Saint X by Alexis Schaitkin was a very descriptive mystery that kept you reading to see what happens only to be let down in the end. I was excited to read this one because it was my first #BuddyRead on #Bookstagram with my novel writing friend, Savannah Carlisle.

About Saint X

Saint X was released in February of 2020 by Alexis Schaitkin.

Vogue‘s names it one of the “Best Books to Read”, it was Bustle’s “Most Anticipated Books of February 2020”, and one of O Magazine‘s 14 of the “Best Books to Read This February”.

While I wasn’t crazy about the book, I do like Alexis because she responds to tweets. (Isn’t it crazy so many people don’t?!)

For more on Alexis and what’s next, click here.

I follow her on Twitter @AlexisSchaitkin.

Saint X Book Summary

When you lose the person who is most essential to you, who do you become?

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.

Click here to buy Saint X on Amazon

My Book Review for Saint X

Saint X began very slow for me. I think the first 20 pages or so describe the islands where Claire and her family vacationed.

Once we got past that, things happened in real-time through Claire’s eyes and in the past on that vacation. I liked the back and forth and that kept me reading, however, things happened very slowly.

I’m not a big fan of tons of descriptions, but many people are.

For example, I could NOT get into Where The Crawdads Sing because of the dozens and dozens of pages of marsh details, but this book is constantly at the top of all the bookselling charts, so what the hell do I know?! (Full disclosure, I was hooked from the halfway point but it was tough to get there.)

Back to Saint X… It took some time to get into the story, but like all mysteries, it keeps you wondering who did what.

In the end, when all is revealed, it’s very anti-climactic. To prevent any spoilers, I’ll leave it at that.

The ending does make sense and is not far fetched at all, but I think it was a lot of slow build-up for not a lot of payoff.

While I was reading, I couldn’t help but think of Natalie Hollaway and her disappearance. There were a lot of similarities, but when you find out what really happened at the end, you will see it’s not quite the same.

This book would make a great mystery movie and keep you guessing as to what happened.

My Saint X Book Recommendation

If you like mysteries, especially true crime and unsolved disappearance cases, you will enjoy this book.

My Saint X Rating

I give Saint X 3 out of 5 stars. It was good enough to keep me reading, but I got bored at many times due to the abundance of descriptions and was let down by the ending.

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