Girls with Long Shadows: A Southern Gothic Thriller of Identical Sisters Torn Apart by Deadly Secrets

by Tennessee Hill

"Tennessee Hill beautifully evokes the sensation of realizing just how many people have a hold on the person you are, the person you hope to become."—Kevin Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Run for the Hills

"What a delicate, hot-blooded tempest of a debut."—Amy Jo Burns, author of Mercury

With the haunting, romantic voyeurism of The Virgin Suicides and the atmosphere and emotional intensity of Where the Crawdads Sing, an intoxicating Southern Gothic family saga about identical triplets whose lives are devastated when their burgeoning desires turn deadly.

Identical triplets Baby A, Baby B, and Baby C Binderup were welcomed into the world as their mother was ushered out of it, leaving them nameless and in the care of their Gram, Isadora. Nineteen years later, the triplets work at their Gram’s crumbling golf course in Longshadow, Texas, where the ever-watchful eyes of the small town observe them serving up glasses of ice-cold lemonade to golfers, swimming in the murky waters of the neighboring bayou, or slipping t-shirts off their sunburnt shoulders in hopes of attracting the kind of attention they are only beginning to understand.

Cautious Baby B watches as lustful Baby A and introverted Baby C find matches among the town boys. Even Baby B has noticed that the town’s golden boy seems to be intrigued by her, only her. Just as each girl’s desire to be seen for herself is becoming fulfilled, a seemingly trivial kiss is bestowed on the wrong sister, leading to a moment of unspeakable violence that will upend the triplets’ world forever.

Pulsating with menace and narrated with hypnotic lyricism, Girls with Long Shadows is an electrifying literary and psychological thriller that captures how female teenage angst can turn lethal when insecurities are weaponized and sibling bonds are severed. Tense, lush, and painfully beautiful, it forces us to consider the lengths to which we will go to claim our own personhood.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Horror, Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Coming Of Age, Literary Fiction

297 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 6, 2025

About the author

Tennessee holds an MFA from North Carolina State University and a BFA from Stephen F. Austin State University. Tennessee, a 2022 Gregory Djanikian poetry scholar, has been featured in Best New Poets, POETRY, THRUSH, and elsewhere. Her debut literary fiction novel, Girls with Long Shadows, will be published by HarperCollins May 6th, 2025. She lives and teaches in Houston.

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book could have been an email. Or an episode of Dateline

[Alex Roy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was drawn in right away by the concept of this book. Triplets in an identity crisis? Sounds amazing. But I could not have been prepared for the beautiful imagery, decadent prose, and the haunting realness of the characters. Baby B is the narrator of this story and it’s apparent on the very first page how real she is- how REAL Baby A and Baby C are. Over and over again, these characters spiral in their shared desire to be different from one another, which is quickly reduced to a desire to be seen differently- not to actually be different. And even this desire is reduced to an abhorrent disgust at no longer being able to think and feel what the others are thinking and feeling. I was hooked from the first page- the first SENTENCE. I might as well have been Baby B myself, or Baby A or C. And for what it’s worth- this book did make me cry. A lot.

[em · Rating 3 out of 5]

if 'the virgin suicides' and 'a&p' had a literary baby.

this entire book succeeded at evoking such a strong atmosphere; of the setting, people, and most importantly, weather. i could almost feel the humidity with the turn of every page. to me, that's where this book shined. the world building was immaculate for a literary fiction novel, and it felt cinematic in its plot and cast of characters.

however, the plot was where this book fell flat for me. the writing evoked such strong imagery and the characters were distinct in voice all while being familiar and similar. the sisters has a mysterious air surrounding them that made us crave any bit of information we got. it was the plot that didn't give us enough oomph. the ending was surprising, but it took a looooong time to get there, and it wasn't as equally fleshed out as the entire beginning of the book had been. certain characters were made to be villains in the second half of the story when they weren't even mentioned much in the first. it almost feels as if the author had a great idea, premise, and characters for this book, but got stuck on the ending and instead threw something half-assed together.

oh well. i did really enjoy reading this and it's a great companion to the heavy, summer heat. i would love to see this work adapted to the screen. that's where it would be best showcased narratively and i can literally imagine it now. incredible vibes. someone make that happen.

[Krissy (books_and_biceps9155) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, this easily falls into one of my favorite books of the year. It is an extremely atmospheric, slow burn, fever dream of a story that will shatter your heart and make you think.

I enjoyed that Hill takes her time and really gets you into the head of Baby B. You feel all the emotions, thoughts and opinions. I always find twins/triplets and their bond interesting. This book takes sisterhood and grief to a whole new level.

The writing is so vivid and filled with imagery. The prose is delicate and flowery. You really FEEL like you are on a golf course in the summertime. If you enjoy coming of age, finding one’s self/identity and a bit of morally gray themes this is for you. Perfect for a book club but bring your tissues.

[Timothy Deer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could not put this book down. What a vivid, haunting ride.

[Mary Cain · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book will haunt me forever

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book as a Goodreads Giveaway - There were a few parts that were a bit confusing, but overall I liked the idea behind the story. One thing that did bug me, was that the triplets were only ever called Baby A, Baby B, and Baby C. Even though it’s fiction, it felt a little weird and honestly I would have preferred if they were simply called A, B and C - to each their own. Overall a quick read with a decent premise.

[Kate Victoria RescueandReading · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent, morose, southern gothic exploration of triplets in an identity crisis.

Baby B narrates the tale as the girls come of age in a stagnant, hot southern town. Swimming in the bayou, working on a run down golf course, the three are desperate to be recognized as individuals. When tragedy strikes it turns their wants and dreams upside down.

I felt totally immersed in the places and people, the prose was poetic in its despair. As well, the narrator of the audiobook was incredible. If you enjoyed “A Choir of Ill Children” by Thomas Piccirilli, then you’ll love this!

[Nicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book as an ARC giveaway from goodreads. I am so grateful for the opportunity to read this book before it came out. Now for my honest review I want to start with what I liked about the book. The writing and the descriptions were incredible, Hill makes you feel like you’re inside the book because the writing is so descriptive you can vividly picture everything. Now for what I didn’t like, I am a reader who wants to be sucked in right away and I feel like this was a slow burn for me. To me I feel like nothing really happened until right at the end and then it felt rushed. I personally would’ve wanted different POVs from each of the sisters this way I could’ve got more connected to them and seen why Baby A did what she did and how. I know they weren’t named for a reason but I also felt like because they didn’t have names I couldn’t connect with them how I wanted. I didn’t really feel anything for any of the characters except maybe hulk so I wasn’t really upset when what happened, happened. I think if you like a slow burn and vivid detail this book is for you l, there is absolutely an audience out there for this book but unfortunately it is not me.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

We were perfect back then because we were together. We were secure, even swimming in the midnight, because we knew which way was home.

A set of triplets, named Baby A, Baby B, and Baby C, are raised by their Gram after their mother dies in childbirth. At nineteen, they are aimless, out of high school with no prospects, helping to run Gram's golf course, identical in every way and yearning to be seen as different, but unable to take a single step towards that differentiation. Summer on the bayou in Texas is like a pot of hot water, is like the tragedy that awaits the girls, simmering away for so long that it's easy to forget the flame is burning, to forget the lid is on and the pressure's rising, until it's too late.

This isn't my normal genre of book and it took me a little while to get into it, but from the start I appreciated the language, the deft hand taken with the writing of this little town, of the unbearably small lives the girls lead. Somewhere around the midpoint I found myself getting invested, though I wasn't sure in what, exactly. And before I knew it, I was just like Baby C, trying to peer into the future, to see what would happen next. A very powerful piece of writing.

[Ashley Sweeney · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book, I just did not get it....

Immediately when the story line opened, I felt like I was missing something. It seemed like the author just dove in and there was a backstory that I never found out.

The story behind the triplets was also very confusing to me. Everyone was acting like they were sirens or something when I think they were normal people? There was a lot of mystery that never came out and it really bothered me.

Overall these characters seemed to lack depth and it bothered me that they did not have names. This book started out no where and ended no where. I was almost just trying to read as fast as I could to get it over with.

[Taylor Opolka · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

There’s nothing wrong with this book per se, it’s more that it’s just kinda filled with nothing. I had high hopes after the first 25%, but then it was basically a repetition of the main theme over and over. I’m not mad I read it, and I can see what was trying to be explored here (identity, wanting to be seen, wanting to be wanted, etc.) but it was just kinda meh in the end for me. I think this would’ve killed as a novella or short story written more in the style of the front porch chorus interludes.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sharing an intense bond, three identical sisters struggle to find their individuality, until one moment of jealousy leads to a devastating finale, which severs their ties forever.

Reading like a half-remembered dream, this Southern Gothic story has an ominous undercurrent lurking beneath its engrossing narrative.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

The amount of times— a few years younger than these girls— I drove down those same back roads and freeway lanes to that very seawall in Galveston, just before the sun came up…

This is the deep South, beside the eastern coast of Texas. The air here— it presses, it weighs. Heat gathers in the hollows of the collarbone, in the stillness before rain, in the shared silence of three girls who look identical and are treated as one. Written with a fevered, dedicated intimacy, the sentences are slick with humidity and restraint, all meaning beneath a layer of water.

Born on the day their mother died, we meet Baby A, Baby B, Baby C: names that never quite become whole selves. They grow up on the edge of a decaying golf course, raised by a grandmother who knows how to keep ghosts and people alike at bay. The town refers to them collectively, one face divided by three bodies, and the book opens just as that shared reflection begins to slip apart.

The cicadas scream warnings— the small, defiant ways these teenage girls long to have a singular: habit, secret, need. One slips first, scrambling toward something just out of reach, and the others feel the rupture. Beneath the surface lurks the question none can answer: if no one can tell you apart, can you really exist at all? Their search is tender, reckless, edged with hunger— to be recognized, to be chosen, to be loved for the self that flickers beneath the shared face. What follows is an awakening, fierce and aching in equal measure.

There’s something truly southern in the way this story moves— languid, thickly, like wading through a bayou that has heard the town’s secrets. Desire and shame braid together; love curdles into resentment. The triplets’ lives unfold under the constant pressure of being seen and not seen, known and misnamed. It’s a portrait of girlhood mystery under observation, of the small-town gaze that mistakes familiarity for knowing.

Reading this feels like remembering a place you swore you’d left behind; the radio static, the sweet rot of summer grass, the quiet insanity of sameness. It’s a novel that knows what it feels like to grow up carrying your own small fire against a world that insists you are nothing more than a reflection of someone else—

And to never underestimate the will of a teenage girl.

[Madyn Godfrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love a devastating southern gothic! sue me!

[Hope Anderson (HopelessBookAddict) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read. Felt like Virgin Suicides but in the South.

[Patsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

fantastic concept but confusing execution. Read a review that said it could have been an email and I kind of agree

[The Bookish Elf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tennessee Hill's debut novel Girls with Long Shadows is a Southern Gothic powerhouse that seeps into your consciousness like humidity on a Texas summer day. Set in the fictional town of Longshadow, this novel plunges readers into the claustrophobic world of identical triplets known only as Baby A, Baby B, and Baby C—girls whose mother died bringing them into the world, leaving them in the care of their grandmother, Gram (the legendary "Manatee"). What unfolds is not merely a coming-of-age tale but a profound meditation on identity, desire, and the desperate need to be recognized as an individual when the world sees you only as one-third of a whole.

The Bayou Beckons: Setting and Atmosphere

Hill's Longshadow, Texas exists in that liminal space where the mundane meets the mythical. The crumbling golf course named Bayou Bloom serves as both home and prison to the triplets, who maintain it alongside Gram and their adopted brother Gull, who is gradually losing his hearing. The murky waters of the bayou that borders the property becomes both literal and metaphorical—a place where secrets sink and resurface, where town legend Ansley Deer drowned years before, foreshadowing the darkness to come.

Hill writes with an intoxicating lyricism that transforms even the most ordinary scenes into something haunted:

"The bayou had a grip about it. I'd felt it before, holding us hostage on our swims. Yet we gave ourselves to it every morning, not fearing enough that it could steal us away."

The atmospheric intensity builds through temperature—oppressive heat, sweat-drenched clothes, the cool touch of water—creating sensory immersion that makes Longshadow as tangible as it is suffocating. The novel's setting feels both expansive in its natural beauty and stifling in its small-town insularity where, as the narrator tells us, "We'd outgrown it, this place, but it refused to outgrow us."

Three Bodies, One Shadow: Character and Identity

The novel's narrative unfolds through the eyes of Baby B, the middle triplet, creating a powerful perspective on the central themes of identity and individuality. The triplets are alike physically but disparate in personality:

- Baby A: Reckless, attention-seeking, and increasingly self-destructive, using her body as both weapon and shield
- Baby B: Cautious, observant, forever caught between her sisters' opposing forces
- Baby C: Introspective, superstitious, seeking answers in horoscopes and palm readings

What makes Hill's character work so compelling is how she explores the psychological complexity of existing as someone perpetually mistaken for others. The girls' collective name—"The Manatee's Girls"—robs them of individual identity while binding them to their grandmother's local fame. The townspeople's inability (or unwillingness) to distinguish between them becomes not merely an annoyance but a violence of erasure.

The arrival of Pete Martelli—college-bound, handsome, seemingly sensitive—creates ripples in the triplets' dynamic when he appears to focus his attention exclusively on Baby B. This external validation of her uniqueness becomes intoxicating to her, while Baby A grows increasingly desperate to be seen, even if it means weaponizing their identical appearances.

The Dance of Desire and Violence

Hill demonstrates exceptional skill in depicting teenage female desire without exploiting it. The novel captures that specific adolescent hunger to be both witnessed and wanted. When Baby B reflects, "I wanted to be wanted, maybe more than I wanted to want," she articulates a particular kind of longing that feels devastatingly authentic.

The novel's central tensions arise when Baby A begins impersonating Baby B to seduce Pete, setting in motion a series of events culminating in shocking violence. The blurring of identities becomes deadly when Baby A convinces Pete to kill her—an act that spirals the remaining sisters into a labyrinth of grief and questions about autonomy, connection, and blame.

Hill writes this violence and its aftermath with unflinching clarity while maintaining emotional resonance. Particularly effective is how she portrays the trauma response of the remaining sisters, who struggle with self-loathing and the uncanny experience of seeing their dead sister's face every time they look at each other.

Prose That Pulls You Under

Hill's distinctive voice is what elevates this debut above similar Southern Gothic novels. Her sentences are both poetic and precise, creating a narrative undertow that refuses to let go:

"My body was her body was a place she moved and lived forever. Even now she was gone, her face still looked out at the town through me, her voice still shimmered when I opened my mouth. It was a flood on top of a flood."

The novel employs an innovative structural technique with sections titled "[ENTER] Front Porch Chorus" that provide communal commentary, functioning as a Greek chorus that contextualizes the family's tragedy within the town's collective consciousness. These sections create breathing room while deepening the story's mythic qualities.

Where the Shadows Fall Short

Despite its considerable strengths, Girls with Long Shadows occasionally stumbles. The pacing in the middle section drags, particularly as the trial unfolds with somewhat predictable legal maneuvering. Some secondary characters like Julie Martelli and Rich Goodson remain underdeveloped despite their significance to the plot.

The novel's exploration of grief sometimes tips into repetition, with the surviving sisters cycling through similar emotional territory without advancing their internal journeys. While this accurately reflects the circuitous nature of grieving, it can create narrative stagnation.

Most notably, the resolution feels rushed compared to the meticulous buildup. Baby B's decision whether to stay or leave Longshadow deserved more space to unfold, particularly given how central questions of escape versus belonging have been to her character throughout.

Verdict: A Remarkable Debut That Lingers

The book's most affecting quality is how it captures that peculiarly adolescent paradox: the simultaneous desire to blend in and stand out, to be connected and autonomous, to be known and inscrutable. In the Binderup triplets, Hill has created characters whose struggles with these contradictions take on life-or-death stakes.

By the novel's conclusion, when Baby B contemplates the water's capacity to flood and recede, to devastate and renew, we understand that this is a story about survival in its rawest form—about what remains after tragedy has reshaped everything:

"I became amazed that water evaporates. That one day, all this rain can flood the highway so badly that people pull over and turn their hazards on, sit on the shoulders for hours, and the next, it's gone somewhere, supposedly lifted up and dissipated. And we know, amazingly, the water will come back again as rain, heavy and bewildering, and will eventually leave in just the same natural way."

For readers who appreciate atmospheric literary fiction that doesn't sacrifice plot for prose, Girls with Long Shadows offers a reading experience as immersive and haunting as the bayou waters that flow through its pages. Tennessee Hill's debut marks her as a significant new voice in Southern Gothic literature, one whose long shadows will likely stretch across many books to come.

[Terri Flood · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF. The baby a, b, c wasn't for me.

[Morgan Mathis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted this to be good. But I struggled to get into it.

[Alanis Quinland · Rating 2 out of 5]

so boring, almost impossible to focus

[Angie Lemma · Rating 5 out of 5]

To be a woman is often to blend in. Our weight, fashion, and self expression is usually only ever considered valid if it could be observed through a lens of “sameness.” In Girls with Long Shadows, Tennessee Hill does a phenomenal job at calling attention to that aspect of womanhood——then flipping it on its head. We watch as Baby A, Baby B, and Baby C battle with their inability to fit in with their town’s societal understanding of “sameness” as well as battle against the “sameness” amongst the three of them that makes it hard to separate them from each other. Much like the population of their small town, I found it hard to differentiate them at the beginning. Their names, or lack thereof, made them muddle together in my mind. As I read and got to know them, however, it became so clear how individual each of them were. I found myself angry with their townsfolk for finding the task so difficult because it truly was as simple as the act of paying attention.

Which is what made the climax and ending of this book so haunting. In a world where men use the triplets’ likeness as an excuse to do to them what they want, it is so frustrating as a reader to watch them go through what they go through. Tennessee Hill does such a great job at laying all of the groundwork in the first few chapters, that the rest of the book sucks you in as if you’re a family member to these girls yourself. As a woman, I thought it was a perfect allegory to how often society likes to blame us for the crimes committed against us daily; while simultaneously convicting us for not blending ourselves in how they expect us to.

It tells you exactly what the ending is going to be in the first 10 pages. And still sucker punches you when you have to live through reading that ending. I loved it, I’m blown away, and I think I’ll miss these girls terribly.

[Jonny Carmack · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. I took so much time to get through it because the writing is just so poetic and beautiful.

This story is extremely haunting and dark. I loved all three main characters (Baby A, B and C) and felt as though they were really well developed. It’s funny typing that out since they literally don’t have names but in my mind they all are so different in personality that it was easy to tell them apart. I know some readers may not enjoy a nameless cast but I found it so enlightening and important to the story being told.

The story is about sisterhood, identity, sadness, loss and grief. If you are sensitive to these topics then I would suggest going in with caution.

One of my absolute favorite things about this book is the setting. How unique is it to set such a story on a golf course in the Texas heat. Water was also a huge element in this story and as someone who loves to swim - this was an added plus for me.

Without giving spoilers I will say that I had an emotional response to the events that occur towards the end of the book. This doesn’t happen all that often to me but I just couldn’t help but feel so connected to these girls.

While I do think this book has a specific audience I also think it should be read by more people. I haven’t heard much about this in the media but it deserves way more attention than it’s getting.

Bravo to the author. Thank you for writing this story. One of my favorites of the year so far.

[⭐️ (inkwitchery) · Rating 3 out of 5]

GIRLS WITH LONG SHADOWS by Tennessee Hill

I’m a bit on the fence with this one. The premise is intriguing; triplet girls having an identity crisis, each wanting to be seen as individuals/unique, sibling rivalry and jealousy, small town drama etc.

However, this was such a slow moving, fever dream. There’s an abundance of foreshadowing and red herrings, but no real progress or action to hold my interest. The end is when things ramp up, but by then I was lukewarm about the whole thing.

Additionally, I wasn’t fond of these teenage girls being referred to as Baby A, Baby C and Baby B. While I understand it’s a way to show how everyone views them a a single entity instead of individuals, it was just… weird. Why not just use their initials?

In short, this was good, but not great. Perhaps you’ll have better luck than me.


Rating: 3.5/5 ⭐️

Pub Date: 05.06.25

**ARC courtesy of Goodreads & HarperBooks giveaway.

[Lexie · Rating 4 out of 5]

definitely virgin suicides inspired. very introspective look into a triplet faced with a life long identity crisis and a twist that enhances that. really enjoyed the writing of this one, just wish it had better pacing.

[Adriana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t describe why this is my new favorite book, other than the fact that it just is now. Pacing starts kind of a slow, but when it picks up, it really picks! It wasn’t perfect, but with such a strong narrator, complex characters, and an interesting plot, I can’t help but love it.

[Lilly · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 There were some parts that I really liked and based on the description I knew there would be death in some way but I was NOT expecting what happened and it was a little graphic and kind of needed a trigger warning in my opinion

[Jessica Simmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

SO deeply moving. Raw. Vulnerable. Striking. Intimate. Like a whispered story only you can hear. Honored to have read it. Just go buy it and read it, okay? Okay.

[Shannon Ahlmark · Rating 3 out of 5]

This could have been a short story and it would have been much better. Nothing happened until well after 50% in.

[Olivia · Rating 1 out of 5]

WORST book i ever read please don’t read it, the plot described in the back is a total of 6 pages. the buildup is excessive and not necessary for the 6 pages of plot.