My Sister And I by Sean-Paul Thomas is a psychological thriller with moments of extreme horror and SplatterPunk. Twin 13-year-old girls with a spooky connection, deal with a horrific childhood with an absolutely psychotic father, embark on a journey to scare the living crap out of everyone, then fight for their lives, each in their own way.
Warning
The book comes with a heavy warning, violence, strong language, etc, etc. I didn’t find anything in the book more extreme than what you’d find in, say, Trainspotting. (The book is much more graphic than the movie). That’s not a fair comparison. My sister And I starts with a slow burning first person narrative, then progresses (or regresses, depend on your point of view) into rapid action until the end. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of horror, but a different plot than Trainspotting.
The Highlands
The setting of the Scotland’s Highlands interested me the most. In North America, we tend to get a comedic version of Scotland, and it’s rare to see anything that goes deeper than a cartoon character. And darker. I would call it Scottish Gothic, if such genre existed.
Suspense
I didn’t enjoy reading this book as much as I thought I would. The scenes of extreme horror are well-executed and as a reader of extreme fiction, I enjoyed that. I appreciate the author choosing to withhold key pieces of information for the sake of enhancing plots twists, but that tends to have a negative result for readers. It slows down the story too much. For me, there wasn’t enough suspense.
This is unfortunate, because the writing is strong and many of the extreme horror scenes are entertaining. There is a good pay off. The book ends well, in the way that it should, with My Sister And I. Despite the rough patches, I’m quite satisfied with the book’s ending.
So, your call.
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