Talk about feminine rage!!! 👏👏

As the title suggests, this book is dark. CW listed at the bottom of this review. May be deemed as spoilers or spoiler adjacent.

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect when I started reading Dark Sisters, but if I’d had expectations Kristi DeMeester would have surpassed them. This was an excellent witchcraft horror novel that explored themes of feminism and misogyny, betrayal and loyalty, religious trauma and oppression, generational trauma and curses, and the bonds between mother and daughter.

Told from unique perspectives in three different timelines, the story of the Dark Sisters is both sweeping and patient. The author did a great job balancing and developing each timeline; they felt distinct and I enjoyed reading each of them almost equally! If you want atmosphere, it’s within these pages that I so eagerly kept turning. The tone of the book is delightfully dreadful.

Any book with religious trauma as a central theme will pique my interest, but not all of them keep it so well as Dark Sisters. This has to be one of my favorite depictions of religious trauma in fiction. I particularly enjoyed the way DeMeester explored purity culture and patriarchal attitudes within Christianity; no spoilers, but the reveal of how it all tied together was a brilliant indictment of the aforementioned purity culture and patriarchy.

The author’s skill was evident, both in the beauty of her prose and in the weaving of her themes and usage of symbolism. Make no mistake, though: for as lovely as I found this book, it is bloody and dark and gory and brutal. This is absolutely a horror novel.

While I did give this book 5 stars, that doesn’t mean I think it’s perfect and I want to address the shortcomings. I wish the book had been just a bit longer to develop and explore certain elements more. I would have liked more explanation of the magic as well. While the female characters were complex and layered, the male characters (aka villains, almost all) did strike me as cartoonish a few times which took me out of the seriousness of the story.

This book is a bit of a hidden gem and it certainly appeals to a specific audience. I hope it finds more of its ideal readers! Dark Sisters will be one of my favorite reads of 2026 for sure.

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‼️ The CW for this book are rather extensive, and I am sure to have missed something somewhere. But I did my best to keep track! I will say I think the author handled her material with care, but content may be distressing for some readers! Some CW may be viewed as spoilers. Proceed at your discretion.

CW: body horror/gore, religion/religious trauma, ED, terminal illness, vomiting, spousal homicide, unwanted touching/sexual harassment, dermatillomania, abuse of multiple kinds, violence (including with knife), blood, drugging, forced institutionalization/kidnapping/false imprisonment, racism, cannibalism (both flesh and blood), dismemberment (tongue), suicide, misogyny/patriarchy, abortion (mentioned), homophobia/lesbophobia (including outing)

I went into this book really liking it a lot. I had a really strong start with fantastic worldbuilding, beautiful imagery, and intriguing characters. I'm not sure when all of it began to go downhill for me. I liked this book enough, but I think there were definitely some pacing issues. Very long with a lot of back and forth. Also, what exactly was the purpose of the spirits other than to give exposition? Did they really add anything other than to give the world some magic. I really liked them, so I think I just would have liked if they were a little more inclusive in the story. The plot also was interesting with a good premise, but the conclusion of the mystery was just...weird. Anyway, I'm glad I read the book, but I can't see myself going forward.

What a fantastic audiobook! Ruth Urquhart does phenomenal work. However, I don't think I was invested in the story enough to continue the series. There wasn't anything wrong per se. It just didn't feel fresh. (Maybe if I had nothing else lined up and the audio was available I would consider it? But when do I ever have less than 25 books borrowed from the library in a very strict tbr?🫠)