Terrible secrets and sibling rivalry bedevil two supernaturally powerful sisters in Melissa Anderson Sweazy's first novel, the eerie, suspenseful Southern gothic horror fantasy The Sisters of Crimson House.
Teenager Charley Bryde has spent her childhood in the shadow of the women in her psychically gifted family, each of them marked from birth with a sign called the Seeker's Star. Charley has no Star on her palm and has "never heard the dead whispering back." Her talented sister, Miranda, channels ghosts in the family's exclusive stage shows while Charley watches enviously from the sidelines. Her frustration leads to a disastrous choice that leaves Miranda injured. Their parents rush her to seek care, but their car is found crashed and inexplicably filled with water, both adults drowned inside and Miranda unharmed. Their aunt takes Miranda away but not Charley. Eight years later, Charley fights to stay solvent by passing herself off as a psychic and the Brydes' historic mansion as a haunted attraction. Miranda suddenly returns just as the Seeker's Star begins to appear on Charley's hand, and a dark family secret fights to rise into the light.
Ghosts, mysterious lore, and other assorted bits of spookiness adorn this chilling story of grief and belonging. Sweazy perfectly captures the brooding atmosphere and buried truths essential to the gothic tradition. Readers who enjoyed the sibling dynamics in Rachel Harrison's Play Nice will find similar elements of frayed family ties here, wrapped up in a twisting resolution that will leave its audience satisfyingly haunted. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads