The Sleeping Sisters by Jennifer Givhan

Synopsis

A threatened mother and a relentless detective collide when a series of murders awaken something long buried in the New Mexican desert in this mesmerizing novel of literary horror, perfect for fans of Carmen Maria Machado and Stephen Graham Jones.

“A marvelously strange story of murder and motherhood. . . . I have no idea how to describe what I just read, but it was really, really cool.” –T. Kingfisher, author of What Moves the Dead

A mother’s love is the oldest curse

Fortuna Miércoles has finally moved her family to a better neighborhood across the Rio Grande, desperate to outrun the curse that’s stalked her bloodline since her greatest grandmother crossed the desert with a cactus thorn splitting her throat. But burying a family’s violent legacy–or her own haunting secret–isn’t so easy. Twenty years ago, girls and women vanished into the Albuquerque night, their bones later unearthed on the mesa. The so-called Reaper was never caught. Now, beneath the dormant volcanoes called the Sleeping Sisters, the killings have begun again, and they’ve called forth something in Fortuna that she has long fought to keep buried…

Detective Jeanette Palacio has spent decades promising justice to the ghosts of her murdered cousins–alongside the memory of the other women she couldn’t avenge. When a new body turns up in Fortuna’s backyard, both women are pulled into a dangerous, ancient plot. Are the Sleeping Sisters awakening–or has someone in Fortuna’s family set a trap?

Inspired by true events, The Sleeping Sisters begins as a taut mystery shot through with myth and a Chicana-Indigenous reimagining of the legend of the headless woman–but by its cataclysmic end has spiraled into a fevered, feral hymn to motherhood and a mesmerizing portrait of trauma and the monstrous bargains we make to protect those we love.

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Overall Rating

5/5

Spooky Rating

2/5

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Quick Take

The Sleeping Sisters by Jennifer Givhan is one of those rare novels that comes once in a lifetime. You will never have a reading experience quite like it again and be changed for the better.

Tell Me More

Words cannot begin to express my utter awe, devastation or profound speechlessness when it comes to talking about The Sleeping Sisters by Jennifer Givhan. I have been sitting on this review for a bit now, unsure how to form my thoughts into words.

Other than:

The Sleeping Sisters might have become my new favorite book of all time. And if you don’t read it, you may very well miss out on one of the most essential literary masterpieces of our time.

I read Salt Bones by Jenn last year, and it quickly became one of my favorite books. I didn’t think that I could love her new novel any more than I love Salt Bones, but I was wrong.

The Sleeping Sisters is an utter work of art.

Not just because of the folkloric elements paired with trauma and Chicana-Indigenous representation, but with the gorgeous prose in which it is written. Like with Salt Bones, it was clear to see how Givhan’s background is in poetry. Reading her work is like a beautiful fever dream that draws you in with its luscious wording. But it doesn’t leave you unscathed. Givhan’s work is beyond vital, especially in current times. She has a gift with words and is one of those authors whose work stands out in the crowd.

Dripping in folklore, this novel addresses Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives (MMIWR), demanding the reader not to turn away. The way that Givhan approached these women, and the heart wrenching reality of something that we don’t talk about enough, opened up space for more discussion and visibility.

Part mystery/thriller and part horror, Givhan played with genre to bring her story to life and there were so many beautiful quotes throughout this novel. I am excited to share some of my favorites with you once the book publishes.

The Sleeping Sisters is a vital piece of literature that is incomparable to anything I have read. The book demands to be experienced, not just read, and deserves this praise and so much more.

*Thank you to Little, Brown and Company for the ARC!

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