A review by readingwithkelsey
Extasia by Claire Legrand

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.
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