Saint X

After I read this for the firs time I rated it 3 stars, but going back and reading it again, I'm leaning towards 4. Schaitkin is a great writer - her multiple POVs intertwine well, the story is harrowing and well-written, and the plot progresses smoothly and kept me hooked. The characters didn't always keep my interest - I would've liked more nuance and to have aspects of them be a bit more interesting, but it didn't bug me as much the second time around.

This isn't what I expected it to be. It is a little bit of a mystery, but more literary fiction. Sometimes it felt like the writing was there to just be pretty writing, but other times it was really poignant. There are a lot of characters and they all develop and change. Then at the end we are left with a few mysteries just like we are in life. It isn't what I expected, but it is good. I think I might even like it.

I received this ARC from the publisher and was immediately intrigued by this book. It sounded like something I was excited to be reading. At first it was slow to get into it and I almost put it down and didn't finish it. I figured I would give it a bit more before I decided to DNF this book. It picked up quite a bit and got really interesting. I loved following along as Claire followed Clive in the city. I loved seeing how they started to form a friendship. The only thing I didn't like about this book was that it jumped around quite a bit from the past to the present and also to different peoples perspectives. Overall this was a good book. Not sure if I would actually recommend this book to others, but it wasn't completely horrible.

On the surface this book looks like a conventional mystery set up with a holiday/vacation angle. A teenager goes missing on her Caribbean holiday. What happened to her? But this book traverses so much more than the core mystery. Each of the different elements of the story cleverly propel the narrative forward.

I loved the multiple different character perspectives we were given from both minor and major players in the narrative. I loved the descriptions of the fictional Saint X island. I found Clairey's character (the young sister of the missing girl) really absorbing and her impressive imaginings of her sisters experiences and life before her disappearance were very sad but also very captivating.

This is a book that delves deeply into intimate relationships between friends, siblings and addresses more broadly the relationship between western tourists and the destinations they visit. It gives a commentary on how tourism provides economic opportunities for people living in tourist destination countries but it has an exploitative nature.

Overall a brilliant book and well worth a read. The ending brought it all together satisfyingly.

Thanks to the author Alexis Schaitkin, Picador and Netgalley for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

A teenager is killed during a family vacation, and years later, her sister has a chance encounter with the prime suspect.  This book claims itself a mystery, but the whodunit is just there as a way to encounter these many characters and perspectives, and see the lives they live both before the tragedy, and the years after.  While the actual plot points are a bit cliched, they are written and explored well, though the middle of the book becomes a bit too slow.  Still, an overall enjoyable read.