Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder
Tor Nightfire (February 2023)
272 pages; $14.99 paperback; $12.99 ebook
Reviewed by Anton Cancre
Admittedly, I’m a Lucy Snyder fan. Ecstatically so. Still, I’ve been found wanting of her longer fiction for awhile now. Thankfully, I now have Sister, Maiden, Monster to shove into my brainmeat.
A new virus has found itself among and within humanity. It changes us in ways we don’t really understand. We follow three women, Erin, Savanna, and Mareva as they find their place in this new world of murder, brain devouring, and grotesque teratomas. Unfortunately, there isn’t much more I can say without giving away the fun.
Sister, Maiden, Monster is first rate Cosmic horror. Not just due to the unknowable beings from beyond the stars or the bleak nihilism , but more so because of how well she gets across a feeling that none of us can understand — the entirety of what is happening within the tiny cocoon of our own lives and the horrors we commit.
Lucy doesn’t pull any punches and boy oh boy, does it get messy here. Gore and physical violence come in buckets, but the harshness of the emotional violence is what really got to me. Lucy understands how people destroy each other and she isn’t in the mood to coddle anyone. I’d easily put work like this on par with the usually mentioned greats of the Hardcore and Splatterpunk realms.
Weird, violent, abrasive, and even occasionally sexy cosmic horror is on the menu, ready to slurp down. You can bet I gulped every drop.
