Saint Grit review

I received an ARC of Saint Grit in exchange for my honest review. I was intrigued by this book admittedly because of the cover which is fantastic!

Content Warning

Saint Grit is a horror novel told through the eyes of the “monster”
Scenes include graphic violence, murder, child abuse, disabled parent abuse, misogyny and domestic abuse, animal death, sacrifice, sex, and more.

I love a good witch story! Saint Grit was as the title suggests – gritty. The gore, the deaths, the horror were all visceral, exciting, and filthy. It reads like a memoire of a bad witch – focusing on her relationship with a possible demon (or her own madness) and through her eyes we see the horror take her loved ones.

So often when we see movies or read books about evil witches, possession, demons, etc we see it through the eyes of the victims. Here we get it through one of the “baddies” and in such a way that she never sees herself as evil or wrong which, to me, is even better.

Machineel Trees and Folk Witches

I also loved the folk horror vibes. Everything seemed to come back to the Machineel trees. If you, like me, hadn’t heard of these trees, they are super interesting.
Hippomane mancinella is part of the Spurge family and they are called manzanilla de la muerte (the Little Apple of Death). All parts of the tree are toxic and even rain carrying the sap will cause the skin to blister. According to an article in the British Medical Journal:
When ingested, the fruit is reportedly “pleasantly sweet” at first, with a subsequent “strange peppery feeling … gradually progress[ing] to a burning, tearing sensation and tightness of the throat.” Symptoms continue to worsen until the patient can “barely swallow solid food because of the excruciating pain and the feeling of a huge obstructing pharyngeal lump.”

Both the raining sap and the ingestion of burning fruit come up in this book and it was really cool to not only learn about a new-to-me plant but to see this take on poisonous and dangerous plants in relation to witchcraft. Often witches are related to dangerous plants (mandrake, rue (Peganum harmala not Ruta graveolens), datura aka Jimson weed, and more). Combining this old association with a not well known plant was, in my opinion, genius.

We also see other folk horror witchcraft nods to the use of pigs and goats, sex magic in the woods, and nods to various witch folk lore.

4 Stars

I loved Saint Grit and will probably come back to read it again in the future. It certainly will be on my mind for a long time to come.

The one thing that I would have changed is the ending. I felt like there should have been more to it. I hope there will be a follow up book to carry on the story of Nadine or Saint Grit. I just feel like it ended without closure and found that frustrating.

Recommendation

Fans of Jennifer’s Body, Ginger Snaps, and The Love Witch or perhaps if you are a horror fan that is ready for a woman in her witchy Villain Era
Saint Grit is the book for you!

If you have read Saint Grit and would like a nonfiction book or blog that gives you all the Nadine vibes without the murder – I highly recommend the work of Carolyn Elliott and her site BadWitches. I’m a fan of Carolyn’s work and when I was reading Saint Grit I couldn’t help but hear Nadine’s words in my head through Carolyn’s voice – and I mean it as a compliment.

Ghoulish Books did a fantastic interview/vlog convo about Saint Grit with the author Kayli Scholz that you can watch here: