Book Review: Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder

Mikayla Leskey | Arts and Entertainment

Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder is one of the weirdest books you will ever read. What starts seemingly like an alternate-version of the COVID-19 virus, it’s clearly not, or at the very least way more severe. The main character, Erin, starts vomiting blood and bleeding from the eyes, and that’s just the start of this horror tale. It’s a mix of apocalyptic, body horror, and dystopian. With nodes of romance, and general weirdness.

After a few weeks spent in the hospital, Erin, wakes to nurses feeding a gelatinous mass, which is then revealed to be brains. Mostly bovine, but a small part human, too. This is where we learn that there are different types of people that come out of these sicknesses. Erin is one of the more extreme cases, with a taste of brains and unable to go out into the sunlight. Along with being contagious. Erin’s forced to isolate, forcing her long-time boyfriend, Gregory, to move out.

That’s when we finally get a understanding that this sickness isn’t all that it appears to be. Erin meets a girl, one with a taste for blood instead of brains and simply put, they fall in love. This girl, woman, Betty, is probably one of the worst influences on Erin’s life, ever. She gets Erin to leave her carefully created bubble and go out on the town, something neither of them are supposed to do because of their sickness.

But what’s worse, and as simply and un-gross as I can put it, Betty allows Erin to start eating parts of her brain, as long as she can start drinking Erin’s blood. Maybe it has to do with the astounding writing from Lucy A. Snyder but this plot point brings up one of my favourite moments of this book. Because of this light cannibalism, they’re able to retain memories and skills from the other person.

“I’m devouring his will. Devouring his memories. Living him, through and through. His first taste of win. His first taste of a woman. The first time he stood onstage. He’s at the prime of his life, and oh, it’s been a wonderful life, and I am memorizing every second of it as I swallow down the contents of his lovely skull.” (Snyder. “Sister, Maiden, Monster”, pg. 122) Snyder is an amazing writer, able to twist this body-horror and dystopian novel into something beautifully terrifying.

There’s two more parts in this book, with two different characters, giving us a more inside look into this pandemic, how it started and what role everyone has in this sickness. These creatures, what Erin and Betty appear to be, are only one part of the apocalypse. There’s also their handlers, and someone who helps create these monsters as well.

But that’s all for you to figure out, if you so dare. As I said in the beginning, Sister, Maiden, Monster is one of the weirdest books you will ever read. But with Lucy A. Snyder’s brilliant writing, you won’t regret reading her work. It’s descriptive and horrific and the perfect read for Halloween.