Review
Laura Venita Green delivers a strong debut with Sister Creatures. The book is a shorter read broken up into seemingly separate short stories. But the small town and mysterious local legend provide a lingering connection amongst the four female POVs and their journeys.
The author explores the helplessness one may feel when faced with limited resources and even rarer opportunities to simply live their own life. Tess is a hot mess and participates in self-destructive behavior. Even when it seems that she is getting her life on track, we see that a train is slowly but surely moving towards wreckage. Lainey feels trapped by her sister’s mental health issues. Her father not only enables it but relies on Lainey to play the parental role.
Olivia on a continuous coming-of-age cycle. She seeks approval from those who don’t reciprocate her feelings of dependence-bordering-on-romantic-obsession. She is self-aware. Yet she behaves as if no one has the ability to tolerate her. But indeed she has someone in her life who clearly does more than that.
Then there is possibly the most tragic amongst the characters – Sister Gail and Thea. Gail has had no choice as to the path her life has taken. And has become somewhat of an urban legend. Thea plays a similar role in that she’s always lingering, changing paths yet always wanting more. Through these POVs, readers are able to connect with them on a deep level in a way that will stick with them.
Sister Creatures is marketed as a cohesive novel. However, the short story format might throw some readers. I think it should have been marketed as interconnected short stories, especially since the page count is short as well. Even so, its a quick read. And more impressive that the author was able to make us feel so much is such few words.
Laura Venita Green joins the Cantina Book Club Podcast. She talks about publishing her debut and how her personal life inspired these character journeys. Keep an ear out for the episode and preorder Sister Creatures, available October 7.
Book
In the muggy, insect-ridden town of Pinecreek, Louisiana, college dropout Tess Lavigne is watching two bickering siblings while their parents are away. Her listless day drinking is interrupted when someone emerges from the woods behind the house. Filthy and feral, the daughter of religious fundamentalists, the girl known in town as Sister Gail convinces Tess to take her in for the night. The strange events of that evening will set the course for Tess’s future, and Sister Gail’s ultimate fate.
Meanwhile, other residents of Pinecreek try to cobble together a future from what little they have, their lives intersecting in small and not-so-small ways. Sisters fight to define independence for themselves (and from each other), while two young women on a bicycling trip wonder what their relationship promises, or threatens. Throughout, a deeply unsettling presence connects the characters to the buried secrets of Pinecreek: the ominous Thea, a malevolent shape-shifting entity whose rage and despair stems from a tragic history of misogyny, maternal loss, and stolen ambitions.
As time marches forward, so does Tess, creating a new path for herself while accepting what can never be entirely left behind. At times atmospheric and eerie, and at others all too real, Sister Creatures is about manufacturing resilience from nothing but the bonds that tie us together.
