There is a legend on the island of Sawkill Rock about a beast that steals girls. He even has his own rhyme: "Beware of the woods and the dark, dank deep. He'll follow you home and won't let you sleep."
Sixteen-year-old Marion; her older sister, Charlotte; and their mother, Pamela, move to Sawkill for a "change of scenery" after their father and husband's death. Pamela finds work as a housekeeper for the Mortimers, a "matriarchal dynasty" who "keep their mother's surname, generation after generation." But sturdy, reliable Marion doesn't like the feel of the island nor of the Mortimers--she fears flighty Charlotte will become dangerously enamored with the beautiful, "damaged" 17-year-old Val Mortimer.
Zoey doesn't trust Val, either. Seven months ago, her best friend Thora became one of Sawkill's missing girls. Right before she vanished, Thora suddenly became close friends with Val. Zoey is convinced Val had something to do with Thora's disappearance; that Val might have something to do with Sawkill's years--"Decades, even"--of missing girls. She's not wrong. Val, just like every woman in her family back to her "great-great-great-grandmother," is bound to a bloodthirsty "beast from a hidden land" who rules her "life, [her] every breath, [her] every choice" and demands sacrifice. When Charlotte, who met and immediately connected with Val, disappears, terrified Marion pairs up with Zoey to figure out what happened.
Add to this plot a sentient island, a centuries-old fraternal order, bone-deep feminism and coming-of-age story arcs to get Claire Legrand's (Furyborn) remarkable Sawkill Girls. Legrand accomplishes the kind of slow-building tension and mounting horror that will give readers night terrors. Read this book, then lock it in the freezer. --Siân Gaetano, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness