An unusual blend of gothic and horror that might be a love it or hate it proposition. Half sisters BB and Henrie grew up on an insolated island in the middle of Lake Erie until Henrie left but now she's back because their father has died. There's a long history of young women dying mysteriously and lots of secret. There are four narrators-the sisters, Carrie, and the island historian. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. It wiggles a but but Moulton has a talent for taking strange situations and unlikable characters and making them into an age turning read,

Thank you to FSG and Net Galley for the digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

The Insatiable Volt Sisters is a slightly gothic, family curse, ghost story with a mix of Elena Ferrante (sisters and mothers who love each other and hate each other all at the same time.)

Beatrice and Henrietta are sisters who live on an island in Lake Erie. They both can hear the ghosts that live in their home and in the water and rocks of their beloved island. You learn that their family is cursed, women on the island go missing, and all of the narrators are unreliable.

This story had so many elements that I loved. From the love/hate/tense relationship between the sisters to the lore of the island, to the blend of devilish possession/haunted house/creature feature (and I usually don't like creature features.) My only complaint is that I feel like many things were left unexplained or unresolved. Everything wraps up a little too nicely in a pretty package.

If you like The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix or stories of cursed families and sisterly devotion and love, you will like this horror.

This is the perfect book for true crime fans who want to read more about white women who go missing- this time in a world where the deaths are not investigated. I was unaware that Ohio had islands big enough and far away enough from the mainland to have an isolated, creepy, culture, and the setting really took me out of it. Not a huge fan of the novel’s writing style either, and was not really invested in any facet of the book.

3.5 stars rounded up. I have lots of questions after finishing The Insatiable Volt Sisters, and the first and foremost of those questions is, What in the world did I just read?

What I thought was going to be a straightforward story about estranged sisters on a strange island turned into much more than that -- a dark fable featuring ghosts, monsters, and a generational curse. I should've known that a book with a cover this gorgeous would have lots of strange secrets to share.

Half-sisters Beatrice (B.B.) and Henrietta (Henrie) grew up on Fowler Island in Lake Erie and were inseparable until Henrie's mother, Carrie, whisked her off-island for her protection. Now, B.B. and Henrie's father has died, drawing Carrie and the sisters back to the island for his funeral. Although B.B. and Henrie remember the island as a magical place, a wild kingdom they ruled, there is a darkness lurking beneath its idyllic surface. The quarry behind their ancestral family home seems to lure lonely young women to jump to their deaths, their bodies never to be recovered. When the waters begin to rise, B.B. and Henrie must decide if they will resign themselves to their family's fate, or if they will try to break the curse once and for all.

The Insatiable Volt Sisters is a dark fairy tale exploring the bonds of sisterhood, ancestral duty, and what it means to be a monster. It's an enthralling story in its own right, but can also be read as a feminist metaphor about male violence -- what it means for women to carry that violence as a burden and what happens when it's inherited. It's a weird, inventive novel, exquisitely written and intensely atmospheric. Rachel Eve Moulton's lush prose brought Fowler Island completely to life, and it was a place I wanted to inhabit, despite its horrors.

This is definitely a book you can get lost in, both in the dreamy sense and the "huh?" sense. It takes some turns that I'm not sure I fully understood, but I was mesmerized by Moulton's bold narrative choices and the strong sense of place she evoked with her writing. This is a situation where the multiple narrators (B.B., Henrie, Carrie, and the island curator, Sonia) worked incredibly well, as each woman held a different piece of the book's larger puzzle.

Despite the book's length, there were some aspects of the plot that I felt could have been better explored (particularly the origin of the island's curse and the island's original sisters, Elizabeth and Eileen Fowler). Some of the characters' relationships weren't as well-fleshed-out as they could have been, and some of the book's action and explanations get lost in Moulton's flowery language. But mostly, I was dazzled by this novel, which was unlike anything I've read before. If you like magical realism, dark fables, or books featuring creepy sentient houses, ancestral curses, strange creatures, and strong female characters, then The Insatiable Volt Sisters will most likely be right up your alley. Thank you to NetGalley and MCD x FSG Originals for the advance reading opportunity.

This story was interesting, but I didn’t find it terribly engaging. The constant POV switching paired with the time skips made the book hard to follow at times. I did, however, enjoy seeing the intense love hate relationship that the sisters had, and the exploration of their complex relationship was fantastic. They had flaws which played into the story and their personalities felt very well fleshed out.

I felt like the horror and supernatural elements were somewhat underutilized. Based on the description, I was hoping for something spooky, but there wasn’t much of anything in terms of that. It tried to be scary near the end, but it still didn’t follow through in a meaningful way. The book was still an adventure from start to finish, and going in completely blind is certainly recommended! Just don’t expect a horror thriller and you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Thank you to Netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Jumping into books blindly is such an adventure. I was expecting a book about two sisters on a mysterious island, and I ended up with a book about two sisters, a mysterious island, and honest to God monsters. Fantasy and horror elements aren't usually my jam, but hats off to the writer for creating a twisted, imaginative modern-day fable.

Two things attracted me to this novel. First, the exquisite cover really caught my eye. Secondly, it was written by Rachel Eve Moulton whose first book, Tinfoil Butterfly, destroyed me in the best way possible. I'd like to commend her for writing a book that is so wildly different to the first. While the stories may be completely different her assured writing is the same which only cements the fact that she is an immensely talented writer.

This is the story of the Volt sisters, Beatrice (B.B.) and Henrietta (Henrie), who live on a strange island on Lake Erie. Henrie left the island a decade ago and has never been back but when B.B. calls to let her know that their father has passed away she knows she has no choice but to return.

The island has a history of women disappearing. Jumping from the cliffs yet their bodies are never recovered. No one seems to think this is strange but the sisters know that something isn't right. It's why Henrie left with her mother in the first place years ago.

"This is what I know. The island reaches out, sends it's echoey call like a heartbeat to the mainland. Someone catches that beat. Sadness attracts sadness. Women arrive. Women jump. Their bodies are never found."

Add to this a haunted house (maybe) and slithery monsters (possibly) and Voila! One of the strangest and weirdest books I have ever read. I'm truly at a loss at how to describe the plot of this book so I won't. The book is narrated by four women, B.B., Henrie, Carrie (Henrie's mother and B.B.'s step-mother) and Sonia (the island curator) - all unreliable. Or are they?

What's even stranger than this story is the fact that I finished it. This book has all the elements I usually can't tolerate - a tinge of magic, an air of dreaminess, fairytale-ish of sorts. Yet, I was mesmerized by the writing and the story. I wanted to know all the secrets that the island held. If that isn't a testament to her great writing then I don't know what is.

But,

The ending completely lost me. It all got to be a little too much. The last 20% I started to skim because I just couldn't make sense of anything that was happening and I grew weary with trying to figure it all out. This will not be a book for everyone but those that do pick this up will be rewarded with some really beautiful prose to savor. I can't help but to wonder where Moulton plans to go with her next novel. Wherever she goes I know it will be inventive, unique, and wholly original. 3 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for my complimentary copy.

𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒇𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝑯𝒆𝒏𝒓𝒊𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝑩.𝑩. 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒐 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒎𝒚 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒚 𝒃𝒊𝒈 𝒔𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓, 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒆𝒙𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒍𝒚 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒏 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒘𝒂𝒚, 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒔𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒚 𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒎𝒚 𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒚.

Henrie and Beatrice “B.B.” were as close as twins, inseparable when they were children, before Carrie, Henrie’s mother, divorced their father James and fled with her. The split up hit them like lightning, destroying what joy and meaning their lives held. Theirs is a strange, tangled family legacy, one of another set of sisters who made the town glorious before Seth Volt, Henrie and B.B.’s great-great grandfather, came between them. There followed, after the birth of their great- grandfather, a tragedy, the first disappearance, their great-great grandmother Elizabeth who jumped off the cliff, so they say. The island has a history of vanished women, just one of many eerie happenings on the strange land. B.B. hears things, communes with the spirits of their ancestors, but it doesn’t always make sense. When the sisters are no longer together, the voices no longer speak to her, as if the house is swallowed in silence. Elizabeth and Eileen had special gifts too, including mind reading. A legend surrounds their family, a promise that an heir would always remain on the quarry where Seth would dig for limestone, tasked forever with care of the island. A beautiful home sits, full of dark memories, meant to keep the family together forever, carrying on traditions. Their father swears he will die there, never to step foot off island, not even to keep his daughters together, and his oath comes true. Years after Henrie and Carrie have left, they are called to return for the funeral but it is not without dread for Carrie, who once feared it would eat her, as it had James’s first wife, B.B.’s mother.

As soon as Henrie is back on the island, reeling from the funeral of their father, mysteries are abounded. She is remembering all the things she has forgotten about the past. B.B. is excited that with the will, the two can once again live together, Henrie has reservations but feels hungry already, for the island and time with B.B. Through each chapter the past returns, and it is evident that the creaks and voices in the night are not the wild imaginings of children. There is something wrong with Fowler Island, some dark force that thrives on taking people and the reader makes their way into uncovering how the Volt sisters are at the core of the tragedies. Their father was a private man with restrictions of his own, it takes his death and everything that unfolds to understand why he was unbending when it came to remaining on Fowler. Women on the island, especially tourists, meet dark ends, and Carrie had never felt love for the island, in fact she knows every bit of the place had rejected her. Being on the island made her a different person, its threatening presence, one James was alert too, was the push she needed to protect her girl even if she never understood what, exactly, was after her. It all comes back again. Sonia is the local curator at the museum, long ago she was the one person Carrie could turn to when James closed himself off, but Sonia bears the weight of island secrets too. She was a stand-in mother to B.B. when she was a baby, before Carrie came into the picture, along the way she has fallen out of favor with the family. All these years she has kept a close eye on the happenings and is perplexed by what she feels is happening to Fowler island. She is a strong woman who had to sacrifice something she wanted desperately, but now it’s time, she can no longer stave off the evil and she knows they all need to join forces.

The girls’ adult lives are unable to move forward with the worm of the past burrowing through their bloodline. It is time they face their haunting memories, heal the wounds of the past and try to break free from the darkness their ancestors may well have stirred up. It is an eerie read, one that has many female characters looking to reclaim their power. I only wish more time was spent in the past with the first sisters, Elizabeth and Eileen Fowler.

Publication Date: April 4, 2023

Farrar, Straus & Giroux

MCD x FSG Originals

3.5 (got bumped up a half star for that sick ending, for a 450ish page book, I was glued for those final 50 pages)

I found the writing to be beautiful, the author certainly has a knack for creating atmosphere. But I just felt like it was a slow burn where the pinnacle never really came to fruition. The concept was incredible and the blurbs on the back of the book from Rachel Harrison and Gus Moreno were especially promising... but it just lacked where I expected more.

📖 ARC Review 📖

The Insatiable Volt Sisters by Rachel Eve Moulton
Pub. Date : April 4th, 2023
⭐⭐⭐⭐

I would like to thank @NetGalley and @fsgbooks for the opportunity to review this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

👻

The Insatiable Volt Sisters is an horror novel with a small gothic vibe. You get the feeling that the island and the house are alive. Mysterious things are happening, women disappearing, a family curse. The story unravels the secrets of a strange family following the death of the father. The island hasn't said its last word.

You quickly discover that each of the four main characters are unreliable narrators. Told from the first person point of view, the narration becomes more and more obsessive as the story unfolds. The island and the house are taking over the life of the characters. It wants something to survive.

It is a weird book full of magical realism. What starts as something very credible turns into a fever dream. The sisters have an intense love-hate co-dependent relationship that makes you doubt at every turn.

This book reminded me a lot of Bunny by Mona Awad but better? I really like this trip to a recluse island far from the mainland. This would be the perfect read for a warm rainy day.

Rating 2.5

I didn't mind that they're were multiple POVs and switched between timelines. I don't think it was confusing at all. I liked the idea of the plot, but the story itself was boring and I didn't care about the characters or what little was happening. I expected this to be a more atmospheric, creepy horror, but it wasn't at all.

Two sisters reunite to fight the demons buried in their family history.

It's everything I love. Sisters. Weird family secrets. A (likely) haunted house. Jumping between two timelines, the sisters are forced to reckon with the event that tore them apart 10 years prior.

This is one of those weird kind of books that I enjoy way too late at night. Strange locations, strange events....all fighting against two sisters and their love for each other.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thank you to the Publisher for sending me an arc of this in exchange for an honest review.


this sadly disappointed me, normally i don't mind different character perspectives but only if you can easily distinct whose perspective you're reading. it felt like this entire book ran together and wasn't for me although the premise sounded promising.

I like how it went back and forth. I saw some reviews that said it was confusing, but I don't think that was the case. It was clearly labeled so easy to follow. I also enjoyed the different point of views and perspectives. It is a long book and took me some time to get into. It got a little strange for my tastes but I know others will enjoy.

This book was a Did Not Finish for myself - there was nothing particularly wrong with it, but horror literature seems to be completely dominated by female driven narrative, which are gothic in nature. This book brought so many others to mind, sisters returning to an island full of secrets after the death of their father, loaded with secrets, sexual tension and conflict between them, moving back and forward from when they were teens to the death of the father. I found it rather slow and by 30% began to really struggle and was just not invested enough to find out what happened when the family reunited for the funeral.

*Thank you to NetGalley & MCD x FSG Originals for the e-Arc in exchange for my honest review*
I went into this book completely blind. I requested it based off a recommendation of a friend on Insta who was reading the arc.

"Our femaleness a reason we needed saving, the only reason he needed to keep his miserable inheritance all to himself."

I am completely flabbergasted by what I read. This was such an upsettingly brilliant book. It is a gothic mystery horror show. Henri & B.B were so incredibly unlikeable. I greatly disliked both sister but I loved them all the same. I was drawn to this story much like the Volt sisters are drawn to their island. I was completely surprised by the fantastical elements to the story that moved it past simply dark and mysterious. I was anticipating the "big bad" to be more abstract and internal but it was fantastical and brillant. I know there is a feminist commentary entrenched in this story but I need to dig for the right words to the describe it...it's the Volt sisters inherited generations of violence from their male predecessors, only to clean it up themselves and break the cycle their father was too scared to to himself. The ending was so good - the final line is *perfection."

I've read in other reviews that people were confused by the POV & time changes. I didn't find that confusing at all. I felt they were well constructed and paced appropriately. I didn't feel pulled too soon from from POV or time at any point. I was interested in it all.

(I included a spoiler's section to my StoryGraph review)

This was a weird read for my taste but I did enjoy it for the most part. The timeline and multiple POV could be a little confusing at times. Overall a worthwhile read.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC!
I can't stress enough how beautifully written this book was. Just immaculate. The prose was raw and tender and shot right through me. The Volt Sisters were heartwarming and equally terrifying. As the eldest sister in my family, this story gutted me in a way I was NOT prepared for. I would follow B.B and Henrie to the bottom of the quarry pond!! I found the mystery of the island so intriguing, and every time I thought I knew what was going on, I ended up being proved wrong. I finished it and felt like I just woke up from a strange fever dream.
I loved the various POV and time skips, I felt like it really enhanced the suspense of the story. I really think this book is something special. I enjoyed it immensely

Thank you to the author and publisher for the advance reader copy.

Overall, I think this book had a lot of potential, but the time jumps and overwhelming number of characters left me more focused on that (maybe distracted by) than the story itself. I think overall, the book left me wanting more suspense and less characters,

I think this book had the potential to be really good, but the time skips and flashbacks made it really confusing for me. I couldn't keep track of the linear timeline throughout the book, and the two sisters' voices were similar enough that I kept forgetting which POV I was reading in the middle of chapters. Especially being a horror/thriller-type novel, it was a little disappointing that it dragged on for so long before getting to the point. It's about 450 pages and I think it could've been just a little shorter.