One of the absolutely wonderful things that has come from social media, in spite of the many, many downsides (RIP Twitter), has been getting acquainted with and becoming online friends with a lot of great writers. One of those writers I am happy to have met is Lucy A. Snyder, a versatile writer of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. I’ve blogged in the past about one of her short story collections, While the Black Stars Burn (2015), and I believe I wrote about her more recent collection Garden of Eldritch Delights (2018) for Dead Reckonings; both were excellent and filled with truly powerful and weird tales.

So I was delighted to see that Lucy not only has a new novel out — Sister, Maiden, Monster (2023), but that it is very widely available on the shelves in bookstores! I finally got my copy a couple of weeks ago.

It is a relatively short novel and proceeds at a rapid pace. I started reading it on a trip on a Monday afternoon and finished it on the plane on the flight back on Tuesday morning, devouring the last few pages as my plane pulled up to the gate. It is a beautifully, horrifically written book, and I enjoyed it immensely.

Is it possible for the apocalypse to begin and for nobody to realize it? That is where Sister, Maiden, Monster begins, as a new pandemic has hit the world on the heels of COVID and everyone has retreated back into their homes and wearing masks wherever they go. As the title of the book suggests, Sister, Maiden, Monster follows three women — Erin, Savannah, and Mareva — as their lives are changed and destroyed by the effects of the new virus, which is much, much more than it first appears to be. The book is divided into three parts, one focusing on each of the women, but their lives and fates are intertwined and relate to the very fate of humanity.

Erin, a quiet woman who is looking to start a happy new married life with her fiancée Gregory, is suddenly struck down by the virus and awakens in a strange facility days later. After some very unusual tests she is ominously labeled a Type Three victim of the virus, a class of individuals who are prone to fits of intense violence. With her whole life destroyed and with mandatory isolation from uninfected people, Erin struggles to find new passion in her life. She finds it when she has a chance meeting with Betty, a Type Two sufferer, and her desire for Betty, and specifically her brain, grows with each encounter. Strange new desires will turn out to be the least of the transformations that roil Erin’s life, however…

Savannah is a BDSM switch who works in a brothel. A horrific encounter with one of her clients reveals to her a new destiny, as a type of infected that the government is unaware of. Savannah develops a lust for murder, according to the wishes of her new masters, but soon is given a new task in helping usher in the apocalypse.

Mareva is a reserved woman who has struggled her whole life with a disorder that can cause tumors to grow repeatedly on her body. As civilization starts to collapse and humanity realizes that there is an eldritch force behind the virus, Mareva learns that she has been singled out for a unique and divine role in the coming End, and has no way to avoid a truly incomprehensibly horrific fate.

Sister, Maiden, Monster is a really powerful and compelling novel of cosmic horror, and it draws upon the ideas of classic authors in the field, though it is very much its own thing. It is hard to even categorize the style of horror, as it effortlessly flits between and ties together a number of subgenres of horror fiction. One fair warning to give to a reader, though, is that it does feature quite graphic body horror, and there is a significant amount of sex in the book as well: it is very much a Lucy Snyder book! None of it is gratuitous, however, and it all serves to advance the story and its themes.

Sister, Maiden, Monster is very much a product of its times, considering it was written during the (ongoing) COVID pandemic and not only references it but features its own novel virus. It was a bit unnerving reading the book while packed into a crowded airport filled with potentially infected people! I suspect that Snyder was channeling her own anxieties and fears about the pandemic into her writing, and I imagine the book will be looked back upon in years to come as a piece of literature that shares the emotions we were all going through during this turbulent time.

There is a remarkable unending sense of dread through the early parts of the novel. When it is “just a virus,” we are very aware, through Erin’s eyes, that the government knows a lot more than they’re telling anyone, and it takes some time before we really see the bigger picture. It is rewarding to pay close attention to things in the early parts of the book — some small details end up being very important by the end of the story, and it is fun to look back and recognize all the little hints of things that were placed along the way.

Upon reflection after reading it, I concluded that Sister, Maiden, Monster is a book about women, and their relationships. We not only see the interactions between the three main characters, who have different connections and feelings towards each other, but also their interactions with a significant number of secondary female characters. My take, which may of course be wrong, is that the novel is an exploration of the different ways that women can relate to each other, for good and bad.

If you enjoy horror, and are not particularly squeamish, I can highly recommend Lucy’s book: Sister, Maiden, Monster is fabulous. It is a smartly told and beautifully horrific novel.