Anna and Jennie live in a generational home that sits on the river bank. Young men have died in the river, supposedly from jumping from the nearby bridge. Police come knocking on the door. But the girls try to avoid answering. Anna runs a podcast devoted to the haunting of tragic events. Chicago has so many to choice from. One of her podcast followers manages to capture her attention and her heart. So many threads in the book. Each one has it's only interesting bits. The book is interesting with an ending well worth reading.

Cynthia Pelayo has crafted an eerie story of two sisters, the historic bungalow they live in by the Chicago River, and a series of unexplained drownings in the river.

Anna and Jennie have lived all their lives in the house their grandparents purchased in the early 1900s. The house is filled with strange sounds, pops, creaks, voices and the sound of dripping water.

Anna takes care of the house religiously, cleaning, shining, mopping and effecting small, careful home renovations, while her sister Jennie repairs record turntables and other older audio technology, when she's not wandering the house in melancholy and fear, dressed in dramatic, satin nightgowns. Or going for walks along the river by herself.

Anna also runs a podcast, telling stories of various haunted locations in the city. Through this, she gains the interest of a young man, Peter, who wants more than friendship from Anna.

Young men are going missing, and some have turned up, drowned in the Chicago River. Jennie grows frightened, and more young men go missing, till a pair of detectives show up at the sisters' door, looking for answers about the drowned.

The prose is gorgeous, with water featuring prominently throughout, whether as dripping sounds in the house, Jennie's wet footprints after her amblings, recurring descriptions of the river and what has floated or been dumped in it. Pelayo creates both dreamy and visceral scenes throughout this novel, while also slowly building a sense of suspense with Jennie's increasingly odd and angry behaviour.

I should mention that the pacing is on the slow side, with many scenes of Anna and Jennie going in circles about what the house means to them, or their grandmother's requirement that they live in the house, or Anna's loneliness and desire to leave but feeling obligated to stay to care for Jennie and her worsening mood, which is only exacerbated the closer Anna grows to Peter.

Pelayo also liberally sprinkles actual Chicago history throughout the novel. There is plenty of tragedy, and a clue to the present, haunting and haunted situation. I was not surprised by the reveal, and enjoyed the complexity and ambiguity of Anna's and Jennie's situation, as well as the constant unease I felt as I read.

This is an interesting story, where the atmosphere is terrifically realized, with its dark, lingering, quiet anxiety.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Thomas & Mercer for this ARC in exchange for my review.

Haunted house, mermaids, ghosts, titanic, Chicago boat sinking… so much going on and all seemed rather confusing. It’s like the author couldn’t decide on what to write so she wrote about everything in 1 book. I will say I was so confused by what was happening that I kept reading because I needed to know how it ended

The elements of this book include gothic horror blended with fairy tale horror. It also blends a psychological tale, that kept me enthralled and guessing until the end. It also blends haunted history, crime story, the supernatural and personal and heartfelt relationships. One of the strong elements in this book is grief and the difficulty of loss.

The characters really come alive off the page and you care about them and they are just so real. The story is unique and unfolds with a lot of twists and turns. This book has the chills of true crime, blended with fairy tales and gothic hauntings and mystery. It is a gorgeously written dark tale that will stay with you long after you finish.

I'm not sure what to say about this book. It started out as a thriller/horror type book and I could figure out who was doing the killings early on, then it was really slow in the middle and hard to follow the story. It had about 4 chapters that really had nothing to do with the tory. Those chapters were more about the city of Chicago and it kind of loses the plot then it will switch up back to the original story. It also makes multiple references to the Titanic which is similar but not to this story. And once Anna does what she is supposed to do to stop the killings, the book just kind of ends.

Forgotten Sisters is hauntingly beautiful in all the best ways. It's like Pelayo took a pinch of ghost story, a dash of crime novel, and a sprinkle of dark fairy tale, and mixed it all together into this genre-bending masterpiece. Her writing is so hypnotic, it's like being put under a spell - you can practically feel the chill of the Chicago River seeping into your bones.
One thing I loved most about this book is how authentic it feels. Pelayo really knows Chicago, and it shines in this story. The city isn't just a backdrop; it's a living entity, with a dark history that Pelayo brings to life in a way that's both unsettling and captivating.
This is a slow-burn kind of horror that creeps up, letting the dread build until you're pulled under water. Forgotten Sisters is the kind of story that sticks with you long after you turn the last page, haunting your thoughts and making you question the bonds of sisterhood, the weight of grief, and what it truly means to be forgotten.

Forgotten Sisters was a different style of book for me. It surprised me in good ways and pushed me beyond my reading comfort zone. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good horror story and for anyone wanting to step out of the traditional genre.

#ForgottenSisters #CynthiaPelayo #NetGalley

The book started out pretty good. My biggest struggle was that I am someone who love to finish at least 1 full chapter or more at a time. Which was difficult since the chapter were so long. I also thought the book was pretty predictable with the sister being a ghost in guessed that pretty much right away. Overall the book was ok but I wouldn’t buy it or read it again.

This book was a bit off for me. The actual story was good, but there was a lot of historical information interspersed with the story. It was a bit too much for me.
I like the supernatural ghosty aspects mixed in with the thriller storyline.
I'd give it a 3.5 stars. Will round up to 4 on Goodreads.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this ARC

This book is about a pair of grieving sisters living in a possessed house near the Chicago River that so happens to be the dumping ground of an active Serial Killer that hunts for young men leaving bars alone. There also two dogs named Clover and Thistle. Don’t worry no harm comes to the dogs.

Cynthia builds the walls to the house that Anna and Jennie live in by explaining the price that was paid to have the home that has a backyard on Chicago River. A price they never wanted to pay and each day they continue living with the invisible wound of grief.

Anna lives her days remodeling the home, being a Dog Mom, and hosting a podcast about Chicago History. Jennie, spends her days in her room, watching news coverage about the drowned young men discovered in the Chicago River, and going for night walks never explaining to Anna where she has been. They live in this bubble of routine and pain. The sisters are trying to move on from the past and the pain but the house will not let them forget or leave. When two Detectives investigating the potential serial killer of the Chicago River. However, according to the Chief of Police there isn’t a serial killer and it is just a very odd coincidence that young men in their 20’s are found drowned in the Chicago River.

Anna researches for her Podcast about the early days of Chicago, the Immigrants that worked the industrial factories that feed the masses while polluting the Chicago River. Sharing the history of locations of tragedy, pain, and death. Allowing the victims to be spoken about in the modern time. Anna records her podcast with her dogs at her feet (don’t worry the dogs survive) and through her podcast a seed of love is planted in Anna’s heart giving her hope. Hope that love is real and give Anna hope that love can heal the grieving heart and leave the house.

The House is a third character, the house is alive, and the house does not like change. The House doesn’t like when one of sisters leaves for too long. The House doesn’t like when there are visitors entering the threshold. The detectives visit the Craftsman asking questions about the missing men and the house doesn’t want the dripping sound to be found. The House is holding the sisters as prisoners of their grief. When the house starts to make rooms flood like lakes, it is time to go and surrender. Give your trust to the mermaid and not the woman in the green dress.

In this story you follow two sisters who live in a haunted house in Chicago at a time where men are disappearing and drowning in a lake nearby. Simultaneously you follow two detectives trying to solve these deaths.
I was really impressed how Cynthia was able to deliver both a stream of consciousness story and a very literal story at the same time. It was pretty trippy in a sense that I felt like I was in a house of mirrors at times and pulled into reality with detective scenes and didn’t know what was real and what was fantasy. Cynthia’s writing in this book submerged me into a dark atmospheric dimension full of Chicago history.
For the fantasy potion of this book I loved all the little hints of the little mermaid and for the detective portion (my favorite) it was apparent how much research Cynthia did. From the body decomposition to the latin community history in Chicago, it was all in great detail.

Interviewing Cynthia confirmed what I felt when I was reading her book.. that it was indeed a personal piece of work for her. That should tell you how impactful her story telling is.
Here are some historical events that inspired this book:
- S.S Eastland Disaster & the immigrants aboard
- Jennie & Anna Evenhuis, the real sisters
- The Smiley face serial killer

This book is more than just a fiction/horror novel. The messages are those that stick with you:
Why do forget about the dead so quickly? Can we truly understand someone’s suffering if we have not suffered ourselves?

Loved this folk horror take taking place along the Chicago River.

Lots of Chicago history and ghost tales. I’ve lived near Chicago for many years and appreciated all the native touches to the story.

Poor Anna and Jennie, sisters doomed to carry out a sad existence, living only for each other in their family home along the Chicago River. Anna wants out, she wants love. But how can she leave Jennie who is tied in stranglehold to the house they share.

Sad, melancholic. Grief horror but with touches of beauty. For fans of folk horror, female rage, and generational trauma.

The Chicago River is calling…

Anna (23 years old) & Jennie (26) are sisters that live in a historic home along the water. This house is a time capsule, an entity of its own with feelings & moods that it makes known to its occupants. Anna throws herself into the podcast she produces on some of Chicago’s darkest pieces of history to distract herself; Jennie prefers to say cryptic things & hides in her room a lot. But everything starts to change when Anna connects with one of her listeners, & detectives begin asking questions about the recent uptick of bodies found in the river…

This genre-defying story was so many different things: a little bit police procedural, a whole lot of history & lore, some horror with the more disturbing details about all the Chicago River has been, the magic of mermaids, & a tale of two sisters that focuses on all things time, memory, hope, loneliness, & the ache for love. I really enjoyed the focus on the water: its spiritual significance & the way that water is life but can also be death, & the intriguing/unsettling thought that we don’t always know what’s beneath the surface.

Thank you to NetGalley & Thomas & Mercer for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

While I loved the Gothic tone, the prose, and the imagery, this novel felt overwritten, rushed, and convoluted. There was too much going on writing-wise. The voices dragged, pacing was slow, and things were flat-out confusing at times. I love odd books and wish it was less of a rough read so I could have enjoyed it. The ending was interesting but not enough that I'd recommend it.

I really enjoyed this book. It was different than anything else I've read recently. I couldn't put it down! I will keep an eye out for this author's future work!

This novel is part haunted house/vengeful ghost story and part crime novel with some part fairy tale fantasy elements. The various narrators and genres didn't always feel balanced but that added to the sense of delusion, illusion, and mystery that the overlapping stories of the pairs of sisters evoke. Anna and Jennie are sisters saddened by the loss of their parents to a car accident while Anna and Jennie were sisters who died in a tragic accident back in 1915. The story is centered around the Chicago River, where young men mysteriously disappear, with detectives Kowalski and Rodriguez convinced a serial killer is responsible. Throw in a strange woman, Ursula, who is either a killer in a white van or the sea witch of legend. It's creepy, convoluted, and poignant.

Gosh. I so wanted to like this one, and while I'm thankful to the publisher, author, and Netgalley, this one wasn't for me.

Overall I enjoyed this horror-fantasy novel. It was beautifully written, although sometimes the dialogue would take you out of the story as people don't generally converse with each other this way in daily life.

Well, that was a page turner. Although there were times where I felt the story was a bit repetitive with some of the characters pondering, it worked in the sense that it made you feel crazy, trapped in the minds and confused thoughts of her characters. I loved the mood, the setting, the history and the characters.
I had a lot of speculation about the outcome as well, all the while wondering how to solve the who’s and why’s but was pleasantly surprised and impressed by the haunting feeling I had throughout. I loved it.

I don't think I've ever read a book quite like Forgotten Sisters, which is an intriguing blend of haunted house horror, crime noir, urban fairy tale, magical realism, and dark historical fiction. It reads like Catriona Ward meets We Have Always Lived in the Castle, but it did leave me feeling a bit perplexed and wishing for a more focused narrative.

At its heart, Forgotten Sisters is about two insular sisters named Anna and Jennie, who are haunted in more ways than one, and what happens when bodies start washing up in the Chicago River that flows behind the historic Craftsman bungalow they've lived in all their lives (and almost never leave).

This is my first experience with Cynthia Pelayo's writing, and it's clear she has a distinctive style. Her prose reads like a fever dream which entranced and confused me in equal measure and kept me off-balance for the entire book. With characters that behave and speak in strange, dated ways, the book has a decidedly gothic tone and reads like something out of time, so it's all the more startling when the modern world intrudes in the narrative, with mentions of murders and detectives and podcasts. I don't know if I've ever read a book that combines supernatural fairy tale elements with a hard-nosed police procedural, but that's exactly what Pelayo does in Forgotten Sisters. Her storytelling is so strange, so bold, so hypnotic.

Forgotten Sisters delves into Chicago's dark history, which was probably my favorite thing about it. This is an intensely atmospheric and descriptive book, and it's clear Pelayo has a lot of love for the city of Chicago. But despite that, Forgotten Sisters wasn't an entirely enjoyable reading experience for me overall. There is a lot going on in the narrative, but at the same time there isn't really much of a plot to speak of. Structurally, the book just meanders along until it reaches an intriguing, but in my opinion not fully supported, conclusion. Anna's romantic relationship feels rushed and lacks nuance and depth, and all of the various genre elements become a bit muddled after a while.

That said, I am definitely interested in reading more of Pelayo's work, because I think her writing is my vibe.