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Thursday, February 1, 2024

#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: Forgotten Sisters by Cynthia Pelayo

Today I have an early ARC from a book that I gave a star to in the January 2024 issue of Library Journal. Details below but first, the rules on how to enter:

  1. You need to be affiliated with an American public library. My rationale behind that is that I will be encouraging you to read these books and share them with patrons. While many of them are advanced reader copies that you cannot add to your collections, if you get the chance to read them, my hope is that you will consider ordering a copy for your library and give away the ARC away as a prize or pass it on to a fellow staff member.
  2. If you are interested in being included in any giveaway at any time, you must email me at zombiegrl75 [at] gmail [dot] com with the subject line "#HorrorForLibraries." In the body of the email all you have to say is that you want to be entered and the name of your library.
  3. Each entry will be considered for EVERY giveaway. Meaning you enter once, and you are entered until you win. I will randomly draw a winner on Fridays sometime after 5pm central. But only entries received by 5pm each week will be considered for that week. I use Random.org and have a member of my family witness the "draw"based off your number in the Google Sheet.
  4. If you win, you are ineligible to win again for 4 weeks; you will have to re-enter after that time to be considered [I have a list of who has won, when, and what title]. However, if you do not win, you carry over into the next week. There is NO NEED to reenter.
Click here to see the previous giveaway. Our winner was Nanci from Hopkinton [MA] Public Library. Now on to today's giveaway.

Forgotten Sisters by Cynthia Pelayo is the third book in her linked series set in Chicago, framed by fairy tales and fables. While the books are linked, you do not have to read them in order to understand what is going on because each is its own story as well. 

Forgotten Sisters is also Pelayo's first book in the series to be with a major publisher-- Thomas & Mercer. So this one will have even bigger buzz and distribution. But good news, it is also the best in the series so far-- and I have loved all of them. Click here and here for my reviews of the first two titles.


Three Words That Describe This Book: pervasive unease, strong sense of place, gorgeous prose that enhances the story.

Draft Review: Early in Pelayo’s novel Anna remarks, to the listeners of her podcast about the haunted history of Chicago, that all good ghost stories are based in fact. Anna knows this all too well as she and her sister Jennie live alone in a meticulously maintained, but clearly haunted, historic home on the banks of the Chicago River. The same river that took the lives of their parents in a tragic accident, the same river where the bodies of missing young men have been turning up with alarming frequency, but also the same river that has been her comfort since childhood, alongside her Gradmother’s copy of the Little Mermaid fairy tale. But as Anna struggles to keep the house and its ghosts happy and watch after her sister, who is suffering from troubling spells and wanders the banks of the river each night, detectives also come knocking with questions about the bodies, Jennie, and Anna’s new boyfriend. Overflowing with as much love as anguish, as much hope as death, a compelling mystery told with gorgeous prose that mimics the rhythmic flow of the river itself and sympathetic, complicated characters that feel as if they will materialize off the page, this is a haunted house story unlike any readers have encountered, one that will strike fear, while it also eulogizes the ghosts of a city, no longer to be forgotten.

Verdict: Marked by its pervasive unease and riveting storyline, Pelayo has given readers another can’t miss entry in her Chicago Saga. For fans of ghost stories that mine memory, fairy tales, and/or mystery resulting in immersive, heartbreakingly beautiful stories such as those written by Simone St. James, Jennifer McMahon, and Helen Oyoyemi.

Today, I am giving away the ARC I read for review. This is a VERY early ARC. I got it in June at ALA Annual. 

Good luck!

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