Dark Sisters

by Kristi DeMeester

Three women. Three centuries. One legacy of fury, love, and a power that refuses to die

In this fiercely captivating novel, horror meets historical fiction when a curse bridges generations, binding the fates of three women. Anne Bolton, a healer facing persecution for witchcraft, bargains with a dark entity for protection—but the fire she unleashes will reverberate for centuries. Mary Shephard, a picture perfect wife in a suffocating community, falls for Sharon and begins a forbidden affair that could destroy them both. And Camilla Burson, the rebellious daughter of a preacher, defies conformist expectations to uncover an ancient power as her father’s flock spirals into crisis.

Genres: Horror, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Witches, Gothic, Fantasy, Historical

336 pages, Hardcover

First published December 9, 2025

About the author

Kristi DeMeester is the author of Beneath, published by Word Horde, and Everything That's Underneath by Apex Books. Her short fiction has been included in Ellen Datlow's Year's Best Horror Volumes 9 and 11, Year's Best Weird Fiction Volumes 1, 3, and 5, and Stephen Jone's Best New Horror. Her short fiction has also appeared in publications such as Black Static, The Dark, Pseudopod, as well as several others. In her spare time, she alternates between telling people how to pronounce her last name and how to spell her first.

Reviews

[Sadie Hartmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Title/Author: Dark Sisters by Kristi DeMeester
Format Read: NetGalley ebook
Pub date: December 9th, 2025
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Page Count: 336
Affiliate Link: https://bookshop.org/a/7576/978125028...
Recommended for readers who enjoy:
- Dark curses
- Multiple POVs and timelines
- Witches & witchcraft
- Religious oppression/purity culture/culty behavior
- Feminine rage/Intergenerational trauma
- Revenge
- Folklore
__
Minor complaints:
- The pace is a little slow at first- it took a minute for me to sink into this story and get invested
- With all fictional books about religious extremism and cults, I want to BELIEVE it. I want to see a charismatic leader. I want a firsthand account of the indoctrination, I need clearly established rules and rituals, I need to understand how we got HERE. How seemingly ordinary people are capable of doing horrible things in the name of the cult--especially if it comes to ritualistic sacrifice. For me, this story falls short of that expectation in light of how extreme the behaviors are


Final recommendation: 
If you haven't read, Beneath by Kristi DeMeester, about a snake handling cult in rural Appalachia and the journalist assigned to cover it, you need to remedy this at once. This kind of "back-woods, rural small town, religious, culty, insidious dark power" story is DeMeester's wheelhouse and she does not disappoint. I wanted a little more backstory on the cult and its practices--more explanation and details--maybe in place of one of the three POVs. That would have helped me buy into the extremism a little more but overall, I enjoyed this book. It's dark and creepy and perfect for readers who show up for this kind of story.

Comps: The Mean Ones by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne, The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson, Something in the Walls by Daisy Pearce

[Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars
This was a fantastic piece of witchy horror and I don't normally enjoy that subgenre. However, in the hands of this author, I finally understand what makes these stories so amazing.

This story does a great job exploring the experience of these women as they push to break out of the lives and expectations that confine them. In addition, this novel brings in the role of church into these thematic elements.

This novel breaks the fierce feminist energy of the author's debut novel, Beneath, while adding the polished writing of their sophomore novel.

This author is one I will continue to watch and would highly recommend to readers who enjoy horror from a female perspective.

Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

[Dutchie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark, creepy and very unsettling.

Quick synopsis: Dark Sisters tells the story from several different women’s perspectives across multiple centuries. In 1750, in the cover of night, Anne and her daughter leave their town to avoid persecution of being witches. In 1953, recently new mother, Mary, is feeling the pressure and suffocation of being limited to being a stay at home mother. Finally in 2007, Camilla is also facing a similar feeling being the preacher’s daughter in a very strict Megachurch type setting. All three groups of women ultimately are trying to free themselves from the restrictions thrown at them by men. Embedded in all three of these timelines is the story of the Dark Sisters used to terrify women and children.

This was definitely a dark read and each timeline had me feeling all sorts of different emotions for what the women were going through. Anne and her daughter Florence’s timeline was used more of a backdrop from a historical perspective in order to advance the plot in the future timelines. It definitely had the most atmosphere. Mary’s timeline was the one I thought was done the best to illustrate the limitations that were brought upon women, especially during that time period. The present timeline just seemed a bit odd of a fit compared to the other two. The way of life Camilla had seemed very much like something you would see on a Real Housewives. The church itself was a good fit, but not necessarily the level of opulence the actual parishioners had. Being this was supposed to be more of a dark witchy read it threw me off when I’m hearing about Chanel and Cartier. As for the resolution, I liked the folklore of the Dark Sisters and how it was all explained.

This is the first novel I’ve read by this author and it did not disappoint. I was expecting a typical spooky witchy read, but instead got so much more than that.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

[Adrienne L · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐

Dark Sisters switches perspectives between three different women from three different centuries. Anne and Florence Bolton, a mother and daughter in the 18th century fleeing accusations of witchcraft and the certain fatal outcome brought with them, find a new place for themselves in the solitary woods and hope to make a peaceful life there. Mary is a mid-20th century housewife and new mother who finds herself irresistibly drawn into a forbidden passion. And in 2007, we have Camilla, a recent high-school graduate living a life of privilege and indulgence as the only child of her insular and wealthy community’s religious leader. While the POV’s are pretty evenly split, it is Camilla who becomes the narrative focus as she begins to rebel against the centuries of rigid control of the women of Hawthorne Springs under the guise of their patriarchal Christianity, and to question the truth behind the legend of the Dark Sisters, who are said to punish women who dare to veer away from the path of dutiful daughter, wife, and mother.

I was invested in all three POVs early on, thanks to DeMeester’s writing and some effective imagery in terms of the Dark Sisters themselves. The short chapters and the switching of POVs kept me interested and made this an easy read. The story doesn't really have much to distinguish itself from the female rage/witchy subgenre that has become quite popular in contemporary horror, but DeMeester does it better than some of the others I've read. My biggest gripe, however, is the ending. After the vast majority of the book spent watching how the women of Hawthorne Springs are brainwashed, suppressed, and abused by men, the ending was over far too quickly (literally the final 5% of the book) and lacked bite. I also think the story would have been better served to have at least one or two sympathetic adult men. The only male character who isn't total garbage in this book is a teenager.

I've deducted a half star from my rating as I was that dissatisfied with the ending, but I was entertained enough to round up to four stars for this review. I do look forward to reading more by the author in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the digital advanced readers copy. Dark Sisters will be published on December 9, 2025.

[Johanna Van]

I blurbed this one!

"Both a scathing criticism of purity culture and a suspenseful supernatural thriller full of wilful women, wicked witches and malicious men, DARK SISTERS is sure to enrage and empower in equal measure."

[Geertje · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want a witchy book where the true horror is a combination of/the intersection of the patriarchy, religious oppression, homophobia, and misogyny (and let's face it, when aren't those the true horror) and you like your books with a good helping of female rage, then this is the one for you.

It's giving 'good for her' and 'I support women's rights but I also support women's wrongs' vibes.

[J. Joseph · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this digital advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

I really struggled with this book, partially because it felt like a horror-clone of Weyward (a book which I also didn’t enjoy). It’s split into three timelines — something in the 1700s focused on when everything began, something in the 1950s focused on not being the “right type” of woman, and something in the present day focused on unravelling the centuries-long mystery. In this case it’s evil figures in the tree at the centre of a prosperous town who cause a blight to befall almost all the women in a cyclical pattern. I will say that I enjoyed the 1950s timeline much more than the other two (same thing happened for me with Weyward, notice the pattern) because she felt much more fleshed out and motivated.

Now, this book requires a significant trigger warning which I did not receive in my ARC copy — had it been there I wouldn’t have read it. Spoilers to follow, but it’s important. The big reveal is that the Christian sect (cult) in town which all the women belonged to have a vampiric ritual where the religious leaders cut the inner thigh of all the girls and drink their blood from between their legs. I can stomach gruesome books, I can stomach cults and vampirism in fiction, but I can’t stomach adult men drugging young girls and drinking anything from between their legs for the sake of a “purity ritual”. If I misread where the cuts are made then that’s great — I’d very much like to be corrected, because that revelation made my stomach turn.

Also, to be clear, I didn't misread - at least not the uncorrected proofs I was given. It's best practice not to quote from uncorrected proofs, but I need to in this case to show what I mean regarding this triggering content. I'll only use one quote as a compromise: "Grant looked up from the place between her thighs, his mouth smeared with her blood. Her father knelt beside him, a Bible in one hand, the other on Grant's shoulder. His own mouth bloodied.

Two stars because DeMeester does an excellent job creating atmosphere, and the plot isn't bad. But I genuinely can't give anything higher given how green my stomach turned near the end.

Previous notes, replaced on November 1, 2025
I read an ARC, and will write my thoughts later. Short-form thoughts for now: I was bored but okay until 84%, and then I was incredibly and profoundly disgusted and wanted to DNF (not in a way horror normally causes - you'll understand in my full review).

[Sidney]

pre-readજ⁀➴
i'm actually really intrigued by this one...seen a few good reviews for it lately. fingers crossed˙ᵕ˙

[Gyalten Lekden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honest and sharp, this novel bridges multiple timelines in ways that force a reevaluation of the (masculine, patriarchal) fear of feminine power and prosperity. This is not the first 2025 book that has a fiercely feminist message filtered through witchy vibes and told across three generations/timelines, and, being honest, I do not love the other one as much as the popular consensus seems to, and when I read the marketing copy for this novel I was immediately reticent to pick it up. Don’t be like me and wait on this story – it is great!

I think all three timelines have characters that are relatable and genuine and who feel real to me. It is a relatively short book, and since we move across three timelines we get an abbreviated time with each character, which does limit a little bit how much we can really have an experiential emotional relationship to them, but even in the time we get DeMeester does a wonderful job at inviting us into the characters’ experiences, at making sure that we understand their complexities, the multitude they contain. The three timelines are effective and weave together well, for the most part. I appreciated that the oldest timeline, the one that is not given chapter numbers but always marked as “Interlude,” is written in the first-person, whereas the other two timelines are written in a close and intimate third-person. In some ways the most contemporary of the three storylines is the “main” storyline, I suppose, that is the present tense of the story, and while there are details to discover we can guess the overall arc of the other timelines before they start, that is the nature of the story. Yet the way they were crafted makes them all interesting and engaging, and leaves the reader anticipating a bloody future that you hope can be avoided, infusing all three timelines with emotional and narrative tension. I appreciated that when we returned to a timeline after having been away for a well we often returned right to the moment we ended; often a writer uses the switching of timelines to add gaps of time or place into the narrative, but it feels like every chapter break here is a bleeding edge, a fresh wound that we return to without any buffers. It made the story feel more urgent. The plotting of each individual storyline moves quickly, and so even when they are woven together the pacing still feels anxious, and I mean that in a good way. The characters are antsy and uncomfortable and the pacing doesn’t give them time to slow down; there is no library montage where they can sort things out, everything is being made up on the fly, more or less, and the pacing helps impart that feeling to the reader. I would have liked more time in both the middle timeline and the contemporary timeline, to be honest. I think the whole story was told, it is not like anything is missing from a narrative perspective, and I appreciated the pacing and movement of the story, but I really enjoyed the characters and feel like I didn’t get as much of them as I would have liked. The world building is really efficient and evocative, it sets a very distinct emotional and social environment that feels oppressive and frustrating and I would have loved to see our main characters spend more time navigating their worlds, given more of a chance to show off other parts of themselves. The constant shifting of timelines and the pacing do come at the expense of getting to spend that time with the characters, but that is a mild disappointment, when all is said and done. The story structure is effective and the character work that is done gives the reader more than enough to chew on.

I think you can probably guess many of the themes that are being explored. DeMeester is not shy, and the ideas are explicit and on the page. Obviously misogyny, patriarchy, and paternal communities that commodify women and strip them of autonomy are put under the microscope. The use and abuse of religion and faith to not just dominate but to profit, and the way greed weaves its way through so many of the other arrogant, presumptive attitudes. But while it could easily just look at the men this story is also interested in making sure the characters look at themselves; the ways they have been complicit with their situations on occasions, the ways the try to do the best they can in bad situations other times that ultimately looks like complicity, and the ways they have the capacity to be so much more than they have continually been told they are. This story has at its heart an idea of radical self-acceptance, and through that a reclamation of power. The real question is how to do that when everything around you is working against your liberation, and is it maybe already too late?

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like historical fiction where the characters are related and the time frame spans centuries. Dark Sisters has that, with a touch of horror thrown in.

It's 1750, and Anne and her daughter escape ahead of the hangman when they are deemed to be witches. They find an ancient tree in the forest and, joined by others who don't believe them to be witches, build a settlement near it. Anne unwittingly unleashes a power in the tree that is both good and evil.

Anne's descendant, Mary, is caught in a marriage in the 1950s that is smothering her. When she meets Sharon, a single career woman, she is torn between her love for her daughter and her desire to be with Sharon.

In 2007, Mary's granddaughter, Camilla, is also caught in a stifling situation. The daughter of a strict preacher, she is at odds with the community and her role in it because of her rebellious nature. Camilla is also drawn to the tree, but what she sees both horrifies and fascinates her. She is determined to find the true nature of the tree and its ancient power.

I associate witch trials with New England, so I was confused to find that this takes place near Atlanta, Georgia. Once I figured out that the women were, indeed, related, and the locale, the story picked up. It was also confusing as to the nature of the tree: how could it be both good and evil? What the tree drove some women to do was truly horrifying. The theme of women realizing their power was central to each character in their time period. With one exception, it painted men as overbearing and power-hungry. I've never been a fan of male bashing, so although the men's need to control the women was a propelling force behind the narrative, I was put off by it. Overall, this is a compelling, dark read. 3/5 stars.

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. The publication date is December 9, 2025.

[Casey Bee · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the heart of this story are three women from different time periods. The point of view toggles between these three perspectives, and each one is captivating, with their own distinct voice. DeMeester managed to make it where there wasn't one I enjoyed more than the other; I was connected to and invested in all. There is this overarching connection of these women being oppressed, and "put in their place" by the men in their lives. In the two more current ones, the women belong to the same religious cult, "The Path", and there's a story of the Dark Sisters used to scare women into behaving themselves. This legend of the Dark Sisters is what weaves these three timelines together. When the connections are made, it is fantastic. The horror is slowly building--a dream that feels real, a desire to walk into the woods and scream, a seeing of something that can't be real. And then it gets really real, because that's the thing in horror, it is real. There are some graphic and gruesome scenes woven in, a subtle magic flowing throughout, and most importantly, women fighting for autonomy. I cannot stress how much I loved this book! Besides the physical and haunting horror, we see a combination of religious horror (which is turning into one of my favorite subgenres), and misogynistic horror. This book defines female rage, supporting women’s rights and wrongs, and good old witchcraft. WOW! This one is going to stay with me for a while! This is one of my favorite books of the year so far!

Massive shoutout to the author Kristi DeMeester for being kind enough to reach out to me saying she would send me an ARC if NetGalley didn't approve me.... but alas, they did! Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the e-ARC! Genuinely one of my favorite reads of the year so far. The book releases 12/9/25.

[Dona's Books · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so lost.

---------------

Pre-Read Notes:

I grabbed this one from NetGalley because of the title. Dark stories and sister stories are often irresistible to me!

"We’d all been there to see them tried. Every woman turned her face toward heaven as she watched her neighbor or friend garble a final prayer before the rope did its work. Mercy dying on our lips as we made ourselves small so that terrible, holy eye might not swing toward us." p6

Final Review

(thoughts & recs) My favorite thing about the book is the acknowledgements. Maybe that sounds sarcastic but it's not. The author is really nice.

Unfortunately, this book left me behind. I couldn't keep up with the shifts in time. For most of the book, I couldn't find the narrative thread that connects the three stories taking place decades or centuries apart. This won't bother all readers, but it might bother readers who enjoy a plot like the spine of a story.

I recommend this one to fans of surreal horror, ghost stories, intergenerational trauma as horror, and witch stories.

My 3 Favorite Things:

✔️ "In the end, we all wear our brutality like beautiful cloth in the name of love." p11 A little purple, but I like that. It seems to suggest a subtext that the story will explore, to interesting effect.

✔️ "The pastor’s daughter wasn’t meant to look distressed during the sermon. She was meant to look perfect." p12 Starting to pick up on a theme of girls' and women's values being determined by their proximity and usefulness to a man.

✔️ I don't always go for alternating time lines; I tend to find them confusing when the different settings don't distinguish themselves enough from transition to transition. Here, the settings are different in exactly the ways the reader needs to anchor themselves in the three braiding stories. 2007 takes place in a Christian fundamentalist compound and the content is always about social performance of faith. These scenes always include a mobile phone. 1950's timeline brings the reader uncomfortably close to the primary protagonist and has an anxious tone and claustrophobic mood. And 1790 includes actual nooses-and-bonfires witch hunts. There's no mistaking those! *This* is how you do alternating timelines.

"She walked on until she was certain she wouldn’t be heard, and she screamed until her throat felt raw. Around her, the nocturnal creatures sent back their own cries, and she felt like one of them. A wild sister locked in a lovely, domestic cage." p78

Content Notes: murder, witch hunting, systemic misogyny, patriarchy, s**ual harassment, SA,

Thank you to Kristi DeMeester, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for an accessible digital copy of DARK SISTERS. All views are mine.

[Tini · Rating 4 out of 5]

"He did not understand a woman's rage."

Happy publication day to this dark and eerie read! I don’t read much horror, but after hearing glowing praise from several trusted readers - and seeing the novel's gorgeous cover -, I had to pick up "Dark Sisters".

Three women, three centuries, one curse: In the 17th-century, healer Anne Bolton makes a desperate bargain with something dark to protect herself from persecution. In the 1950s, Mary Shephard, the perfect pastor's wife, risks everything for a forbidden love. And in the present day, Camilla Burson - the rebellious daughter of a preacher in Hawthorne Springs - begins to uncover the legacy of fury, faith, and power that binds them all.

Kristi DeMeester's prose is lyrical and hypnotic, the kind that pulls you under with its rhythm. The book is full of eerie, unsettling, and creepy atmosphere, though for the most part, it is more uneasy than outright terrifying - its horror lies in what it means to be a woman in this world, hemmed in by fear, expectation, and violence. Each timeline thrums with tension and darkness, though Mary's 1950s storyline was easily my favorite, while the present-day sections veered a little over the top in their opulence. The ending, with its sudden burst of gore, didn't quite land for me - the earlier, subtler horror worked far better than the spectacle, and the violent climax also resulted in a somewhat unsatisfying, abrupt ending. I also found it quite the oversimplification to have every single man, with the exception of young Noah, turn out to be absolutely horrendous.

That said, DeMeester's ability to weave rage, despair, generational trauma, and resilience into a haunting multigenerational tale is remarkable. Through shifting perspectives and taut, propulsive chapters, she explores how patriarchy's attempts to suppress feminine power only serve to ignite it further - a fire that refuses to die.

"Dark Sisters" is full of fury, beauty, and feminist energy - disturbing, yes, but also defiant and gorgeously written. The stunning cover couldn't suit it better.

Many thanks to St. Martin's Press for providing me with an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

"Dark Sisters" publishes today, December 9, 2025, and is available now.

[Vlada · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was gooood, mix of folk horror and women finding their voice! very much enjoyed reading this one!🌙🔮

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars rounding up!

Dark Sisters is a tale of witchcraft, womanhood, betrayal, hypocrisy, oppression, and revenge. This story is told over three POV: Anne and her daughter Florence, who are facing accusations of witchcraft in the 1750s; Mary, a housewife and new mom in the 1950's who is struggling with her sexuality and navigating the hidden horrors of the patriarchy; and Camilla, a young adult living at home with her oppressive, pastor father (think born again megachurch). Anne and Florence's blood magic results in dire consequences for Mary and Camilla, and is the beginning of the long told curse of the Dark Sisters.

It is said that whomever are haunted by the Dark Sisters end up sick and decaying - their mouths full of sores, there teeth falling out, coughing blood and generally withering away. This curse lingers in the modern world as a parable for young, impressionable women: live a good, pure, Godly life, and never step out of line lest you end up like the Dark Sisters.

Camilla does not believe in the Dark Sisters. That is, until her mother and her best friend both start showing signs of the same illness. Once her mother starts declining Camilla is determined to learn more about the Dark Sisters. To do this, she will have to outsmart and outrun her ultra-conservative father, or else serve one of his many harsh punishments. It's a race against the clock to undo a curse that has been plaguing the women of Hawthorne Springs for ages.

This book is incredibly moody and atmospheric. It hits a lot of different notes in that it weaves historical fiction with horror, the supernatural with the suspense of modern day villainy such as patriarchy, religious oppression, homophobia, racism, and misogyny. There are hard topics and themes throughout but this was all the better for Camilla's character growth. It was engaging to see the evolution of the curse. I also loved the writing and the multiple POV narration. The writing and dialog for each POV felt true to the time it took place. It's unusual to see an author adapt a unique voice for different characters/times in history and I really enjoyed it.

This is my first book by Kristi DeMeester and to say that I'm hooked is an understatement. If you like books that give feminist rage revenge and redemption I highly recommend Dark Sisters.

Note: I was given an ARC via NetGally but this does not impact my review

[Mlpmom (Book Reviewer) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deliciously dark. Deliciously unique, and deliciously disturbing. I wasn't sure what to expect going into this one and, I was delighted that it was everything I didn't know I needed and nothing that I expected. This story really was so original. Perfect for the time of year and for those that just want something darker, something different, and something that stands out.

*ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

[The Bookish Elf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kristi DeMeester's Dark Sisters is a meticulously layered examination of feminine power, suppressed desire, and the terrible cost of denying one's complete self. This multi-generational horror novel weaves together three narratives across three centuries—1750, 1953, and 2007—tracing the legacy of a curse born from betrayal and the women who must ultimately reclaim what was stolen from them. The novel operates as both Gothic horror and a searing critique of patriarchal religious structures that have historically weaponized women's bodies and beliefs against them.

At its core, Dark Sisters follows Anne Bolton, a healer facing witchcraft accusations in colonial America; Mary Shephard, a 1950s housewife trapped in a suffocating marriage while conducting a forbidden affair with Sharon Hutchins; and Camilla Burson, a modern-day preacher's daughter who defies her father's oppressive church to uncover an ancient power connected to the Dark Sisters—spectral figures haunting the community of Hawthorne Springs. DeMeester's narrative architecture is ambitious, and she largely succeeds in binding these disparate timelines through the central image of a black walnut tree that serves as both blessing and curse.

The Architecture of Dread

DeMeester demonstrates considerable skill in crafting atmosphere that feels suffocating yet beautiful. The prose itself mirrors the thematic concerns, moving between lush sensory details and stark, clinical descriptions of bodily horror. When describing the illness that plagues the women of Hawthorne Springs—bleeding gums, teeth falling like abandoned ornaments, flesh rotting from within—DeMeester never flinches. These aren't metaphorical wounds; they're visceral manifestations of betrayal, shame, and denial made corporeal.

The author's previous works, including Such a Pretty Smile and Beneath, established her talent for excavating the horror lurking beneath suburban normalcy and feminine expectation. Dark Sisters represents a maturation of these themes, expanding her scope to encompass historical horror while maintaining the intimate, claustrophobic tension that defined her earlier fiction. Where Such a Pretty Smile focused on the monstrous transformation of adolescent girls under patriarchal pressure, Dark Sisters examines how entire lineages of women become infected by their own internalized shame and betrayal.

The structure alternates between the three timelines, with Anne's 1750 narrative serving as interludes that gradually reveal the origins of the curse. This choice creates mounting tension as readers piece together the connections between past and present. However, the interweaving sometimes disrupts momentum, particularly in the middle sections where Mary's 1953 storyline occasionally feels stalled by domestic detail. DeMeester's commitment to authenticity in depicting Mary's constrained existence as a housewife results in passages that, while thematically resonant, slow the narrative's propulsive dread.

Forbidden Love and Bodily Autonomy

Mary and Sharon's relationship forms the novel's emotional heart. DeMeester writes their romance with aching tenderness, never sensationalizing their connection or reducing it to tragedy porn. The scenes between them pulse with genuine longing and the specific desperation of love that must hide itself. When Mary meets Sharon in Rich's department store—a golden-haired shopgirl who tells Mary she "glows"—the attraction feels immediate and inevitable, rendered through small, perfect details: Sharon's cool fingers brushing Mary's neck, the way she holds a gilded mirror, the scarlet perfection of her painted mouth.

Yet DeMeester refuses to grant easy resolutions. Mary's ultimate fate is brutal, her body becoming yet another offering to the community's vampiric consumption of women's vitality. The novel suggests that Mary's illness springs not merely from a supernatural curse but from the impossibility of living authentically within Hawthorne Springs' rigid structures. Her body literally betrays her because she cannot stop betraying herself—choosing domesticity over desire, husband over happiness, social acceptance over authentic love.

The Weight of Maternal Legacy

The relationship between Anne Bolton and her daughter Florence provides the novel's most complex emotional terrain. Anne, a practitioner of natural magic, attempts to secure prosperity for her community through blood magic, only to have Florence—devout in her Christian faith and resentful of her mother's heterodoxy—twist the blessing into a curse. Florence's betrayal stems from genuine religious conviction mixed with filial anger, and DeMeester treats both motivations with nuance.

This mother-daughter dynamic echoes through the contemporary timeline with Camilla and her mother Ada. Ada, infected by the same wasting illness, cannot admit the truth of what she witnessed at her own Purity Ball—a ritualistic bloodletting disguised as religious ceremony. Her denial becomes its own curse, passed to Camilla, who must ultimately accept all parts of herself—light and dark, fury and love—to break the cycle.

Religious Horror and Bodily Violation

DeMeester's depiction of The Path, Hawthorne Springs' fundamentalist Christian community, is where the novel achieves its most trenchant social commentary. The Purity Ball—a ceremony where young girls pledge their virginity to their fathers—becomes the setting for secret violence. Church leaders, including Camilla's father Pastor Burson and her ex-boyfriend Grant, drug the girls and drink their blood, believing it grants them prosperity and power. This vampiric consumption literalizes the ways patriarchal religious structures have always consumed women's bodies and autonomy.

The horror here is twofold: the physical violation and the psychological manipulation that frames these violations as holy acts. Girls wake with scars they're told came from fainting spells, their memories dismissed as dreams. The novel suggests that the real curse isn't Florence's angry plea for justice but the foundational violence of communities built on women's subjugation.

However, the revelation of this conspiracy occasionally strains credibility. While thematically powerful, the mechanics of how church leaders maintain this blood-drinking ritual across generations—with wives, mothers, and entire families somehow complicit through denial—requires substantial suspension of disbelief. DeMeester works to address this through the supernatural compulsion of the curse, but the social dynamics still feel somewhat under-explored.

The Power of Acceptance

The novel's central thesis—that women must accept the darkness within themselves alongside the light—represents both its greatest strength and occasional weakness. DeMeester argues convincingly that shame and denial create illness, that rejecting uncomfortable truths about ourselves becomes literally toxic. The women who survive are those who can hold contradictions: Anne's daughter eventually recognizes both her love and resentment; Camilla embraces the witch label she once feared; the contemporary women of Hawthorne Springs acknowledge their own betrayals and complicity.

Yet this theme sometimes feels too neatly resolved in the climactic scene where Camilla summons all the women to the black walnut tree for reckoning. The men who stole their blood die, impaled on branches in an echo of historical violence, while the women are healed and empowered. This reversal—satisfying as wish fulfillment—doesn't quite earn its catharsis given the novel's previous commitment to showing how deeply women internalize oppression. The suggestion that simply accepting one's darkness and anger can immediately cure generational trauma feels somewhat reductive after hundreds of pages demonstrating its complexity.

Gothic Craftsmanship

DeMeester's prose shines in moments of Gothic excess. Descriptions of the black walnut tree—its bark holding faces that aren't quite faces, its sap flowing like blood, its branches heavy with corpses—achieve genuine unnerving beauty. She has a gift for making natural imagery feel simultaneously sacred and obscene:

"The forest was silent. The birds paused in their song to observe the procession of women as it went. The trees were still, the wind unmoving. The moon rinsed all it touched in a pale glow. Each of the women marked by its light. Had there been crowns, they would have worn them like goddesses reborn in a world that had long forgotten them and the magic they carried."

These moments of elevated language contrast effectively with the bodily horror, creating texture that keeps the novel from settling into a single register. Yet occasionally, the prose tips toward overwriting, particularly in the contemporary sections where Camilla's interior monologues sometimes feel more literary than authentic to her character as a rebellious twenty-something.

Structural Ambitions and Minor Stumbles

The novel's ambition is admirable but sometimes works against narrative cohesion. With three full storylines spanning 250+ years, DeMeester must compress character development and plot momentum. Mary's romance with Sharon, while emotionally resonant, unfolds in fragments that don't always accumulate into a fully realized arc. Similarly, Anne's colonial narrative, relegated to brief interludes, feels rushed in its final movements when her understanding of the curse and attempt at reversal happen rapidly after slow buildup.

The contemporary timeline fares best structurally, benefiting from the novel's present-tense immediacy and Camilla's compelling voice. Her relationships—with best friend Brianna, loyal Noah, and the enigmatic Dark Sisters themselves—receive enough page time to feel earned. However, the Retreat facility where rebellious daughters are "reformed" could have been more fully rendered; it functions more as plot device than fully realized setting despite its thematic importance.

A Testament to Feminist Horror

Despite these quibbles, Dark Sisters succeeds as feminist horror that takes women's rage, desire, and power seriously. DeMeester refuses to punish her female characters for their sexuality or their anger—indeed, the novel suggests these are sources of power rather than shame. The women who die are those who deny themselves, who betray their own knowledge and desire for social acceptance or safety.

This positions the novel within a contemporary wave of horror fiction interrogating gender violence and women's subjugation, sharing thematic territory with works like Carmen Maria Machado's Her Body and Other Parties, Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic, and Catriona Ward's The Last House on Needless Street. Like these works, Dark Sisters uses genre conventions to examine how patriarchal structures literally make women sick, how internalized misogyny becomes a curse passed from mother to daughter, and how liberation requires accepting uncomfortable truths about ourselves and our communities.

Final Verdict

Dark Sisters is an ambitious, deeply felt examination of feminine power, bodily autonomy, and the terrible cost of denial. DeMeester's prose moves between beautiful and brutal, her plotting ambitious if occasionally uneven. The novel works best when examining intimate relationships—Mary and Sharon's doomed romance, Anne and Florence's fraught mother-daughter bond, Camilla's struggle against her father's oppressive faith. It falters slightly in its structural complexity and in fully earning its climactic catharsis.

For readers seeking horror that grapples seriously with gender, sexuality, and religious oppression, Dark Sisters offers rich rewards. It demands engagement with difficult questions about complicity, betrayal, and the ways we inherit both power and trauma from our ancestors. The novel's heart beats strongest in its insistence that women must claim all parts of themselves—the light and the dark, the pure and the profane—to break free from the curses that bind them.

[Nina The Wandering Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The Dark Sisters were not a story. They were a lesson [...] Be good. Be pure and modest and chaste. Because the temptations of the world wore many faces. Some of them lovely. Even Satan was beautiful when he fell, after all.”

With the interlacing of three timelines, Author Kirsti DeMeester’s multi-perspective horror novel spotlights the generational horrors of patriarchal control over women’s bodies, the harms of purity culture, and the making of monsters out of “fallen women”. It’s witchy! It’s culty! And very relevant to the current times!

As someone who has her own personal PTSD with purity culture and the church’s need to control the female body, many parts in this book struck home for me. However, there were parts that dragged and I felt like I had to fight to push through. (But I might need to chalk that up to the headspace I was in at the time of reading.) All in all, I recommend this and readers should be on the lookout for it's release this December!

(Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this eARC!)

[Stacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Dark is an understatement when describing Dark Sisters. Stygian is more like it. A compulsive read with apprehension at every turn of the page.

3 women and three time periods. I was drawn to all of them, but Ann’s section set in 1750 starts it off. Suspected of witchcraft, she makes a deal that sets off a curse that reverberates for centuries. Strong women battling patriarchal standards, they are oozing with feminism.

Mary, the ideal housewife in the 1950’s finds love outside of her marriage. Finally, Camilla the angsty daughter of a preacher, uncovers secrets that could bring them all down.

With fire and brimming with fury, this horror novel delivers with a powerful conclusion.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an early copy.

[Becky Spratford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review in the October 2025 issue of Booklist and on the blog here: https://raforallhorror.blogspot.com/2...
(link live on 10/7)

Three Words That Describe This Book: witches, linked time lines, feminist rage

Unsettling, nightmarish, 3 narrators, short chapters that rotate time lines/narrators in order (1750, 2007, 1953) as a result the story flows quickly without sacrificing the necessary details and clues that help bring it all together. And even though readers "figure out" a few things fairly early, they really have no idea what is coming. I think this is on purpose. DeMeester is leading us to where she wants us to go with the knowledge, in her back pocket, that she has more.

This is a well constructed story of a community in Hawthorne Springs somewhere below the Mason-Dixon Line in America-- the town is purposefully not placed within a state. A church called The Path has long been in control since the 1750s. People who live in the town are all unusually prosperous-- like absurdly so. DeMeester fills the story with mentions of high end brand names that everyone has. That is jarring and odd form the start which signals that we should be paying attention to why.

So the narrators are Ann Bolton in 1750 told in "interludes" as readers see the founding of Hawthorne Springs

Then we meet Camilla in 2007. She is the pastor's daughter. Then we meet Mary in 1953. They live in Hawthorne Springs. The timelines and narration alternate (as mentioned above) in that order-- 1750, 2007, 1953-- over and over. Each time line enhances the others. Each reveals something about the entire story. The book comes together like a jigsaw puzzle. It is very satisfying. But as I said above, the final pieces still are jarring and shocking.

The book moves quickly because of the narrative style choices which is great because this is an angry book. The entire story is propelled by anger and rage against the everyday violence men perpetrate against women. From wanting them to be thin and pretty to physically assaulting them. All of it is there. And it is interspersed well. Without the short chapters and shifting timelines to provide a bit of a buffer, it would be too much. So kudos to her for sticking by her vision but working to make sure it flowed for the reader.

This book is deadly serious. There is no room for humor. It is fueled by anger and it can be overwhelming at times. This was written (purposefully I believe because it is well executed throughout) with a heavy hand-- Like THE POWER by Alderman. That is not to say it is not enjoyable to read. As a horror novel it is. But just be ready.

A book that unfortunately feels a little too timely. But again, that increases the terror.

Readalikes: The Year of the Witching by Henderson and The Power by Alderman. And for fans of anything by Rachel Harrison or Gwendolyn Kiste

Also Hag by Kaufman is a great readalike here.
For fans of the church that is actually controlled by darker magic/spirits and have controlled a town for centuries- try Crafting for Sinners by Kiefer. Kiefer's story has more dark humor though. This one is deadly serious.

[Kaitie Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5⭐️ rounded-up.

✝️ Feminine Rage
🖤 Generational Curses
✝️ Purity Culture
🖤 Body Horror
✝️ Anti-Patriarchy

Wtf did I just read? But in the absolute best way. I was going to give this 4 stars but switched it to 4.5 because ~feminine rage~ fuck yeah.

This story follows 3 separate timelines and POVs that are all *somehow* interconnected. It's a witchy, folk horror that slowly unfolds into a prominent message: we must embrace both the light and dark aspects of ourselves. Also—men are terrible and the oppression of women through religion is an act of fear in response to the power of women. Phew.

I honestly didn't know where this was going to go for most of the story—I had a semblance of an idea and general concepts—but the author still managed to blow me away. The writing is immersive and I was honestly creeped out during a large portion of this book. There are some very uncomfortable scenes, visceral body horror as a result of a generational curse and a whole lot of fuck yous to patriarchal purity culture: which I can always get behind.

I will say that the ending wrapped up more quickly than expected. I would've liked to see more dynamic side characters, particularly for Camilla's (modern-day FMC) best friends who *appear* whenever she needs them. I've seen other reviewers say they found it unrealistic that all of the men in this book are terrible and want to use the divine feminine for personal gain but: gestures at everything.

Overall this was a great and thought-provoking read with a lot of real-world critique wrapped up in witchy folk horror packaging.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this book. All thoughts and feedback contained within this review are my own.

[Elaine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Dark Sisters.

I had all kinds of expectations when I read the premise and have not read this author before.

I'm filled with expectation and trepidation and a little wariness, but go into the book open minded.

Dark Sisters was strange, the themes not original, where the main character Camilla grows up in a Stepford-like Christian community where girls are good girls and all the families are wealthy.

Just those elements alone was creepy as heck.

Girls are expected to be dolled up, face made up, and be ready to wed a nice young man from a Christian family and have many children. Preferably sons.

But Camilla is from a dark lineage and her maternal ancestors are looking for a way to break free.

And Camilla may be the answer to their prayers.

Too bad Camilla was a dullard.

On one hand, as the preacher's daughter, she has a facade and public face to maintain but on the other hand she's a rebel.

At least, the author wants us to believe she is.

I had a hard time believing that, mainly because Camilla's voice is weak.

She's an only child and terrified of the Dark Sisters, an urban legend told to the local girls to warn them of what would happen if they strayed from The Path.

Flashbacks offer context for the present timeline yet the present events as they were happening felt old timey because of the way Camilla's strict environment is structured and organized.

The narrative's themes of female empowerment, solidarity, acceptance, and the horrors of patriarchal society are clear but nothing new.

At times the story dragged, especially during the present.

We're in Camilla's head most of the time and it's not an exciting place to be.

Yes, I know her life isn't exciting since the only thing she has to look forward to the Purity Ball which screams Freudian! in 150 bold font.

Naturally, all the men are scumbags except for Camilla's BFF, Noah, which brings me to another issue.

Her BFFs lacked character development.

Their characters felt written purely just to support Camilla, like they were already waiting for Camilla to do something out of character and willing to help her.

I was looking for magic, more scenes of women bonding together, seeking solace in each other and discovering what they can do as an unit. Or coven.

I understand the author was trying to say something about female empowerment, blah blah blah but I get the feeling she was trying to take jabs at religion itself, its conservatism and the power it wields.

Religion isn't for everyone and I don't hold it against anyone who is religious and a member of a congregation.

But it's not religion that's bad, people are.

[Horror Haus Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is relentlessly dark and I loved every second of it. I was furious on behalf of these women across all three timelines, watching them suffocate under extreme cult-like religion, generational trauma, and the endless gaslighting and control of the men in their lives. It’s deeply unsettling at times.

The story is full of with witchy energy and is absolutely fueled by feminine rage, which made it impossible for me to look away. While I was most invested in the 1750s timeline, all three periods were compelling, and each set of female characters felt raw and painfully real.

The ending did feel slightly rushed, but not enough to diminish the power of the story as a whole. This is a bleak, furious, atmospheric read and if you love your horror steeped in rage, trauma, and witchcraft, this one delivers 100%.

[janet jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely adored this! What a read to start 2026! I loved the three interconnected timelines, totally enjoying each of them independently and in how they carried on the story. Any story about matrilineal magic I am down to read and love and this was no exception. And it was spooky, so I was very happy.

[S. Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dark Sisters by Kristi DeMeester spans three centuries in the cursed town of Hawthorne Springs, following women who fall prey to a mysterious illness when they step out of line—boils in their mouths, teeth falling out, the whole gruesome package. The setup has potential: Anne Bolton makes a dark bargain in the 1700s, Mary Shephard has a forbidden affair in the 1950s, and Camilla Burson questions her preacher father's congregation in 2007, all connected by this sinister legacy. DeMeester clearly knows her way around body horror and feminist rage, and the concept of generational curses tied to female rebellion should have been right up my alley. But despite all the right ingredients—witch trials, religious hypocrisy, queer longing—the execution felt sluggish and overly heavy-handed with its themes. The multiple timelines never quite clicked for me, and by the time the big revelations arrived, I was more relieved to be done than genuinely surprised.

[LiteraryGamer · Rating 2 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️.75/5

This book wasn’t for me, so let me get into the positives first. I think DeMeester is a wonderful writer, I tabbed some lines that really resonated me. I think she has great ideas, and I was curious the entire time I was reading. I never thought ‘I’m going to DNF this,’ but I did often think ‘𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝐼 DNF this book?’ I didn’t because I ended to see what would happen, and that’s a credit to DeMeester.

The book is trying to tell too many stories at once. In one corner you have a story taking place in 1750 that follows Anne who believes she’s soon to be accused of witchcraft. She flees with her daughter in the middle of the night, until she finds a large black walnut tree in the woods. It exudes magic, and that’s where she settles. Her daughter does not approve of witchcraft and it causes all sorts of drama to go down.

Then there’s the story of Mary, a 1950s conservative Christian housewife with a newborn. Her husband is the paster of The Path and the leader of the very small, very affluent community of Hawthorne, not far from that black walnut tree. It’s a religious cult, basically and as the wife of the leader, Mary is expected to be a certain way. She meets a woman and it awakens something in Mary.

And then there’s the story taking place in 2007, where Camilla, daughter of the current pastor and head of the community, is bucking back against her forced conservative life. Her very best friend in the whole world is Black, so you know she’s Different and not like the other Christian girls. Every year there’s a Purity Ball, where girls pledge to their fathers that they’ll remain virgins until marriage. For some reason, Camilla’s mother doesn’t ever want her to participate.

In the background of these separate plot lines is an illness that presents as basically rotting from the inside out, teeth falling out along with chunks of tongue, lots of boils. It’s gross. Rumor has it, it’s all because of a curse placed on JUST the woman of the community by the Dark Sisters, ghosts that haunt the black walnut tree.

It’s too much, all of this is too much for one 324 page book. Each of those plot points could’ve been interesting all on their own, but instead they were all crammed together. If this book had been longer, maybe each story would have had room to breathe, but all of it felt very jumbled together.

I need to talk about Brianna, our token character of color. Her family is the only Black family in this community. I expected something to come of that fact. Why introduce Brianna at all, or that concept? We never explore it, there are some throw away lines about the differences in the way Camilla is treated vs. Brianna, but the author never commits. Brianna is only there to show the reader that Camilla isn’t close minded. Which is great, but something about the way DeMeester went about this feels like a miss.

I only finished this book out of sheer curiosity, and it wasn’t satisfying at all. In fact, I had a moment where I pulled the book back in disgust. Men don’t do anything sexual to underage girls, but there is a line being toed with teen girls and their fathers that left me feeling…𝑤ℎ𝑦? Why add this very odd, semi-sexual element to it? Again, there’s simply too much happening.

I don’t know who I could even recommend this to, it’s the first book in my new Donation Station pile for 2026. This won’t turn me off from reading more of DeMeester, but this book wasn’t it.

[Jessica DeLucca · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Sisters, let us reclaim what belongs to us."

Giving this one 4.5 ⭐ but somehow Goodreads still doesn't allow for half star ratings in 2026. 🥴

This book is a beautifully written, heartbreaking tale of religious oppression, misogyny, and bigotry with a sprinkling of witchcraft, presented in 3 different generations of the same family. The author has a way of making all of the women in the story feel so real and likable and you really do root for them from the very beginning. The men in this book are all truly diabolical individuals who gain their power and status from literally draining the life out of all the women in the town of Hawthorne Springs. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this book, and as a woman with religious trauma myself, some parts of this book really hit home in ways that were quite emotional and empowering.

The only reason I'm deducting half a star is because I felt the ending was rushed. We spent 300 pages with these characters building up to a huge climax, only for the entire plot to wrap itself up in 24 pages. I wish the ending had been a little longer and honestly less satisfying. This novel is quite hopeless and bleak, and I wish it didn't wrap up with a pretty bow on top, you know? These women have faced over 200 years of oppression in this small Bible Belt town, and suddenly they get their happy ending in 24 pages? Girl stop playing with me.

Overall, I definitely recommend this novel, especially to anyone who loves historical settings, societal horror, and anything to do with witchcraft.

[Amber Reu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pub Date: December 9, 2025
 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you to St Martins Press for my ARC.
 
I absolutely love Kristi DeMeester’s DARK SISTERS. DARK SISTERS is told by 3 alternating narrators in 3 different times, but you’re in great hands with DeMeester; the world building in DARK SISTERS is intricate, with DeMeester revealing details at a pace that builds tension but allows the reader to stay grounded in where they are in the story. The prose in DARK SISTERS is beautiful and lyrical; DARK SISTERS is a dark and (rightfully) heavy book, but DeMeester describes horrific scenes in a poetic way.
 
DARK SISTERS is incredibly timely, and the oppression that the women in this book go through unfortunately still exists and occurs today. History is always repeating, and that is clear in the ghastly manner the women in all the timelines of DARK SISTERS are treated. Often, those who are in despair or need of a guiding light, won’t question the extremes that their religion or its leaders demand of them; greed and self-interest overcome even those who started with the best intentions. DeMeester reminds us in DARK SISTERS that often what is most terrifying and sinister isn’t the supernatural, but the humans in the story.
 
So often as women we are told to behave in a certain way; to be more feminine, to be a good wife, a good daughter. We should suppress those parts of ourselves that society has deemed unfit for women to possess, and the cost of that suppression is ours to bear. But DARK SISTERS reminds us that power can be found from embracing every part of ourselves; the dark, the light, the parts that we or others may deem unbecoming or bad, they all make up who we are as individuals, and to be at our fullest and most authentic, and thus our most powerful, we must embrace each aspect.
 
There are scenes in this book that will forever haunt me, but at the risk of spoilers, I will save my thoughts on those for when Kristi joins us in March for Novel Nightmares to discuss DARK SISTERS. I can’t wait to discuss this book.

DARK SISTERS is a must read for anyone, but particularly perfect for those looking for horror that is a witchy Southern Gothic

[Madison Herrera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ah!! Wow!! This was a stunning story of the resilience of women. I love when an author can blend timelines seamlessly. This had me consumed from beginning to end and I have to say I wouldn’t be able to tell you which timeline was my favorite! What a beautiful book 👏🏻

[Samantha Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this novel.

Such a dark, gory, vicious tale of feminine rage that will have you on the edge of your seat. Dark Sisters follows women over three timelines who all hail from the same town and who all end up with a mysterious illness. Following along while the mystery unraveled was such a wild ride, and the ending had me cheering in triumph with the women of this story. If you love darker feminine rage novels, this is definitely for you. Probably the best feminine rage book I've read this year. However, if you struggle with blood and gore, I would pass on this one as the novel does get fairly dark.