Daisy Johnson’s chilling new novel feels like a literary version of the twins from The Shining come to life. The novel, Sisters, is mostly narrated by July, a shy teen whose domineering older sister, September, gets her into all sorts of trouble. September maintains a mysterious hold over July, constantly forcing her into uncomfortable situations. Their favorite game, September Says, often progresses in disturbing directions: “September says do a roly-poly. September says cross your eyes … September says cut off your fingernails and put them in the milk. Cut off all your hair. September says lie down under the bed for an hour. Run into the road. September says put all your clothes in the bin and stand in front of the window. Put this needle through your finger.”
The novel begins with the girls and their mother packing up and moving from their home in Oxford to the sleepy Yorkshire coast, into their absent and now deceased father’s childhood home. The move was prompted by a mysterious accident at the girls’ previous school, the only details of which we know is that it happened at the tennis court and July has otherwise blocked it from her memory. In their unsettling new home (ironically named the “Settle House”) with no school or activities, the girls are pushed to a new level of disturbing intimacy. Their mother Sheela, the narrator of a couple of chapters, feels deeply uncomfortable with her daughter’s closeness, and worries about September’s total control of July’s psyche. A teacher at their school had described the girls as “isolated, uninterested, conjoined, young for their age, sometimes moved to great cruelty,” and she is not incorrect: September has insisted that the two girls celebrate their birthdays on the same day, that they share a cell phone, and insists on involving herself with July’s bullies.
Life in the Settle House is filled with uncanny occurrences and a foreboding atmosphere, as the house seems to be sighing and heaving as its inhabitants become more and more filled with dread and malaise. Johnson has crafted a brilliantly atmospheric novel that doesn’t show its hand until a last second turn that feels surprising and inventive, but totally in line with the novels deeper concerns of identity, language, family, and intimacy. This reader was genuinely shocked at the novel’s conclusion, but fascinated to put the peices together retroactively, which is the best type of mystery reveal. The novel feels well plotted and thoughtfully crafted, blending elements of literary, gothic, and psychological horror fiction.
In Sisters, Johnson asks fundamental questions about the blurring of identities that can stem from deep intimacy. She considers domestic traumas like manipulation and abuse, and exposes the dualities that can be held in one body, the ways that love and hate can coexist and intermingle. By maintaining an unsettling narrative distance from the events of the novel, Johnson’s narrators refract the truth in fascinating and disturbing ways. The novel expertly straddles reality and the imaginary, giving readers a fleeting but distinctive narrative with stunning linguistic flourishes.
Further Reading: Johnson’s debut novel, Everything Under, is also excellent. Some of her best short fiction can be found in her collection, Fen. If you enjoyed this one and haven’t read any classic gothic novels, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Bram Stoker’s Dracula are great places to start.