Part haunted house story, part mystery, all set against the backdrop of Chicago's past told in a lyrical style that pulls you along for a ride you won't forget!

There is something to say about a haunted house and secrets, and in Forgotten Sisters you find a pair of sisters who cannot move on from either. To say more about the plot aside from the bodies that keep surfacing in the Chicago river and the strange noises in the house would be to spoil it, so what I will say is that Pelayo's writing winningly blends the horror and the tension, both of the supernatural and the complicated bonds between Anna and Jennie.
There is a historical event that sets the background for the story and it was one I knew from one of my many YouTube rabbit holes - it was well integrated with the rest of the plot and I also enjoyed the straightforward but beautiful prose. I will definitely be reading more of Cynthia Pelayo's books.

Having read and really “enjoyed” Cynthia Pelayo’s poetry collection “Into The Forest And All The Way Through” fairly recently, I was fully on board for (thank you NetGalley!) an arc of a novel by the author. As with most things I read, I went into this not knowing at all what I was going to begin. And I was really surprised by this. Kind of a patchwork of detective story, love story, haunted house, woven in with a tragedy from the early 1900’s in Chicago. Quite an undertaking by the author to take on all of that in one book. And, for me, it worked. Because of so many leaps, there were a couple of times I had to pause to get my footing and deliberately think of where/when/who I was with as the narrator of that chapter. But, it’s not to say that was difficult to do.

You could tell you’re reading the words of a poet multiple times here, which I am a new very big fan of. This is not something I would say I’ve honestly read a great deal in this niche, but I did enjoy it. I mean, heck, I read it within 3 days. Sooooo….

Setting the Scene: 🇺🇸 Set in Chicago, Illinois
POV: We mainly follow a person living with their twin in the inherited house where they grew up. We also get the perspectives of a detective investigating the rising number of missing men who appear to have drowned near the twins’ home.

Mood Reading Match-Up:
- Fae magical realism, paranormal intrusion, or madness?
- Sprinkling of missing and murdered men mysteries with true crime vibes
- Light commentary and themes of siblings, longing, self-discovery, loyalty, history, independence, freedom, madness, inheritance, heritage, and love.

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🐺 Growls, Howls, and Tail Wags 🐕

🗣️ Tale-Telling: We mainly see the story through Anna’s perspective, which is told in first-person present tense. The haunted aspects were melodramatic and spooky, but had so much overkill info-dumping. The Detective’s parts were welcome but a tad too preachy at times (also info dumping how investigations work) instead of expanding on the obvious inspiration from true stories of missing men that turn up as 'accidental' drownings.

👥 Characters: The sisters, Anna and Jennie, were an enigma wrapped in old-timey manners, which was a great way to set the creepy charm at first. But they never progressed past that point in terms of character development, so situations happened to them, but they just seemed to continue repeating the same weirdness. The police felt straight out of a classic detective film noir in the way they talked, but later in the story they added a much needed reality check and we got too little of their perspectives.

🗺️ Ambiance: Chicago wasn’t just a backdrop; it was a character. The author did a great job of making the city’s neighborhoods come alive without turning into a geography lesson. There was enough information to follow along on Google Earth, but it wasn’t necessary to pick up on the energy.

🔥 Fuel: The mystery was slow burn, with hints of magical realism and cryptic puzzles. Initially, I was all in, but then the story stalled out where the mysteries, contradictions, puzzles, and weirdness felt like it was on repeat and nothing much was happening. The beginning of the story set up multiple threads for us to explore later, so it was disappointing when the author abandoned them in favour of repeating the sisters' dynamics and strangeness in slightly different words over and over and over.

🎬 Scenes: The middle chunk of this story was like a car stuck in the mud spinning wheels. The plot progresses, but oh so slowly, with the same themes circling back again and again. The resolution of everything left me feeling like it wasn't really worth trudging through all the muck to get there.
The investigation side should have been more fleshed out, giving a realism to the exploration of why there has been an increase in missing and potentially murdered men. It would have been a nice counter to the sisters’ mystical musings and easily could have replaced the highly repetitive scenes we were stuck in with Anna and Jennie in the middle of the novel. It also would have added some much needed mystery fuel for the reader - do we believe the sisters' hauntings or the Detective's hunch that an unconventional serial killer is on the loose....and do those two things interconnect?

🤓 Random Thoughts: The story itself seemed creative and interesting, but its execution was clunky. Like it was trying too hard to be profound, especially with the obsession around the same tropes and themes. This could have done well as a novella, or with balance brought through less repetitive worship of the house and family in favour of exploring the drowned victims’ stories and investigation.

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Content Heads-Up: Body decomposition. Murder. Death. Mental health (delusions, paranoia, anxiety). Co-dependency.
Rep: Ambiguous ancestry/race. Cis-gender. Heterosexual relationships.

👀 Format: Digital Review Copy from Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley

“Reviews are my musings 💖 powered by puppy snuggles 🐶 refined by my AI bookworm bestie ✨”

"Forgotten Sisters" by Cynthia Pelayo was, regrettably, a disappointing read for me. I found myself quite confused while reading the book. The narrative was challenging to follow, and at one point, I even mistook one of the sisters for one of the detectives involved in the investigation. The sisters' dialogue felt forced and oddly structured, making it challenging to connect with their characters.

While the book did have some redeeming qualities, such as the chapters that followed the detectives during their investigations, these were infrequent. I found Anna's podcast's historical insights into Chicago intriguing, but I felt that these chapters were oddly placed within the narrative. Moreover, the rapid development of the relationship with Peter felt rushed and lacked the depth I had expected, given the sisters' upbringing and lifestyle. The book successfully created an ominous atmosphere, but it failed to deliver a compelling mystery due to the overwhelming confusion I experienced.

The conclusion, while unexpected, did not entirely compensate for the lack of clarity throughout the story. However, for me, it simply wasn't to my liking. While the concept was intriguing, the implementation fell short. The unsettling history, unexplained drownings, and the growing number of bodies floating by Anna's window were promising elements, but the story failed to fully capitalize on these intriguing aspects.

Overall, "Forgotten Sisters" by Cynthia Pelayo was a perplexing and disjointed read for me. While it may appeal to readers who enjoy unraveling mysteries, it lacked the coherence and development I seek in a psychological suspense novel.

(Note: This review is based on an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) of the book.)

Forgotten Sisters by Cynthia Pelayo is a masterpiece of a dark fairy tale and readers are going to love it!

This book follows two sisters Jennie and Anna in Chicago in their family's home. Anna runs a popular podcast where she discusses the grisly and heartbreaking stories of those who have died tragically in Chicago. Anna through this project meets a new love interest, who begins to threaten Anna and Jennie's long-standing family bond. Or at least so Jennie thinks. The resulting story is a beautiful and shocking thrill ride that I enjoyed.

This was my first Cynthia Pelayo novel, but it absolutely will not be my last. Cynthia Pelayo is an INCREDIBLE writer. Seriously, some of the passages in this novel are just exceptional and I cannot wait until this book is out so that I can purchase this novel and share some of those final passages. They are just beautifully written and they pair with this dark fairy tale so well.

In addition to the writing style just being fun and thrilling, so are the action and mystery elements that Pelayo added in. I think they pull the reader into this story and ensure that you aren't going to be released until the very last second. I did not know how this book was going to end and the twists at the end had me gasping out loud late into the evening. Readers are going to delight in this novel, so be sure to get your copy, and don't miss out on this one!

This book is perfect for fans of dark fairy tales, and dark beautiful fiction. Also great for fans of Where They Wait by Scott Carson.

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this. The book is muddled and poorly written. It has serious problems with decent characterization, narration and all of the fundamental elements that compose a novel. I have never come across any book put out by a major publisher that's in this sort of condition. I'm not sure what Thomas & Mercer is up to, but I'm more suspicious of the quality of their titles after reading this book. It's on par with something that a lower-ranking, self-published author without much experience would put out on her own.

The chill wind of Chicago seeps into every page of Forgotten Sisters; a fairytale-laced gothic ghost story, it's rife with modern elements while still maintaining an air of classicism. Pelayo masterfuly weaves magic through the story, meshing it with elements of a police procedural, and perhaps, most notably, never allows the reader to feel settled. The prose is stunning and the story is deeper than the Chicago River. Pelayo is to Chicago as Lehane is to Boston.

This book sounded very intriguing, and I was excited to dig in. However, I found it to be a bit odd, and rather confusing. There was a lot of point of view switching and it was difficult for me to keep track. I also found it hard to connect to the characters, probably because I spent most of the book in a state of confusion. These are books that make me wonder why I don’t give up, then I remember I am stubborn and want to see how things end. I found certain elements of this book to just be bizarre and I am still shaking my head trying to figure them out, but I guess the author is tying in The Little Mermaid? I don’t know, it didn’t work.

While I did find this story compelling, I think that this book had structural issues that I couldn’t reconcile and it took away from my enjoyment.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was a rare DNF for me. I do not like to give up on books, but I read about 25% and could not get into it. Anna and her sister Jennie live along the Chicago River in a home passed on from their grandparents. They rarely leave, except for walks. Anna hosts a crime podcast from their home and Jennie likely has mental health issues as she mostly stays in her room donned in elegant pajamas. In the meantime, two homicide detectives (one about to retire and one new to homicide) are investigating a series of drownings in the river involving young men. The premise was promising, however, the pacing is very slow and the writing regarding the sisters' storyline is almost floaty and dreamlike most of the time.

Tethered together by an unforgettable past, Anna and Jennie live in a historic bungalow on the river. Not even the bumps in the night can convince them to leave their family home. To keep her loneliness at bay, Anna has a podcast where she tells tales of Chicago's unforgettable past. It's not until Anna captures the attention of a male listener that she considers a world outside...

Forgotten Sisters is definitely not a typical read for me. This book had a lot of elements I wasn't expecting yet I found myself completely intrigued by this story and couldn't help but want to know more. I'm glad I decided to check this book out.

Unfortunately this was a DNF. A Chicago setting, podcast and haunted house themes with a police procedural side story and 2 cute dogs grabbed me in the beginning. But the story just got too confusing for me, something was amiss with the writing and eventually I found myself skimming pages. The fairytale aspect of it didn't quite work for me either.

Forgotten Sisters is a mystery, but not just a mystery; a love story but not just a love story; a horror story but not just a horror story. This layered and lush novel about sisters, grief, murder, and Chicago drops the reader into the story just after a major trauma has occurred, and ruminates in the aftermath of that horror through the eyes of Anna.
The crime podcaster lives in an old house with her sister Jennie, who doesn't seem to be doing well after the drowning deaths of their parents. The house itself seems to be grieving, and Anna is struggling to take care of her sister and herself. A string of drowning deaths in the city of Chicago sets off a series of events that pull Anna into the mystery, and her search for answers brings to light details of her own life that she isn't prepared to examine.
The story switches perspectives between Anna and two Chicago detectives who are investigating the drownings, and the switch keeps the reader guessing as to who is telling the truth and who is an unreliable narrator. And the novel is very squarely set in Chicago, so lovingly detailed that you can feel the city surrounding you.
Cynthia does a really wonderful job here, the writing is gorgeously laid out and the asides that are so clearly researched add so much depth to the plot. I really enjoyed this: the mystery is satisfying, the love story is sweet and hopeful, and the relationship between Anna and Jennie is so real. There are moments of dread throughout, and some supernatural elements that borrow from dark fairytales (The Little Mermaid is featured quite heavily).
This is the first I've read of Cynthia and I'm eager to read more!

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the copy of Forgotten Sisters by Cynthia Pelayo. The flowery and old-fashioned dialogue was hard to read so I never engaged with the story. The podcast was well researched but not very interesting to read. The idea of the story was great andI loved the description of the book. I should have looked at the genres for it in Goodreads, because I don't enjoy horror fantasy, but if you love those genres, you might love this book.

I really struggled with this book. It sounded so interesting, but I ended up baffled by it. The characters don't speak normally which made it impossible to understand what they were talking about most of the time. The detectives were okay, but they weren't in the book very much. The boyfriend was kind of just there. He didn't add much to the story and it was hard to accept this great love they supposedly had. We were told about their love, but I never actually felt it. I honestly didn't understand this book and really don't know what to say about it. I'm not sure who the right reader is for this book, but it certainly isn't me. The dogs were cute though and nothing bad happens to them so that was good.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC.

I was excited by the premise of this book - a haunted house, mysterious murders, scenic Chicago, and a little flavoring of true crime/morbid history themed podcasting? Sounds great.

I struggled with the writing style, though I feel this was a personal mismatch between myself and the book. Pelayo knows how to apply moody, richly detailed language to create an atmosphere. This was neat...for the first few chapters. I found myself skimming a fair amount of the descriptions towards the second half of the book.

I also didn't love the dialogue between characters. My favorite interactions were probably between the two detectives, which makes sense, as they're the two most 'ordinary' of the cast. By the end, I could see the reason for why Anna and Jennie spoke the way they did, but I never grew to love it.

I'd still recommend this book, but only to people with specific reading tastes. It just didn't quite work for me.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing an advanced copy to review

First, I want to point this author out by saying...Cynthia Pelayo is a multiple Bram Stoker Award-nominated author. She combines true crime with fairytales while also adding suspense, thriller, and love stories! I am a true crime/horror lover so this book stood out immediately.

Nothing is as it seems in Anna and Jennie's handed-down haunted mansion by the Chicago River. It is worth millions but the house will not let the sisters leave. Anna is the star of this book, she ensures the house is immaculate and upgrades it. The house is so happy it leaves her small gifts. Anna also takes care of her sister Jennie. Both Anna and Jenny suffer from "episodes" of PTSD from a car accident that occurred years prior. Anna's sole purpose is to take care of the house, Jennie, and find true love with the help of her "fairy" who lives in her fairy garden.

Anna is brought her true love by the true crime podcasts she creates about truly horrifying incidents people forget about. In the midst of all this, murders of men in their 20s continue to show up in the Chicago River drowned behind her home. Why?

Anna has to dive deep to solve this mystery while juggling her crazy life at just the age of 23. While she is solving the mystery, Anna takes you through multiple true crime stories (that are true and explain a lot in detail) so there is not a boring part in this book! I also want to add that when the true crime and horror of incidents are explained, they are horrific and will fuel horror lovers with pride!

I rate this book 5 stars and highly recommend it!

I was so intrigued by this novel, but unfortunately for me I just got confused and felt like the story was disjointed and did not deliver the way it should have for me.

I just finished reading "Forgotten Sisters" by Cynthia Pelayo, and I'm still reeling from the experience. This book is not just a mystery novel; it's a deep dive into the complexities of human relationships, the power of secrets, and the blurred lines between reality and fantasy.

The characters are so well-crafted that I felt like I was part of their lives, invested in their struggles, and rooting for them until the very end. The writing is masterful, with a pace that's both suspenseful and introspective.

As someone who loves a good mystery, I was impressed by the author's ability to weave together a web of clues and red herrings that kept me guessing until the final reveal. But what struck me most was the empathy and compassion with which Pelayo approaches her characters.

She doesn't shy away from exploring the darker aspects of human nature, but she does so with a sensitivity that makes you feel like you're in the hands of a wise and understanding storyteller.

"Forgotten Sisters" is more than just a book; it's an experience that will leave you thinking long after you finish reading. So, if you're ready to immerse yourself in a gripping and thought-provoking story, then this is the book for you.

Trust me, you won't regret it!"

I mostly enjoyed this gothic novel of possession, but I think one more developmental edit would really help make it stronger. The unreliable narrator is done well, as is the foreshadowing, but other aspects remain weak, including the whole romance aspect, which is very thin and hard to believe. The protagonist--when her own persona is in charge--is also lacking in weight, and while her weirdness in changes of diction and vocabulary is explained at the very end, she needs a bit more heft to come to life. Just a bit more development, please!