Sister Creatures by Laura Venita Green immerses readers in the swampy, tense town of Pinecreek, Louisiana, where Tess Lavigne’s quiet life takes a sinister turn after meeting Sister Gail. The story weaves together multiple characters and storylines, exploring themes of independence, secrets, and the dark history lurking beneath the town’s surface. While the book excels at creating a moody, unsettling atmosphere and delivering some eerie moments, parts of the story feel a bit slow or fragmented, making it hard to stay fully engaged at times. The supernatural element of Thea adds a compelling layer, but at moments, it feels somewhat underdeveloped or overshadowed by the more grounded character dynamics. Overall, Sister Creatures offers a haunting glimpse into a small town’s buried secrets and the resilience of its residents, but it might not satisfy readers looking for a tightly paced thriller. Still, it’s a thought-provoking read about the power of bonds and confronting past traumas.

Wow. Wow. Wow. What an incredible debut. The intertwining of stories. Crazy, complicated and deeply flawed but immensely sympathetic female characters - this was a book I did not want to end. Thank you Laura Venita Green for this gorgeous piece of work.

I received a copy for review and all opinions are my own. The setting of this book is just beautifully described in detail and really makes you feel like you’re there. I really enjoyed the characters and the way this book shows that we can be haunted by the past, at odds with our present family and home situation, and burdened down by our own deep secrets. The character development was enjoyable too and I really felt attached to Tess all throughout this book.

I mostly enjoyed this, it was a little strange, a little unusual.
For the first part though, it reads like short stories, and I definitely preferred it when I saw the connections.
Lots of characters to keep up with, but an interesting tale or two when you do.

I liked the way the book was written, it was a bit confusing but once you get the structure of it, it’s easy following the stories. There are so many characters, their lives intertwined. It almost reads like separate short stories, and there is an actual short story in it, that I loved a lot. The multitude of characters was a bit heavy on me, as I was trying to remember everyone’s names and relationships with each other. This prevented me to connect to most of them. I really appreciated the uniqueness of the book, but I can see how it might be off putting for some readers. There were elements I really loved, but there were a lot of time jumps and incomplete story narrative. I expected everything to be more connected at the end but the last 10% were very lackluster. This is disappointing, because it was almost a 5 star for me, so I am sad to give it 4 stars after that ending. I was bracing myself for stronger emotional impact, but ultimately I felt nothing at the end.
Thank you to NetGalley and Unnamed Press for providing me with the ARC.

Beautifully written, deeply atmospheric, set in Pinecreek, Louisiana in deep south USA, the book follows a cast of female characters including Tess, Sister Gail, Summer and Thea.

While I loved the writing, the characters and the reflection of misogyny and evil in the world, I guess I missed the point about Thea. I was waiting for something more at the end to wrap all the individual stories up together for me.