Sister Creatures DEALS
Small towns can often hide a multitude of secrets, and Laura Venita Green’s debut novel Sister Creatures delves into the bonds that keep people tethered and the circumstances that shape them into their adult selves.
This horror novel is one of multiple depths and explores various themes from the perspective of women and the struggles that they endure throughout their lives. If you’re looking for a story about resilience in the face of adversity, and an exploration of how not everyone’s happily ever after looks the same, you’ve come to the right place
Thank you to The Unnamed Press for providing this copy of Sister Creatures for review. Minor spoilers ahead.
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Sister Creatures Synopsis
In the small town of Pinecreek, Louisiana, most folks are looking for a reason to escape. After dropping out of college, Tess spends her days caring for two young children from her neighborhood while drinking herself into a stupor. Everything changes after Gail, the nearly feral child of a deeply fundamentalist upbringing, enters her life and convinces Tess that there’s more to her existence than she imagined there would be.
What follows sets off a chain of events that will follow not only Tess and Gail but also other women from Pinecreek for the remainder of their lives. Sister Creatures explores the nature of women of the same town working to escape their various circumstances, and the dark nature of our beginnings that can follow us into adulthood.
What Makes Sister Creatures Work
Told from multiple pov’s over multiple decades, Sister Creatures follows women of Pinecreek from adolescence through to adulthood, and gives readers a look into the decisions that change the course of their lives for better or worse.
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Characters
As the narrative of the novel is woven together by multiple characters, much of the strength of the storytelling lies with the characters themselves. Tess kicks off the throughline of the story; however, we’re given the opportunity to follow various other women from the small town, including Gail, Amelia, and Olivia.
Thea became stuck. Stuck in the exosphere, where she could see so clearly where she wanted to be but couldn’t arrive. So very cold this high up. Completely alone. The air so thin she couldn’t breathe.
The women do not remain in Pinecreek, but they’re all tethered to the town from their upbringings, and it’s their individual voices that help to create our connection to the story. The chapters of each character created a strong level of attachment for those of us on the outside looking into their lives.
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The other aspect of the novel that works brilliantly is the tone and atmosphere that Green creates throughout the story. Sister Creatures is a tale of Southern Gothic psychological horror, and this element is demonstrated beautifully throughout its pages. The setting is described as properly sweltering and stuffy, the circumstances of characters as disturbingly real, and Thea, the creature woven throughout the narrative, as deeply creepy and effective.
In a novel that tackles multiple perspectives, Sister Creatures keeps its atmosphere at the forefront of the story, and this certainly pays off.
Just before she was forever freed from the relentlessness of conscious thought, she considered how strange it was to struggle, strive, fight, want her entire existence only to find out that she can simply. Stop.
Weaknesses
In spite of the dark atmosphere and some strong characters, Sister Creatures does suffer somewhat from its pacing and storyline. The narrative is not particularly linear, which can make it difficult to follow if one isn’t reading large portions of it in a single sitting. As each chapter tackles a different age in each of the women’s lives, if you’ve forgotten a detail or two from part one, heading into the next portion of the story can feel confusing.
Unfortunately, this also means that the pacing feels a little off. Time skips by the third part of the novel are tough to navigate, and there are a few storylines that don’t feel fully complete by the end of the book. Luckily, there are many positives to outweigh some of the small faults.
Final Thoughts
Southern gothic stories don’t get as much credit as they should, and Sister Creatures makes for a truly atmospheric and spooky addition to the genre. It’s horror in a way, but the novel tackles so much more than just creepy jump scares. It’s a horror story in which the horror comes from the circumstances that the characters find themselves in. I’m very much looking forward to what we’ll see in the future from Laura Venita Green.
Sister Creatures is available October 7th!
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The Review
Sister Creatures
Southern gothic stories don’t get as much credit as they should, and Sister Creatures makes for a truly atmospheric and spooky addition to the genre.
PROS
- Characters
- Atmosphere
- Horror
CONS
- Pacing
- Narrative
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