I went into this thinking "Oh another thriller - girl goes missing on vacation, investigation ensues, girl is ultimately found or presumed dead." What I got was SO different - and kind of what I've always wanted, but never knew I did.

When Natalie Holloway went missing I was RIVETED. I watched every news clip and internet article I could find during that investigation - still do. Where IS she?! Same with Jon Benet Ramsey. Who done it!? I mean, in all honestly... it drives me NUTS that still no-one knows what happened to Amelia Earhart.

But in each of these case I always find myself wondering... What happened to the family? How did they move on? How about the accused? Could they move on whether they did it or not? THIS book was just what I needed to fill that hole I didn't know was even there.

You follow all parties involved in this story after the girl goes missing. Mom, Dad, little sister, the accused, the questioned, other people vacationing at the resort, so many POVs - everything I've always wondered after the news stories die down, the internet stops posting, the police stop looking.

I loved it. It scratched an itch I didn't know I needed scratched and it's a unique peek into the families, the communities, and even the curious like me - that are affected when just one life goes missing.

Saint X was exactly the type of book I thoroughly enjoy. Although it was a slow burn, the intense characters and thought provoking storyline kept my attention throughout.

A family vacation to a tropical island turns into a nightmare when their teenage daughter Allison is murdered. Although there is an investigation, the case is never solved. Years later, Allison’s younger sister, now living in New York City, runs into the very man police questioned and suspected of her sisters murder. She makes it her mission to find out exactly what happened on that fateful day.

This story was well-told with descriptive narrative and touches on many issues such as racism and privilege. I think this is an important book and I am so thankful to the publisher and Netgalley for the review copy!

Saint X on the surface appears to be a murder mystery but I found it to verge more towards literary fiction, which was perfectly fine with me.

The central character in this book is Claire. When Claire was around 7 years old, she went on a vacation with her family to a resort on Saint X, an island in the Caribbean. On the last day of their trip, Claire's college-age sister Alison goes missing. Eventually she turns up dead on Faraway Cay, just offshore of the island. Initially, 2 young men, Clive & Edwin, who work at the hotel are arrested but the evidence is just not there so they are released. The book alternates narrative perspectives, but most of the story is told from Claire's point of view. In "present time" Claire is working as an editor in NYC. One day she gets in a cab that happens to be driven by a man with the same name as one of the men initially arrested for her sister's murder. Claire becomes obsessed in finding out what really happened with her sister and pretty much starts stalking the man.

I enjoyed this book. It was a slow burn but I definitely wanted to see what happened and the story kept me on the hook. We see Claire's obsession leading to the unraveling of her life. The author does a great job portraying Claire's mental and emotional state. We feel her grief over the loss of her sister and her feeling of loss of never really getting to know Alison. Schaitkin also did a great job setting the scene of Saint X as and the divide between the people who live and work there and the wealthy resort guests.

The story also feels familiar because of high profile cases like the Natalee Holloway case (killed in Aruba) and other instances we hear of people meeting a tragic end on vacation. I recommend this book to fans of literary fiction featuring family dynamics, grief etc.

I have a strange relationship with this book. I really enjoyed the writing style and at the same time was absolutely driven crazy by the structure, it was all over the place and at times felt random as opposed to thoughtful. I did enjoy a lot of the characters, especially Allison who reminded me of myself when I was her age (making me extremely grateful we didn’t share the same fate). Also Claire, her younger sister was strange and obsessive, however I really appreciated the author depicting how she worked though her grief which kind of ran parallel to Clive and how he dealt with losing his family and essentially his life. Overall this is close to a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read for me.

Saint X has been one of my most anticipated reads! Diving in, it was different than what I had expected. Instead of the fast-paced thriller I had imagined (not sure what gave me this idea of it), it was definitely more of a slower character driven story than it was plot based. Throughout, it was very scenic and atmospheric - the descriptions of the characters, places, etc. were all very detailed, which was great for pulling you into the story. It was interesting to learn about all of the characters, and about the lives of everyone who was impacted by Alison's death. The ending was pretty unexpected, but felt a little out of place. If you're a fan of mysteries that are more character driven and descriptive, this may be a great one for you to check out!

I expected this to more of a true crime style of crime novel and instead it's more about how a crime ricochets through people's lives and affects them. I didn't like the alternating chapter views and it was a lot slower than expected.

If you know going in it's more about the aftermath and everyday life and not a thriller you might like it more than I did.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy. This book is a very solid three stars for me. It was good. Not spectacular and definitely not terrible. I actually think the book had a lost of promise--the central mystery is good and well-constructed and the melding of Clive and Claire's lives is very compelling. However, there are just too many side threads that distract from the main story and, as a result, the relationship between Clive and Claire doesn't receive the attention it deserves. If it had been more deeply explored, I think the novel would've been better for it. As it stands, I didn't feel like I got to know much about Claire herself (which, on one hand, makes sense since she becomes so overwhelmingly occupied by her sister's death) or why she and Clive were continuing to meet and speak with one another. I guess I would say that the book was too shallow in the parts that mattered and too deep in those that didn't. Again, I found this solidly good and would look forward to anything the author writes next!

DNF at 5%. I was initially intrigued by the synopsis of this one and was looking forward to being drawn into the story. However the writing style didn’t work for me and after reading through other reviews I’ve decided to pass on this one. Thank you to Celadon, Netgalley and Librofm for the advance copies.

There is... a lot more to unpack with this book than I expected. I went in to Saint X expecting a pretty typical mystery-thriller. It was that, but it was also a pretty cutting commentary on the privilege that accompanies tourism, and grief – while simultaneously being a coming-of-age tale.

Saint X in simplest terms, follows a family reeling from the loss of their oldest daughter during their annual tropical vacation. The family enjoy a pretty typical vacation to the fictional resort island of Saint X – but on the last day, their eldest daughter Alison goes missing. Local authorities search for days, but ultimately she turns up dead. The search for a culprit goes cold when it's found the prime suspects have a solid alibi. The story then follows the family - focusing on the youngest daughter, Claire – through the years, as they come to terms with Alison's unsolved murder. Interestingly, we also follow the life of one of the prime suspects, Clive, and how Alison's death irrevocably changed his life forever.

I'll be honest, the first third/half of this story drug a bit for me – there is a lot of exposition, particularly in the first couple chapters, which are told in a third-person perspective, giving the reader every single possible detail about the island of Saint X. It isn't until Claire is an adult, living on her own, that things begin to pick up. A chance encounter while living and working in New York sets Claire on a dangerously obsessive path. When this begins, I was absolutely hooked – I had to know what was going to happen and what answers Claire was going to get about Alison's death.

This book goes deep – almost voyeuristically so – into grief, and how each person handles it differently. We read how Claire herself, and her parents deal with the fact that Alison is not only dead, but dead in an inexplicable manner. So many unsolved mysteries focus on the murder itself – but reading this was like a behind-the-scenes look on how unsolved murders affect the loved ones. I was especially chilled when Claire and her parents choose to spend a day away from home at the same time a docuseries premieres about "girls who took risks and got murdered." This is something a lot of us would binge-watch on Netflix, yet when you consider the affect of such a show on the loved ones... there is a certain darkness to supporting such television.

There are two main perspectives in this book – that of Claire, and Clive. We get to know both of them intimately. However, I had a hard time feeling connected, or sympathetic to Claire. I can't quite put a finger on it, but her character fell a little flat to me, and at times she was simply unlikable. Clive on the other hand – my heart ached for Clive.

Born and raised on Saint X, Clive knew the island from before it was a resort attraction. He only wanted the simple life, he wanted to stay on the island – yet everything that happens to him leaves him with dreams dashed. At the same time, I felt conflicted about Clive because of his involvement with the events surrounding Alison's death – this made reading through Clive's eyes much more interesting for me.

Clive's perspective was eye-opening in another way – the author delves quite frequently throughout the novel on the topic of tourism, and the effects of that on island life. Clive's early life is simply magical – things weren't easy living on an undeveloped island, but there was more innocence, more honesty, more tradition. Then, tourism comes, and it's good because it brings money, electricity, modernity – but an authenticity and simplicity is lost. Now, the people native to the island have to cater to a crowd of rich people who just want to spend money and relax. Especially telling is a scene where it's revealed the resort sweeps the beaches clean of its natural debris every morning for the sake of the visitors, who expect a pristine paradise.

Despite feeling disconnected from Claire – it was fulfilling to read all the way to the end, to see what she discovers and how much she learns and what she comes to terms with about Alison. As one of my favorite quotes say,

"In my parents' version, Alison was buffed like a piece of sea glass, her edges and points worn away over time and yielding to a pleasing smoothness."


And how true this is – we embellish what we think is best about people we adore when they die – glossing over known or possible faults, as if it would be a blasphemy to remember anything bad about them. Yet the truth is, even though we miss them desperately, they were still human. As Claire slowly discovers this about Alison, she finally begins to go through her own growth.

Saint X is full of cutting tidbits such as this – it is truly a beautifully written book, I felt like I highlighted every couple of sentences. So many of them hit hard. Despite some (possibly excessive) exposition, this book was stunning and a breeze to read. Not only did I want to know what was going to happen, it was a haunting and absorbing journey.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this one – I wouldn't say it was wholly satisfying in terms of being a mystery-thriller; if anything this is mystery that ends up being a character-driven coming-of-age tale, with a dash social commentary under the guise of mystery-thriller. Regardless of what I expected going in, I really enjoyed this one.

In the movie in my mind, Alexis Schaitkin’s “Saint X” begins with a one-track shot of a group of Caribbean islands taken from an aerial drone. Slowly, the camera descends lower and lower so you get a glimpse of what it might look like from the window seat of an airplane or helicopter as it flies over churches and restaurants and beaches and resorts.

You can see this movie very vividly because Schaitkin writes like a screenplay writer, director and film editor, painting a portrait of every frame, shot by shot: “Look. A girl is walking down the sand. Her gait is idle, as if it is of no consequence to her when she arrives where she is going. As she walks, heads turn ….”

See what I mean.

You have no trouble imagining Schaitkin’s debut novel as a movie or television show (the kind you binge in one sitting, of course); its film adaption may even win awards, attract a cult following or inspire ballads.

After all, shows like David Lynch and Mark Frost’s “Twin Peaks” and Rob Thomas’ “Veronica Mars” and Brian Yorkey’s “13 Reasons Why” certainly did.

Schaitkin, who may have been inspired by the “Twin Peaks” formula or the 2005 disappearance of teenager Natalee Holloway, creates her own version of “Laura Palmer.” In the case of “Saint X,” this is a beautiful and complicated 18-year-old Princeton student named Alison Thomas (never Ali). Alison’s dead before the end of the first chapter. Clive “Gogo” Richardson and Edwin Hastie, the two men last seen with Alison, are never held responsible for Alison’s death. And the questions of who was Alison Thomas, who killed her and how did she die propel the rest of the novel.

But if you think this book is about Alison Thomas, you’re not quite wrong. But you’re not quite right either. Yes, “Saint X” is about the tragic death of an American teenager on a family vacation on a fictional Caribbean island, but this thriller/noir is mostly about Claire “Clairey” Emily Thomas — Alison Thomas’ kid sister — who grew up in the shadow of Alison’s death.

By the time the second chapter picks up, Clairey has surpassed the age of her perfect older sister, ditched her childhood nickname and lives a life her sister never got to. Alison becomes an almost forgotten memory to even those who knew her. But an unexpected encounter with Clive — one of the last humans to vividly remember Alison’s alive (because her death changed the course of his life just as much as it changed Claire’s) — in a New York City cab brings Claire closer to the answers she’s been wondering about for the majority of her life: Did Clive kill Alison?

“Saint X” is a powerful debut worth obsessing over.

This book started off strong with beautifully written descriptive words on the Caribbean island and the resort, as well as a complex character study in 3rd person. Then, after Alison is found murdered, the book goes into the future as Claire grows up in the shadow of her sister's death. Claire becomes Emily, using her middle name to separate herself from her family tragedy. On happenstance, she ends up in a taxi driven by one of the suspects in her sister's murder. Emily becomes obsessed with following Clive around, his routines the same every night. She stops doing her job competently to catch Clive doing something that will somehow prove his guilt. The problem is the pacing and slowness. I lost interest in finding out what happened.

This one started off strong! I was really enjoying the island vibes and the mysterious disappearance that was reminiscent of Natalee Holloway, an 18-year-old woman that was in Aruba with others from her high school graduating class who disappeared in 2005 and has never been seen or heard from again.

Around the last 50% mark, the book slowed way down – which I don’t mind at all! I enjoyed the writing and I was completely invested in how the story was going to play out. Then around the last 25% of the book, it took a very unrealistic turn and the climax that was building throughout the story was completely disappointing. Because of that ending, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the book overall…I’m going to have to let it be for awhile and see how it sticks with me over time.

On paper this should be a book that worked for me, a Caribbean setting with a murder mystery as the backdrop along with a little bit of coming of age and obsession on the part of the sister who survived. However, this didn’t at all work for me. I found the audio to be slightly more tolerable than reading it, although by the midway point I wanted to DNF both due to the incredible slowness of the plot which felt like it meandered all over the place. As for Claire, who became obsessed with finding out what happened to her sister Alison who was murdered while on their family vacation, I didn’t connect with her. In fact, I found her character to be surface-level at best. Maybe this was a case of misplaced expectations because I expected this to be a mystery when really it was a super slow-burn character study in my opinion. As for the ending, I’ll only say I felt extremely disappointed and cheated.

Very well written, fast moving plot, developed characters. I could not put down this book once I started!

Thank you to Celadon Books and Netgalley for this ARC!

Claire's family never though they would be leaving the island of Saint X without their eldest daughter Alison.
When a grown up Claire runs into one of the suspects in her sisters death, she opens up a wound that was forced closed many years ago, in the hopes of finding out what really happened. 

The most shocking thing about this book, is that this is a debut novel. 
When you read this book, you will feel as though you are slipping into a world created by a seasoned writer.

There was something very voyeuristic about the first few chapters. 
Schaitkin has a beautiful and haunting writing style, and I am really excited to see what comes next for this gifted author.

Saint X is not the story I was expecting to read based off of the blurb. The storyline is obviously reminiscent of some high-profile cases that happened in other Caribbean islands in the recent past. Although this storyline is the main thread throughout, there are such huge tangents that really take you out of the story. By the end, you will feel that you were reading a completely different story than what you expected and because of that, I was not open to where the storyline went. I felt mislead, especially with an underwhelming ambiguous ending.

I love fast-paced psychological thrillers, and that’s what I expected with this book. However, it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. It was a bit too long, which stalled the pace and took the suspense/mystery down a notch. I enjoyed the few insights the reader received from various POVs. I had a hard time staying engaged at times, and the ending fell a bit flat. Calling this a psychological thriller is a bit of a stretch compared to other books I’ve read in the past. The writing was descriptive and smooth, and the characters were complex, though I had a tough time connecting with them at times. It was just okay overall.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy from the publisher, but I wasn’t required to leave a positive review.

2.5 ⭐️

First I wanna say a HUGE thank you to Celadon books for sending this my way! I was so surprised and happy to see this show up on my doorstep and I am so very appreciative of the opportunity to read this book before it’s release date and give an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This book comes out February 18th!

Claire is only 7 years old when her family takes a tropical vacation to the island of Saint X. Tragically, her 18 year old sister Alison’s body is found floating in the water on the morning of their last day there. This story is mostly told from Claire in present day when she is a college-aged woman and is still grieving the loss of her older sister and looking into whether or not her sisters death was an accident or a murder.

Unfortunately I didn’t really love this book guys. The first half of the book I was actually somewhat enjoying it. I loved the backstory of the events leading up to Alisons death, and I loved seeing how her family coped with the tragedy. When Claire starts digging into the past is when this book kind of lost me.

Some reasons I wasn’t a fan:
- the cover is somewhat misleading with this bright and cheery, tropical vibe and then BAM a murder investigation. But I know that’s nit picky.
-there were just SO MANY pov’s in this book. I understand that the author was trying to convey that Alisons death affected a lot of people in little ways, but I think some of them weren’t necessary to further the plot of the book
-also as a result of the shifting perspectives, I never really had a chance to connect with any characters or really care about them.
-this book is also pretty slow going. It’s labeled as a mystery/thriller, but for the majority of the book I was just waiting for something exciting to happen.

I know that this is pretty harsh, but i do think that this author’s writing style is beautiful. Her descriptions took me out of wintery Iowa and onto the beach in a matter of seconds. I also think the concept of this book was really intriguing! This country is obsessed with stories of pretty young white girls missing on vacation, and I love how this delved under the surface of all of that. I would absolutely read more from this author in the future, because while this book wasn’t my favorite, I do think she has the potential to hit it out of the park.

If you don’t mind a slower paced mystery with multiple POV changes, then I’d definitely say give this book a shot!

As soon as I started reading the book it made me think back to the Natalee Holloway story, and how she disappeared from the island of Aruba and her body was never found. I remember the story so well because it coincided with my move to NYC from London, and followed the news closely at the time. Saint X isn’t a murder mystery though, it’s a beautiful journey into the trails of life, loss, obsession, and the destruction that our actions, and the truth, sometime cause on our own lives and those of others.

Alison and Claire’s family spend a week on a tropical island every winter, and in 1995 they spent an idyllic break on a resort on the island of Saint X. Alison was 18 years old at the time, and Claire, 7. At the end of the vacation Alison disappears, and her body is found a few days later. A couple of men from the island are held as lead suspects for a few days and then released, and Alison’s death remains an unsolved mystery. Until years later Claire, now named Emily, randomly runs into one of those men in NYC…

The author’s writing style was a little jarring for me at first, but it didn’t take me long to get into the book, and appreciate how she describes the island and the people. You can honestly imagine yourself right there, taste the salt on your lips, sitting invisible there between the tourists and the sea. And once we moved to present day Emily (Claire) narrating her story I was hooked. Alexis Schaitkin has a way of describing settings in such a way that you are plunged into them, recognize them, even relate to them. So many of the NYC images are one that I recognize from my own 12 years of living there, and pulled at my heartstrings. Reading this book felt at times like reading my love story of NYC and it felt wonderful to read something where you felt like the author knew the city in the same way you did.

I did not read this as a murder mystery book, and I don’t think it is meant to read as that. It is much more a deep dive into humans and how we react at the fact of sudden death, at how our lives are never exactly as they appear to others, and how, in the end, we are all mysteries to each other. I felt for each of the characters, mainly both Emily and Clive, and wanted to shake them both so many times too: what on earth were they doing?? The story is haunting, sticks to you, makes you wonder how you would react if something like this happened to you or someone close to you.

The attention to detail in this novel is simply amazing. No stone is left uncovered, every person who may have had a part in Alison’s story gets to say their piece and talk about their own lives. I really enjoyed the way the narrators changed through the book, while Emily/Claire is the main protagonist we are also able to hear the voices of those who were affected by Alison and by her death in different ways. This is a giant of a book and I fully appreciate how invested the author must have been in the story and how long this must have taken to write. This is why I took my time reading it and savored each page - it’s not a novel you can rush through, but one that you live through.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Saint X is an island where people come to relax and unwind. We meet The Thomas Family during their vacation on Saint X at the Indigo Bay Resort. During that trip, Alison, the eldest daughter, goes missing and is presumed to be dead. Her sister, Claire, is very young at the time. When Claire grows up, she starts to go by her middle name (Emily). Emily moves to New York City as an adult, and one evening, get in a cab driven by none other than one of the men who Alison was last seen with. She then starts to ask questions and dig into Alison’s life, and learns more about her sister than she ever thought.

I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about Saint X. Because they are so all over the place, I’m going to list them out.

- This was an interesting read. I wouldn’t call it bad, but it’s not my favorite.
- Claire is a fascinating character. At times, I wanted to commend her on her determination, but at other times, I wanted to have my own intervention with her! Or, help her find a therapist to work through some of her thoughts and feelings.
- The point of view from which the story was told jumped around, as did the time in Alison and Claire/Emily’s lives. As the book went on, it was HARD to follow this.
- Alexis Schaitkin’s writing is very descriptive, which makes it easy to picture Saint X and the various settings, the Thomas’s house, and the New York City scenes.
- I did NOT see that ending coming.

Thanks to Celadon Books and Netgalley for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.