Lilibet Bombshell's Reviews > Hatchet Girls

Real Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars

I love Lizzie Borden related stories usually. I’ve been low-key obsessed with Lizzie herself since I was a kid (yes, an actual kid). For the first third of this book I was actually really vibing with this book. I was even vibing with it closing in on the halfway point. Then, for me, that’s when it all started to fall apart.

I will admit, it had been nagging me from the beginning of the book that Rodriguez Wallach made the choice to spell out the accents of the native Massachusetts characters. It’s a huge pet peeve of mine when authors do that. I cringe every time because I feel it insults readers. It feels cheesy and mocking. The fact that she continued to do this for the entire book irritated me to no end and by the end of the book I was positively sick of it.

What ruined this book for me was the “love triangle”. I can’t stand love triangles in any book, but in this book it felt even more out of place and even more forced. It made our protagonist, Tessa, look weak when she could’ve been more empowered. I never like when an author puts a female in a position where she needs males to validate her or her power in order to resolve the plot.

I can’t fault the world building or creepy aesthetic this book has. Rodriguez Wallach definitely did a great job building up the established folklore and legends surrounding the Bridgewater Triangle, including the real life events and real places inside the triangle. She took what a lot of people would dismiss as urban legends and managed to twist it into an insidious plot involving white privilege, haves and have-nots, and betrayal.

If it has just been a bit more mature and had the dialogue been a bit less mocking and cheesy then this book could’ve been great. It just wasn’t quite there for me.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Horror/Occult Horror/Paranormal Horror/YA Fiction/YA Horror/YA Mystery/YA Thriller