I wanted to love this book, but as a transgender reader and a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, all this book did was leave me pissed off and disturbed, and not in the way I was expecting to be disturbed.

I love Eldritch horror, I love body horror, I love (fictional!) fucked-up morally unsound gay sex and relationships. I was SO INTO THIS! While reading it!

And then two things happen:

1) The author invokes 14-year-old victim, Konerak Sinthasomphone, a victim of Jeffrey Dahmer, by name, in the most dehumanizing, stigmatizing way you possibly can. The PoV character is comparing herself and the things she wants to do to others, for her own sexual gratification, to what Dahmer did to this child, who was ultimately murdered after sexual torture. I will not transcribe the words used in the book, but it did include describing Sinthasomphone "bleeding from his ass."

This added nothing to the story, the narrative, or the character. You could remove that entire paragraph and nothing would be changed at all regarding the paragraphs before or after it. Why was it included? Extreme edginess for edginess' sake? The only impression this left me with is that the author saw a story of an extremely violent, racist pedophilic murder and thought it'd be funny to use it to enhance the grimdark shock-factor of her novel. It's really not funny, and it just feels like a slap in the face as a CSA survivor trying to read this.

2) There is one (1) entire implied trans character in the entire book. This implied trans character is a character introduced as a cisgender man, and giving one (1) very brief sentence about how the PoV character gets the feeling he "hates being in a male body." That's it. Then that implied-trans character attempts to murder the PoV character, gets violently murdered by her, she orgasms from his murder, and that's the end of it.

You could remove that line about his possible gender dysphoria and nothing would be changed. There's no other reference to trans people existing in the entire book, beyond the author sometimes throwing the word "cis" before man and woman. What did that possibly add to the character? All I saw as a trans reader was one of the most common transphobic tropes- the crazed, violent trans woman who has sex/relationship issues- and then the usual treatment of trans characters: being the only one in the entire cast, then killed off with no emotional fanfare and immediately discarded by the narrative.

I was enjoying it for 50-60% of the story until I hit these. I stopped reading it at 50% of the way in because of these. These two points are so short in the grand scheme of the story, but so thoughtlessly handled that they soured the entire book for me and make me regret picking it up at all. ( )

Thank you to netgalley for the ARC!

WHAT A FUN BOOK. Everything I hoped Lovecraft would be, spooky, gory, all over the place chaos. Finally a book that surprised me and I had no idea what would happen next! What a treat. ( )

The PVG pandemic has left a trail of destruction in its wake. Those infected have to adapt to their new lives depending on which Type they are determined to be - asymptomatic Type Ones, or Types Two or Three whose bodies have been so destroyed by the disease they now require a gorier solution to manage their symptoms.

The story follows 3 women - Erin, Savannah and Mareva- whose lives become entwined with each others. Erin and Savannah are helping usher in this new world, while Mareva has been burdened with a very special task...

I don't want to give much more away here. I went in blind to this weird, wild ride and recommend you do too.
SMM is a cosmic, body horror and such a fun twist on the post-COVID pandemic stories. It was gross, sexy, gory, and creepy all at the same time! ( )

A very weird 4 stars ( )

Sister, Maiden, Monster was a decent book that follows three women as they navigate a new pandemic hitting the world, one that is extremely different from the previous one. Considering our current climate with regards to pandemic thinking, I think it is very difficult to write about, but I thought the author handled it quite well and I enjoyed that aspect of the book. Where I had difficulty was with the repetitive narrative and the lack of character development; all of the characters just started blending in together and I think to really pull this off, the women needed distinct voices and not just because one was into BDSM or the other one liked to eat brains.

While I did like each of the characters, I did feel like the author used what they were to make them seem distinct as opposed to who they were. This didn't allow for a lot of character development as there wasn't really much to define them with regards to their personalities to begin with. And if you are looking for queer lust and power in your novels, this one definitely has it in spades, unchecked and uncontrolled at times. Personally, I enjoyed Erin's story the best, but I wonder if it's because it was first and I had no idea what was happening when I started the book so it had a deeper impact on me for that reason. I think this is why the other two women really needed powerful voices to be heard as the story kind of went sideways for me when I started Savannah's POV.

The plot itself was definitely interesting for the first half of the book and I had a hard time putting it down. The other two women don't get as much attention as Erin and the stories aren't interconnected the way I thought they would be. I get what the author was doing, but execution-wise, I don't think it quite worked. I really wanted to enjoy the second half more than I did, which was a shame as that half had most of the horror elements in it, elements that I love. I also felt like some descriptions were thrown in for shock purposes rather than for story substance and I found it jarring, throwing me out of the narrative, which was sometimes difficult to stay focused on anyways due to the repetitiveness of it. I think I liked the idea of what was happening rather than on what was actually happening and I found myself drifting off at times, reflecting on the social impacts of what was occurring, another aspect I think the author could have developed a bit more.

Verdict
Sister, Maiden, Monster had a lot of potential, but ultimately it was a bit disappointing. There was a lot going on in this novel, and I think the author missed the mark by not focusing on character development as well as cultural impact and social commentary. The horror aspect of this novel was actually interesting, involving both cosmic and body horror, but the world is falling apart, so shouldn't there be more focus on existential crisis? Great ideas, but overall, missed the mark. ( )