Chrissy’s Review: Saint X by Alexis Schaitkin

Saint X
written by Alexis Schaitkin
published by Celadon Books, 2020

This book will be released on February 18, 2020. Be sure to preorder your copy!

find it here: (affiliate links) Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Apple Books, Target, Kobo, Book Depository, Goodreads

Disclosure: I received a complimentary ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Did I enjoy this book? I did enjoy Saint X. It kept me reading and wondering if I’d learn what really happened to Alison on that island on that fateful night.

This isn’t a fast-paced thriller or murder mystery. Saint X is a slower read and not like many I’ve read before. It is told from many different characters’ perspectives. They each had their own version of the story, and they each were profoundly affected. Claire, Alison’s little sister, was the main narrator. She lost her sister when she was 7 years old, and she never really had closure. Soon, Alison’s story took over Claire’s life. You don’t often think about how the family members of the victims cope or move on or process what happened. This was an interesting read in that regard. I also liked reading from some of the suspects’ and acquaintances’ points of view. You can’t help but feel for all of them . . . Claire, the parents, Clive, and all the others. However, I couldn’t help but think of the Natalee Holloway story, and while there were quite a few parallels, this was definitely a different story.

Would I recommend it? I would recommend this book. It would make a great book club book. There are a lot of different characters and angles to discuss and ponder.
 

 
About the book – from Goodreads: Claire is only seven years old when her college-age sister, Alison, disappears on the last night of their family vacation at a resort on the Caribbean island of Saint X. Several days later, Alison’s body is found in a remote spot on a nearby cay, and two local men―employees at the resort―are arrested. But the evidence is slim, the timeline against it, and the men are soon released. The story turns into national tabloid news, a lurid mystery that will go unsolved. For Claire and her parents, there is only the return home to broken lives.

Years later, Claire is living and working in New York City when a brief but fateful encounter brings her together with Clive Richardson, one of the men originally suspected of murdering her sister. It is a moment that sets Claire on an obsessive pursuit of the truth―not only to find out what happened the night of Alison’s death but also to answer the elusive question: Who exactly was her sister? At seven, Claire had been barely old enough to know her: a beautiful, changeable, provocative girl of eighteen at a turbulent moment of identity formation.

As Claire doggedly shadows Clive, hoping to gain his trust, waiting for the slip that will reveal the truth, an unlikely attachment develops between them, two people whose lives were forever marked by the same tragedy.

For readers of Emma Cline’s The Girls and Lauren Groff’s Fates and Furies, Saint X is a flawlessly drawn and deeply moving story that culminates in an emotionally powerful ending.

 

 

 

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** This post first appeared on Every Free Chance Books (everyfreechance.com) on November 14, 2019.