A Deeply Strange Encounter Rattles a Young Mother In This Excerpt From Sister Creatures
No matter how you feel about the place you were born, where you come from shapes who you are. That’s one of the basic tenets at the heart of Laura Venita Green’s debut novel, Sister Creatures, a haunting, literary story of rage, secrets, and resilience.
Eerie and atmospheric, this gritty, Southern Gothic tale follows the story of a group of women in rural Louisiana whose lives repeatedly intersect in ways both large and small. Mixing elements of folklore, horror, and magical realism, Sister Creatures follows Tess, Lainey, Olivia, and Gail from childhood on, exploring the ways that each is shaped and changed by their respective experiences in Pinecreek. Thematically rich and frequently surprising, the story explores everything from generational trauma, familial obligation, and the unexpected bonds that tie us together forever.
Here’s how the publisher describes the story.
In the muggy, insect-ridden town of Pinecreek, Louisiana, college dropout Tess Lavigne is watching two bickering siblings while their parents are away. Her listless day drinking is interrupted when someone emerges from the woods behind the house. Filthy and feral, the daughter of religious fundamentalists, the girl known in town as Sister Gail convinces Tess to take her in for the night. The strange events of that evening will set the course for Tess’s future, and Sister Gail’s ultimate fate.
Meanwhile, other residents of Pinecreek try to cobble together a future from what little they have, their lives intersecting in small and not-so-small ways. Sisters fight to define independence for themselves (and from each other), while two young women on a bicycling trip wonder what their relationship promises, or threatens. Throughout, a deeply unsettling presence connects the characters to the buried secrets of Pinecreek: the ominous Thea, a malevolent shape-shifting entity whose rage and despair stems from a tragic history of misogyny, maternal loss, and stolen ambitions.
Sister Creatures won’t hit shelves until October 7, but we’ve got an exclusive sneak peek at the story for you right now.
The Monday after the class ran I Want More, Tess strapped her daughter into her car seat and they took off to meet Joel at the Patuxent Research Refuge visitor center. She had the day off, and they were going to collect sounds for Kurt’s upcoming play, about two boys processing the death of their mother while skipping rocks.
It was probably iffy, spending all this time with Joel, but she’d be moving in less than two months, so any harm that could come from it was at least contained. In the years before she’d gotten married—her drunk years—she’d slept with everyone she could get her hands on, and it had gotten old. So even if, yeah, she was attracted to Joel and she thought about him alarmingly often, she wasn’t going to do anything about it. In any case, Paul was glad for her and Summer to get out of their apartment while he studied at home. She hadn’t lied about where they were going. He did not care. Paul was anxious by nature, singularly focused, and he’d warned her before they’d married that the next few years would be intense for him. Things would get better, Tess just had to wait it out. That was her plan.
The trees were at peak fall colors, the forest a vivid mix of reds and golds that amazed Tess even though this was her second season experiencing them. “Ooh, pretty,” Summer kept saying, pointing out all the colorful trees. As she pulled into the visitor center, she spotted Joel, waiting outside.
Without preamble, they started off down a path. It was about a mile to the Patuxent River, and Summer could make that, though she may need to be carried back. Joel had two heavy backpacks full of recording equipment that he’d checked out from his school. Tess took one. Summer wanted to help, too, so Joel handed her a small foam piece.
“This is called a windscreen,” Joel said.
“Wind-screen,” Summer said, holding it right up to her eyes.
“And it’s a very important piece of recording equipment, especially outside. It protects the microphone diaphragm from gusts of air. And it will be a big help if you carry it for us all the way to the river.”
“Can you do that, Sum?” Tess said.
“Yeah.” And not three seconds later, Summer saw a frog jump, squealed, and rushed after it, dropping the much less exciting wind-screen in a mud puddle. Joel had seemed excited when Tess had mentioned bringing Summer, but she was curious how he’d do with a little kid.
“I have a whole pack of them,” he said, and when Summer rejoined them on the path, he handed back the muddy piece of foam so she could continue to “help.”
“You see all these pretty trees, Summer?” Tess said.
“Yeah.”
“They’re called deciduous trees. That one’s called a poplar. I grew up with mostly evergreen trees that stay green all year long. Deciduous trees lose their leaves in the winter, but before they do, they turn lots of pretty colors.”
“Purple!” Summer said.
“Yes, purple and also red, yellow—”
“And orange! Do you see the orange?” Joel said, and Summer spun around until she spied some orange and then did a little victory dance.
The two of them narrated the whole way about the types of birds and bugs they saw, the chilly air and how wet it was outside, the path that was treacherous with rocks and roots.
“Let’s do more talking,” Summer said any time they stopped.
Joel explained lots of theory around stagecraft, and then they both told her about their great friends Cassandra and Sheldon and Kurt and about how, when they got to the river, they were all going to skip rocks so that Joel could capture the sound and that they’d try to get some birdsong, too.
When they finally got to a clearing at the river it was so peaceful, no other people, nothing man-made in sight. The few paths they could see leading to it were narrow and overgrown, and the three of them were completely cut off from the rest of the world. It turned out Joel was terrible at skipping rocks. Tess was good at it, but it didn’t matter because Joel couldn’t capture the sound with the ambient noise of the rushing water and the chaos of nature teeming all around. So, he took recordings of buzzing and chirping, of Tess dropping large stones into the river, of Summer splashing around and giggling. And then he and Tess rested on a fallen log while Summer played on the shore a few feet away, gathering river stones and mounding them into a grand manor.
“She’s pretty great,” Joel said.
“She’s the best,” Tess said. Tess had been worried about becoming a mom, but Summer was so easy. Her best little buddy. Joel lit a cigarette and offered her one, but she wasn’t yet committed enough to smoking to take it up in front of her daughter.
“Why do you think Kurt keeps writing about his dead wife when I’ve met his wife at least a dozen times around the base?” Tess said. “It’s either because her death is his greatest fear or because he wants to kill her.”
“I’m going to go with fear,” Joel said. “Writing about fear is always a solid choice.”
“I’m going with the other option.”
Joel smiled at her. “So, about The Crucible. The real reason I gave it to you, the Baltimore Theatre Project is putting it on in the spring, and they hired me for lighting design, which is actually my first professional gig.”
“That’s so great,” Tess said, reaching over and squeezing his hand. He looked down at their hands and she let go.
“I was thinking maybe you could fly back to see it.”
“Okay, well, when I get on a plane in a couple months, that will be the third time I’ve flown. Ever. I’m not living the type of life where you fly across the country to see a show.”
“But you wouldn’t have to worry about that. My parents have like a million frequent flyer miles. You wouldn’t have to do anything.”
Tess pressed her lips together. His parents. Jesus, this guy was so young he didn’t even understand how much better it would be to not remind her of it by invoking his parents. At the same time, though, she’d love to be a person who could flit away for a quick trip.
Just then, Tess heard a branch snap somewhere nearby. And then another. Before she could react, a man, tall and imposing, dressed in a black trench coat hanging open over flannel pants and a threadbare T-shirt that said “Berlin” with a bear in a coat of arms, emerged from the path close to where Summer was playing. Strapped to the man’s back—the strangest thing Tess had ever seen—was an adult woman wearing dingy white pajamas stained brown down the front. She was facing outward, her arms and legs dangling from a leather harness. The woman had long black hair. She was pale, slumped. She appeared sluggish, maybe even drugged. The man stepped to where Summer was playing, positioning himself between her and Tess, and stopped.
Tess jumped up; a shot of adrenaline coursed through her veins so violently she almost blacked out. She gripped Joel’s arm as he stood up beside her. “Sweetie,” she said, although she could hardly hear her own voice.
Her body felt oddly paralyzed. Just as she’d gathered herself and was about to sprint over, two more people emerged from the woods. Two women: One in cutoff jean shorts and a halter top, a vine-looking tattoo winding its way up the side of her neck. The other wore a ground-length dress, sheer with no bra or underwear, nipples and a dark bush poking into the fabric. When that one saw Tess, she started wringing her hands.
“Sweetie,” Tess said again, louder. “Come on over here. We need to get going.”
“Yeah, it’s getting late,” Joel said. “Time to head on home.”
Tess could see that Summer was standing in front of the man, her head tilted all the way back so she could see his face. “Hi,” she said.
The woman strapped to the man became agitated, butting her head into his back, flailing. “Let me see it. Let me see it,” she said, her voice hoarse.
He turned and crouched to his heels, looked at Tess and grinned. He had no front teeth. It all happened in a matter of seconds, but still, Tess should have already been over there, rescuing the only person in her life who really mattered. She could see the woman, the scary woman strapped to the scary man’s back, stretch out her legs and open her arms wide. And then, unbelievably, Summer stepped in and gave her a hug, and the woman wrapped both arms and legs around her daughter, clutching her little body tight. And then the man stood, and both Tess and Joel rushed them.
She went straight to her daughter and wrapped an arm around her waist. She pulled, but the woman wouldn’t relent. Joel was in front of the man, jumping up in his face and yelling. Summer started crying, “Mommy? Mommy!”
The woman wouldn’t let go. She looked directly into Tess’s eyes and spit at her, tried to headbutt her, tried to bite her. Her wet lips grazed Tess’s cheek.
“Let go of her!” Tess yelled. “She doesn’t belong to you!”
Finally, the woman with the vine tattoo came over and peeled the harnessed woman’s hands away from Summer’s body. “Stacy, come help me,” she said to the hand-wringing woman, but that one never budged. The tall man just stood there and looked over his shoulder, grinning. Joel came around and wrenched the harnessed woman’s legs from Summer. The woman wailed, then so did Summer. Finally, Tess managed to pull her daughter free.
Then they ran. Joel scooped up the recording equipment, and they barreled their way through the underbrush, not slowing until they were back on a main trail, in sight of a backpacking couple using trekking poles to hike.
Tess’s arms burned carrying Summer tight to her chest, but it didn’t matter. She smoothed her daughter’s hair. “It’s okay, baby. That woman wasn’t trying to hurt you. I think she just needs some help.”
Summer burrowed her head into Tess’s neck. “Then why don’t we help her, Mommy? We have to help her.”
Summer had a fair point. But what was Tess supposed to do? She could barely even will her body to help her own daughter until it was almost too late. She was a very inadequate person. Tess flicked a tick from her daughter’s shoulder—they’d need to do a full check and clean up as soon as they got home.
She exchanged bewildered looks with Joel. Then he started to narrate the walk for Summer in an upbeat voice, talking about the lizard that ran up the trunk of a tree beside them and the fat mushrooms near the path up ahead, then about how when he was little, he had a pet terrier named—
“Please don’t mention owning a d-o-g. Summer wants nothing more than to have a d-o-g, and right now I just cannot.”
—about how when he was little, he used to love taking trips to his family’s place on Lake Geneva and going out on their boat. And then he told her all about the intricacies of waterskiing until she nodded off.
Just before she fell asleep, she whispered, “We have to help her, Mommy.”
Once Summer was out, Tess let the tears stream down her face.
“What the hell was that?” Tess said. “Do you think it was some kind of weird religious thing, like a cult? Do you think they live in the woods?”
“It seemed more like a Deliverance-style clan of inbreeders to me. But I doubt anyone lives out here.”
“So, tourists?”
“Yep, tourists.”
“I think all kinds of crazy shit is going on in the woods at all times, I swear to god.”
“Do we tell someone?” Joel asked. “Call the police?”
“Jesus, I don’t know.”
They stayed behind the backpacking couple, hesitant to let other, safe-looking people out of their sight, until they got to the gravel pathway that led to the parking lot. When they made it to the car, Joel helped her get Summer, still fast asleep, into her car seat. Before Tess got into the driver’s side, Joel reached out and brushed her cheek. And that was it; she was worn down. She leaned in and kissed him, hard, hungry, pressing her body into his for a lingering moment, and then ran her hand down between his legs, rubbing him over his jeans, and his hands went up her shirt and under her bra, before she, panting, opened the car door and got in, shutting him out. Before she drove away, she looked at herself in the rearview mirror and saw blood on her cheek where the woman’s lips had brushed, which it seemed Joel had been simply trying to wipe off.
Excerpted from Sister Creatures, by Laura Venita Green. Unnamed Press, 2025. Reprinted with permission.
Sister Creatures will be released on October 7, but you can pre-order it right now.
Lacy Baugher Milas writes about Books and TV at Paste Magazine, but loves nerding out about all sorts of pop culture. You can find her on Twitter and Bluesky at @LacyMB
