubtle feminist fantasy that takes on the patriarchy and the toxicity of hate."
Claire Legrand tells an eerie, feminist horror story that’s perfect for reading close to Halloween.
With prose as fierce and uncompromising as its three main characters, SAWKILL GIRLS is a fresh and unflinching exploration of female friendship wrapped in a spine-tingling page-turner. Claire Legrand doesn’t hold back—and you won’t be able to put this book down.
Reader, hang on for dear life. Sawkill Girls is a wild, gorgeous, and rich coming-of-age story about complicity, female camaraderie, and power.
Old-school horror meets fresh, female-forward fury. Claire Legrand masterfully paints this island world of terror with a blood-soaked brush.
An eerie, atmospheric assertion of female strength.
01/01/2022
Gr 9 Up— The day the fourth saint is anointed, the preternatural killings plaguing Haven, the last town on Earth, are supposed to cease. But Saint Amity's induction is marred by another body, white-eyed beasts, gray wispy women, and newfound secrets of her saintly sisters. Haunted also by the legacy of her mother's shame, Amity reluctantly approaches the other saints so that she may learn how to save Haven, only to discover rebellion, witches, and more power than she ever knew a woman could wield. Alongside the gory, insistent violence wrought by the town and the coven, Legrand's lush and uniquely evocative prose keeps tensions high throughout Amity's struggle with her magic, fury, and conscience. Gradual worldbuilding of the claustrophobic and purposefully homogenous village and the mountain beyond bookends a faster middle half, and while background characters fade somewhat, Amity's relationships with those closest to her are the foundation for her most personal and profound revelations. VERDICT Slow-burn horror meets a queer coming-of-age story, with compassionately explored themes of feminism, grief, trauma, faith, and abuse. A YA fantasy complement to Naomi Alderman's The Power ; fans of Legrand will find this an interesting new approach, as will readers of Rory Power and House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland.—Madeline Newquist
2021-11-16
The Barrow family—young teen Blessing and her older sister, who’s just taken the saint’s name Amity—live in Haven, the only human settlement to survive the wars that destroyed The World That Once Was. Living in a White society supposedly chosen by God, governed by men, and ruled by a religious text called the Sanctificat, illiterate Amity is excited to take up the red hood of the saints and open herself up to visitations during which community members physically assault holy girls in a warped ritual. Over the course of 61 chapters, Amity sets out to save her village from mysterious and grisly murders, finds and joins a multiracial coven of witches powered by a supernatural force called extasia, changes her name to Rage, falls in love with a fellow saint-turned-witch, unravels the truth around her disgraced mother, and learns information about humanity’s fate that upends everything she has been taught. The entertaining but derivative core of the story, which is weakened by allegories that are blunt and overwrought, would have been better served by getting to the various points without so much meandering. This doorstopper borrows at times from classic and contemporary White feminist literature with a blend of science and magic.
Lacking a punch. (Fantasy. 14-18)
“The Handmaid’s Tale meets The Craft . Readers will be riveted by Legrand’s fierce female characters and their harrowing emotional journey.” — Publishers Weekly
"Legrand successfully brings a supernatural gruesomeness to her exploration of morality and agency." — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
"Slow-burn horror meets a queer coming-of-age story, with compassionately explored themes of feminism, grief, trauma, faith, and abuse. A YA fantasy complement to Naomi Alderman’s The Power; fans of Legrand will find this an interesting new approach, as will readers of Rory Power and House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland." — School Library Journal
"Legrand crafts a fiercely unsubtle feminist fantasy that takes on the patriarchy and the toxicity of hate." — Booklist
“Entertaining.” — Kirkus Reviews
Praise for Sawkill Girls : ★“Through this dank, atmospheric, and genuinely frightening narrative, Legrand weaves powerful threads about the dangerous journey of growing up female…an intensely character-driven story about girls who support each other, girls who betray each other, and girls who love each other in many complicated ways. Strange, eerie, and unforgettable.” — ALA Booklist (starred review)
★“Legrand’s lush and pensive prose matches the murky, dangerous, and beautiful island setting.... Rich and earthy horror.” — School Library Journal (starred review)
★“This atmospheric, Gothic-flavored chiller, which mingles elements of dark fairy tales and outright horror... includes an asexual character and a beautifully wrought queer romance, [and] focuses on the power of female friendship and what it means to pit women against one another in fiction and in life.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
★”Cinematically, gorgeously creepy and horrific, sliding between breathlessly suspenseful and disturbingly grotesque.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)
★”Legrand accomplishes the kind of slow-building tension and mounting horror that will give readers night terrors. Read this book, then lock it in the freezer.” — Shelf Awareness
“Part spine-chilling horror story and part coming-of-age lesbian romance… If you are looking for something to scare you awake at night, this is the book for you.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Claire Legrand tells an eerie, feminist horror story that’s perfect for reading close to Halloween.” — Bustle
“With prose as fierce and uncompromising as its three main characters, SAWKILL GIRLS is a fresh and unflinching exploration of female friendship wrapped in a spine-tingling page-turner. Claire Legrand doesn’t hold back—and you won’t be able to put this book down.” — Courtney Summers, New York Times bestselling author of Sadie
“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
“Old-school horror meets fresh, female-forward fury. Claire Legrand masterfully paints this island world of terror with a blood-soaked brush.” — Elana K. Arnold, author of National Book Award finalist What Girls Are Made Of
Emily Lawrence offers a chilling performance of this dark, witchy audiobook. Amity is chosen to become a saint of Haven, an opportunity that can rid her family of her mother’s shame and stop the men of her village from dying. Gentle moments of budding sapphic romance are juxtaposed with mystery and horror. Lawrence perfectly conveys the pseudo-Puritan rhetoric of Haven in an authoritative voice full of conviction. Her vocal versatility gives strong emotions to a wide array of unique characters. She provides a particularly strong performance of an angry coven of witches who are ready to take back their power from the men who have abused them. Lawrence’s commanding narration perfectly suits this story of vengeance. A.K.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Emily Lawrence offers a chilling performance of this dark, witchy audiobook. Amity is chosen to become a saint of Haven, an opportunity that can rid her family of her mother’s shame and stop the men of her village from dying. Gentle moments of budding sapphic romance are juxtaposed with mystery and horror. Lawrence perfectly conveys the pseudo-Puritan rhetoric of Haven in an authoritative voice full of conviction. Her vocal versatility gives strong emotions to a wide array of unique characters. She provides a particularly strong performance of an angry coven of witches who are ready to take back their power from the men who have abused them. Lawrence’s commanding narration perfectly suits this story of vengeance. A.K.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
