Saint X

By Alexis Schaitkin

Book Overview

A New York Times Notable Book of 2020

'Saint X' is hypnotic. Schaitkin's characters...are so intelligent and distinctive it feels not just easy, but necessary, to follow them. I devoured it] in a day.
-Oyinkan Braithwaite, New York Times Book Review

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

Recommended by Entertainment Weekly, included in Good Morning America's 20 Books We're Excited for in 2020 & named as one of Vogue's Best Books to Read This Winter, Bustle's Most Anticipated Books of February 2020, and O Magazine's 14 of the Best Books to Read This February

Hailed as a "marvel of a book" and "brilliant and unflinching," Alexis Schaitkin's stunning debut, Saint X, is a haunting portrait of grief, obsession, and the bond between two sisters never truly given the chance to know one another.

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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1250219590
• ISBN13: 9781250219596
• Release Date: February 2020
• Publisher: Celadon Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.23 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Difficult to maintain attention

I started Saint X with the notion that it was going to be a fast-paced thriller centered around the murder of a young girl on vacation in the Caribbean. Instead what I found was a slow-moving work of literature that serves as a commentary on classism and race with multiple points of view and many different stories infused into the overarching plot. While on vacation with her family at a resort on the beautiful, fictitious island of Saint X, pretty eighteen-year-old Allison disappears. A few days later her body is found on a nearby cay. Two local men, Edwin and Clive, employees at the resort, are accused of murdering her and arrested. Years later, Claire, Allison’s sister, is still haunted by her death. By chance, one night Claire finds herself in Clive’s cab. After this chance encounter, Claire forms an unhealthy attachment to Clive, at first following him, and then developing a friendship with him, in the hopes that he will reveal the truth about Allison’s death. For me, Saint X was hard to get into and impossible to maintain my attention. The writing was simply gorgeous, but the style did not resonate with me. It transitions from point of view to point of view with little explanation or consistency, and I found it difficult to follow the narrative. I stuck with it until the end because I got the feeling that the slow pace would play out eventually, making the frustration worth it. It did not.

Saint X is Unusual

Though Saint X was touted as a great thriller, I did not find it so. Not that it was a bad book but it is not a whodunit thriller. It is more of a howdidit. How did the death of Alison affect those around her, from the ex-boyfriend, Drew, to the other resort guests that interacted with her at the resort before she died, to her parents, and of course her sister Claire (who also goes by Emily at times to distance herself from being the girl with the dead sister). This book does move slowly and builds itself up with the interactions between Emily when she finds Clive (one of the last people to see Alison alive on the island) who is now a taxi driver in New York. I did get a little irritated with Emily, who yes, lost a sister when she was seven, but has become completely obsessed when she is grown. I guess this book was mostly about her finally finding peace or just going over the edge. I mostly liked this book though I do wish there was more thriller and less introspection.