Scan barcode
sinnabeanz's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
This book took so many turns it's not even funny how often I thought i knew what was happening and then was proven wrong.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexism, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Blood, Violence, Rape, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Death, Classism, and Child death
steffi_23's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexism, and Violence
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, and Animal death
Minor: Sexual assault
bigkidbookworm's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
HANDMAID’S TALE meets THE CRUCIBLE in this dark and twisted story of witchy, feminist rage. I couldn’t put it down.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Religious bigotry, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, and Animal death
lady_moon's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
While reading, I was thinking that this is a total 5 stars read... Until the ending came. Like, it was reasonable and it's my fault I don't like dystopian's stuff that much. But after they found Hope everything went kinda meh for me. Maybe, maybe, if it wasn't for the Jaime's chapter, I would have considered giving it 5 stars anyway but it just... It was so unnecessary. I do not want a sequel. Part of Extasia's charm is that it's a standalone. I did not need this kind of epilogue. Took off the epilogue from Jaime's POV and the book will be perfect.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Misogyny, Death, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Gun violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Suicide, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting
lizgriffinwords's review against another edition
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
Thank you Epic Reads for the gifted ARC.
Although the writing style is lyrical and poignant and visceral, the quantity of triggering material outweighed my enjoyment of the book. Perhaps the intent was to give women a revenge fantasy, and I understand the appeal… but framing it in a world that is so horrible to women just made reading it somewhat of a slog because horrific things continued happening to Amity/Rage and the other protagonists for so much of the book.
Specifically, content includes religious/patriarchal cult trauma, attempted rape, implied past rape, frequent physical abuse, gaslighting, explicit violence/gore/body horror, and death.
Although the writing style is lyrical and poignant and visceral, the quantity of triggering material outweighed my enjoyment of the book. Perhaps the intent was to give women a revenge fantasy, and I understand the appeal… but framing it in a world that is so horrible to women just made reading it somewhat of a slog because horrific things continued happening to Amity/Rage and the other protagonists for so much of the book.
Specifically, content includes religious/patriarchal cult trauma, attempted rape, implied past rape, frequent physical abuse, gaslighting, explicit violence/gore/body horror, and death.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Gore
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Sexual content and Confinement
sallysimply's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
- Loveable characters? No
3.5
It’s The Grace Year, with magic, basically. Which is totally fine if you love The Grace Year. And which I would have known if I had actually read the updated blurbs, so that’s on me, I suppose (I just tend to avoid blurbs if it’s an author I like).
All of this to say that I only liked this marginally better than The Grace Year, and I possibly would have liked it more if I didn’t (unintentionally) read it almost immediately after.
Go into this expecting all the content warnings you might imagine when reading misogynistic dystopia.
All of this to say that I only liked this marginally better than The Grace Year, and I possibly would have liked it more if I didn’t (unintentionally) read it almost immediately after.
Go into this expecting all the content warnings you might imagine when reading misogynistic dystopia.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Death of parent, Cursing, and Gaslighting
apersonfromflorida's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Misogyny, and Abandonment
Moderate: Sexual content, Blood, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Gore
Minor: War and Homophobia
readingwithkelsey's review
3.0
Claire Legrand's Sawkill Girls was a book that surprised me with its feminist take and commentary - and I have to admit, I really expected to be blown away by Extasia, but I was left disappointed. Overall, I did really enjoy the pseudo-puritan society created for this world. I love discussions of religion in novels and how it affects younger women, so the whole beginning portion for me was super interesting. Learning how Amity believed, what the town does in consequence of this belief, the fact that these younger women take on the roles of "saints" and how they are treated in consequence - amazing look at male dominated, puritan societies. The women were really interesting characters and how they discovered the lies and atrocities being committed by their elders was fascinating. One characters actions and feelings towards the whole situation was realistic and I really reading about her. However, it is once the element of witches comes into play in the novel that I started to drift away from the book. I think the worldbuilding in that aspect was not the most developed and didn't really make sense and I think it really falls apart especially at the end when the more science fictiony dystopian world (which made sense to the puritan, isolated village part but not the witch part????) . I think for many people this will be a hit because it does hit all the notes for witchy, fantasy-horror with feminist rage theme, but I feel as though because I was expecting much, much more it fell very flat to me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Religious bigotry
thebookishvalkyrie's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This is a haunting story that will keep you thinking about it long after you’ve finished reading it. The prose are beautifully creepy. The horror elements are visceral, hooking into your subconscious and lingering on the edges of your conscious mind. The sapphic witchy vibes are exactly what I hoped for. The end is satisfying. Though there was a moment where I worried that the twist was tired one - but it’s been spun into something new and I enjoyed it in the end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Violence, Body horror, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Xenophobia, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, War, and Grief
Minor: Racism
camillessi's review
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
2.5
*I received an ARC of this book from the publisher. (Thank you!)*
Firstly, I wanted to express how surprised and disappointed I am that there is no official trigger warning list for this book. I searched the author's website and the publisher's site and did not find any. With the amount of disturbing and potentially triggering content that is in this novel, I think that would warrant at least a warning, especially as this is a book written for teenagers. That said:
CONTENT WARNINGS: Gore, body horror, sexual assault, abuse (domestic abuse, child abuse, religious abuse), animal death, cannibalism, misogyny, minor character death
Claire Legrand's books tend to be hit-or-miss for me, but with how much I loved Sawkill Girls, I was excited for another horror novel from her. This did not, however, live up to my expectations. As always, the prose was generally beautiful and mostly flowed well, and the way the plot fit together was clever. The atmosphere throughout was dark and heavy, well-fitting for a horror novel.
But the downfalls (to me) were too many for me to say I really enjoyed it (and certainly not to the extent that I enjoyed Sawkill Girls). I felt that this book relied too heavily on the violence and the shock value of it in efforts to get its point across. It becomes clear rather early on that the men of Haven are the villains in this story. But the constant gruesome deaths and murders of these men seemed gratuitous and made it feel like I was getting hit over the head repeatedly with the "ALL MEN ARE HORRIBLE" message. I can understand the message fine without men getting mangled until they are unrecognizable every other chapter. It wasn't even just the men's deaths either—everyone who dies in this novel reaches a gruesome end that is described in painstaking detail. This could be attributed to Legrand's excellent imagery in her prose, but I also felt that after a while, it became tedious. I found myself skipping past paragraphs and pages describing torture and mutilation, and really didn't feel like I missed out on anything in my reading experience by doing so.
The catalyst for the protagonist Amity's quest I also found rather confusing. I reread the passage several times trying to figure out why it made sense for her to make the decision she did just based on a vague fable from her town. The quest itself was interesting and brought plenty of tension that eventually I was able to ignore that it didn't make sense. But it certainly pulled me out of the story for a while.
Furthermore, the big reveal near the end felt anticlimactic and reminded me too much of other post-apocalyptic novels.
Overall, this book might be great for people who don't mind the unsettling content and enjoy straightforward messages. The female friendship was strong here, despite it feeling slightly underdeveloped. I also liked how a supporting character was given a (rushed) redemption arc—I think they deserved one.
I think this book was not to my personal tastes, which is fine. I wanted to put it down many times, but felt I needed to finish it in order to write an honest review. I can't really say I enjoyed reading it, but it did hold my attention after about the halfway mark. Additionally, I haven't read YA novels in a few years now, and so found some moments in here cheesier than I might have previously. But those who are used to reading in that category may not be bothered by it at all!
Like I said at the beginning, this author is always a hit-or-miss for me, so even though I didn't enjoy this book, I will still be on the lookout for more releases from her.
Firstly, I wanted to express how surprised and disappointed I am that there is no official trigger warning list for this book. I searched the author's website and the publisher's site and did not find any. With the amount of disturbing and potentially triggering content that is in this novel, I think that would warrant at least a warning, especially as this is a book written for teenagers. That said:
CONTENT WARNINGS: Gore, body horror, sexual assault, abuse (domestic abuse, child abuse, religious abuse), animal death, cannibalism, misogyny, minor character death
Claire Legrand's books tend to be hit-or-miss for me, but with how much I loved Sawkill Girls, I was excited for another horror novel from her. This did not, however, live up to my expectations. As always, the prose was generally beautiful and mostly flowed well, and the way the plot fit together was clever. The atmosphere throughout was dark and heavy, well-fitting for a horror novel.
But the downfalls (to me) were too many for me to say I really enjoyed it (and certainly not to the extent that I enjoyed Sawkill Girls). I felt that this book relied too heavily on the violence and the shock value of it in efforts to get its point across. It becomes clear rather early on that the men of Haven are the villains in this story. But the constant gruesome deaths and murders of these men seemed gratuitous and made it feel like I was getting hit over the head repeatedly with the "ALL MEN ARE HORRIBLE" message. I can understand the message fine without men getting mangled until they are unrecognizable every other chapter. It wasn't even just the men's deaths either—everyone who dies in this novel reaches a gruesome end that is described in painstaking detail. This could be attributed to Legrand's excellent imagery in her prose, but I also felt that after a while, it became tedious. I found myself skipping past paragraphs and pages describing torture and mutilation, and really didn't feel like I missed out on anything in my reading experience by doing so.
The catalyst for the protagonist Amity's quest I also found rather confusing. I reread the passage several times trying to figure out why it made sense for her to make the decision she did just based on a vague fable from her town. The quest itself was interesting and brought plenty of tension that eventually I was able to ignore that it didn't make sense. But it certainly pulled me out of the story for a while.
Furthermore, the big reveal near the end felt anticlimactic and reminded me too much of other post-apocalyptic novels.
Overall, this book might be great for people who don't mind the unsettling content and enjoy straightforward messages. The female friendship was strong here, despite it feeling slightly underdeveloped. I also liked how a supporting character was given a (rushed) redemption arc—I think they deserved one.
I think this book was not to my personal tastes, which is fine. I wanted to put it down many times, but felt I needed to finish it in order to write an honest review. I can't really say I enjoyed reading it, but it did hold my attention after about the halfway mark. Additionally, I haven't read YA novels in a few years now, and so found some moments in here cheesier than I might have previously. But those who are used to reading in that category may not be bothered by it at all!
Like I said at the beginning, this author is always a hit-or-miss for me, so even though I didn't enjoy this book, I will still be on the lookout for more releases from her.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Cannibalism, Body horror, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Animal death, Death, Gore, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Sexual assault