Saint X | 
pickI‘d heard this recommended on the What Should I Read Next podcast a while ago and snagged it from the library yesterday for a weekend read. It took me away right off the bat, and I blew through it! I don‘t think I would have enjoyed it as much if I‘d expected it to be a “mystery.” Excellent character study and unique perspectives, wonderfully strong sense of place, a whole tide of tension throughout. I really liked it! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#HumbleHarvest
A #Saint” title from my #TBR for #AllSaintsDay
(Background is a photo I took in Montreal in 2014)
How is it November 1st?!
pickPretty good listen! This is a story based around a cold case murder but it dives deep into white privilege and racism. I liked that you get to know the characters involved with Alice‘s final night as the timeline slowly unfolds. Narrated by Alice‘s much younger, awkward sister, the reader learns the effects of her sister‘s murder that she‘s carried with her throughout her life. #Booked2023 ~Sunshine Noir
pick⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
This book was so immersive, fully carrying me away to paradise… and into a nightmare. It gave me a bit of “White Lotus” vibes and also reminded me of “I Have Some Questions For You”. Hypnotic and thought-provoking, “Saint X” offers a searing exploration of privilege, the ripple effects of grief, and the elusiveness of truth.
pickI really enjoyed this multi cast audio book about the disappearance of a teenage girl during a family Caribbean vacation. Told mostly through the voice of her younger sister we also hear from other‘s who were on the island at the time. #Booked23 # SunshineNoir #52Books #publishedbyMacMillan
pickThe new tv adaptation on Hulu turned me onto the book. I didn‘t finish the show (the acting quality of the FMC was a turnoff), but I did enjoy the audiobook production (full cast & some music/sound effects).
The premise takes the cliché “dead white girl” true crime phenomenon and attempts to upend the tropes of that genre by exploring the varying perspectives of all the people caught in the web of the girl‘s death at the center of the plot.
When I was a guest on the What Should I Read Next podcast a few years ago (ep. 221 if you want to listen!), Anne recommended this book to me. I put it on hold at the library, but right as my hold came in…March 2020 happened😬 It‘s been 3 years since the first time I tried to read this book and I‘m happy to say my attempt this time was successful! I‘m a little over halfway through already, and maybe I‘ll watch the Hulu show after!
panI read this because the show just came out and I wanted to read it before I watched and I was so disappointed. I thought this was so slow and had so much build up for it to not really go anywhere. There was so much description that I thought was unnecessary and I was bored for most of it.
pickI just….. don‘t know how I felt about this. The “mystery” fell a bit flat for me, and I semi guessed what happened way before it was revealed. I liked her writing, but so much of the book involved these detailed, flowery descriptions of places (Saint X, NYC) and it seemed like the characters got a bit lost sometimes. I liked it, but with reservations 🤷♀️ #booked2023 #sunshinenoir @Cinfhen @BarbaraTheBibliophage @alisiakae
so-soAdmittedly I‘m a little surprised this became a series. It wasn‘t particularly thrilling and definitely classifies as a slow burn for me. Lots of themes were wrapped in to this mystery: class, immigration, race. It just didn‘t grab me the way I expected.
“She was what all the dead are: whatever the living make them.”
#April2023
pickI really enjoyed this one, it was not what I expected. Alison is on a tropical vacation with her family and goes missing their last night on Saint X. Her body is discovered a couple of days later. The suspects are cleared and cause of death is undetermined . Years later her younger sister, Claire, is living in New York and happens to get into the taxi driven by one of the suspects. This book was so much more than just your average whodunit.
pick5 🌟. A privileged white family visits a Caribbean island. Their oldest daughter dies. 2 local men are questioned and released due to no evidence of involvement. Almost 20 years later, the younger daughter befriends one of those men, trying to learn the truth of her sister's demise. To me, it was not so much a mystery/thriller but a look at the lives affected by the death, the power of privilege, and how well do you really know those you love?
pickI liked this story set in Saint X an Caribbean Island. An American family are on holiday, two daughters, the older girl ends up disapearing and presumed dead. Two men are arrested and then later released. Years later Claire the younger sister sees one of the men who were possibly responsible for her sister's murder. She finds the guy and tries to build a friendship between them to figure out what happened. Very suspenseful and gripping.
Summer 2023 is penciled in. Thanks for the Afrofuturism recommendation @CBee
#Booked2023 #Summer
pickThe fact there was no wait for this book at the library was shocking. I rly enjoyed it! It was pretty wild while being very “downy to earth”, if that makes sense? I loved how they go over life as an immigrant, life in the big city, family relationships, change…there‘s just so much in there! Well worth a read and a ponder.
This book was the closest I could get to #LetterX, but it‘s definitely worth the read.
#alphabetgame
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
so-so“We see so little of people. We forget how much submerged darkness there is around us, at every moment.” I found the dissection of unrealized privilege that always rears its ugly head during times of adversity engaging. What type of person are you when grief hits? It‘s an interesting premise. The descriptions of the island, the people, and culture were also intriguing to me. But this is not a thriller as marketed, and I didn‘t care for the ending.
#quicklunchtimeread
Still reading this one, enjoying it but have not had much down time to read the last couple of days.
pickAfter discussing this with a few other Littens recently, I decided to do a reread. This time I did the audiobook which I highly recommend because it has several narrators and I felt that really helped bring the story to life.
I might have enjoyed this more on my second read. The way the mystery unfolds through the various POVs is handled very well and makes the reveal at the end even more satisfying.
bailedI made it about 35% into this thriller book and was bored. The way the story was narrated made it hard to connect with any of the characters and it was overly wordy imo. A slow burn of a thriller that wasn‘t capturing my interest. I looked up spoilers for how it ended and feel good about my decision to bail 😂 #bookkeepersreadathon
pickThis was a great vacation mystery. When Alison vanishes on the last day of her family vacation no one knows where she could have possibly went.. this story is told through multiple narratives, the main being Alison‘s sister, Claire. I‘ll have to look into this author!
pick@StillLookingForCarmenSanDiego sent this book to me as part of my #poutinepenpals #fallswap and it was great. When six-year-old Claire, her older sister Alison and their parents take a vacation on Saint X, the unthinkable happens. Years later, while living in NYC, Claire meets one of the men involved. This is a beautifully-written examination of family, grief, race & privilege, the secrets we keep & the stories we tell ourselves.
Thank you so much @StillLookingForCarmenSanDiego for the lovely #fallswap package, which I opened this morning as I have a busy day ahead. I can‘t wait to wear the socks, brew a cup of cinnamon apple tea and dive into one of those books. #poutinepenpals 😘❤️
pickThis is a beautifully written book that demands the reader to slow down and take the story in. It‘s a story of young woman whose future forever changed following the tragic death of her beloved by all 18 yo sister. It is a reminder of crushing wave of tragedy, and the ripples that never fully resolve. As heartbreaking as the story was, I liked the ending.
so-soHere‘s my review for another book I finished reading this month. I‘m counting this book for 1 prompt.
☑️Featured On BookishFirst - #bookishbingo
I am posting one book per day from my to-be-read collection. No description and providing no reason for wanting to read it. Some will be old, some will be new - don't judge me, I have a lot of books.
Day 89th
Join the fun if you want!
#tbrpile
pickA girl goes missing on an island holiday and her sister spends her life trying to solve the mystery. Many plausible scenarios, several interesting characters, and a mystery until the end.
pickLittle Free Library book drop for Alexis Schaitkin's trade paperback release of SAINT X! 🌴🌴🌴
Get this copy at:
Little Free Library Charter #40119
10107 Flowers Ave
Orlando, FL 32825
Lat: 28.566737 Long: -81.24330189999999
If you're nowhere near Orlando, check out the link below for a map all of the Little Free Library locations where you can find a free copy of #SaintX
http://bit.ly/SaintXMap
pickThe way this novel started had my convinced that I'd end up hating it. But, the story drew me in and I was hooked. It was interesting to see how one girl's death impacted so many lives, changed their trajectories. The ending was satisfying.
"It's easy to discern the contours of other people's pain, much harder to recognise one's own."
so-soNot a huge fan of the writting style. I liked the beginning, but then it got redundant and had too many unnecessary details and hypotheticals/ daydreams it got confusing. The reveal was anticlimactic, and the relationship at the very end was out out of the blue and didn't bring anything to the story. It had potential, I just wasn't a fan of the execution.
So far the novel has been in third person. I'm not used to this. I hope it makes a switch.
Okay... I get it. I see why there are so many mixed reviews and people just giving up on this one. I'm not finished yet... about 70%, but WHERE IS THIS GOING? This is definitely not a plot driven novel. I'm not even sure that I can say it's character driven because these are not likeable characters. Why do I need to know soooo much about all these characters to find out how and why Alison died? 🙄
Starting this one for March. First read for #bookspinbingo, Also pulled this for #TBRDeckofCards 8 of ♥️. I have my list together, but I'm going to wait until tmrw to put my card together for #bookspinbingo. @TheAromaofBooks
so-soThis was an engaging thriller, although I found the themes repetitive, and it was longer than necessary. Schaitkin has, however crafted a great rendition of the power of obsession and how it can destroy lives.
Alison is a self-absorbed (and singularly uninteresting) teenager visiting the fictional Caribbean Island of Saint X with her family. She is murdered, and we unravel the crime through other's eyes, particularly her sister Claire.
so-soThis is a story about a sister obsessed with her sibling's death and about the accused. Maybe it's the pandemic, but I really had trouble connecting with this book. Not sure if it's the writing or just a lack of focus on my part. There's local vernacular I had trouble with though it's not a huge part of the book. The end was not really what I expected, either. Call this a beach read.
I‘m going to bail on this one. I can already tell it‘ll just be a so-so read for me and I won‘t even remember it in six months.
I went to the library today for the first time in forever and my absence was long enough for me to forget my library card PIN. When the librarian was helping me change it, she asked what I wanted the new PIN to be and I spit out 4 numbers and then hesitated bc I didn‘t know why I was choosing those numbers and I wasn‘t sure I‘d remember them. All day I was trying to figure out those numbers. Then it occurred to me that it‘s the husband‘s bday 😂
so-soThis was ok. I wasn‘t expecting the format that it turned out to be. At 1st it was cool when the narrative switched points of view to different characters but then it got tiring. I enjoyed the segments featuring Claire, or Emily as she goes by, the most & that‘s where the real story was. I wanted more of that & Claire‘s family after what happened with Allison. Can‘t say I would read another book by the author, it just didn‘t match my expectations
pickThe lovely @Cinfhen gifted this to me and I did wonder why this book in particular. The blurb makes it sound like a crime / mystery as the body of 18 year old Alison is found at the end of a family holiday on the a Caribbean stand of Saint X.
It‘s so much more than that though. It‘s a character study of grief and loss, about obsession, racism and privilege.
It‘s very meandering, with lots of side stories about minor characters...⬇️
pickI came to Saint X expecting a “missing/dead girl” story, and it didn‘t disappoint me on that front. What surprised me, was the level of nuanced, quiet insight that Schaitkin also explored the uncomfortable clash of culture and privilege that occurs on resort islands. It was much more thoughtful than I was expecting, and this managed to complement rather than detract from the central mystery. It was a great holiday read.
