Thank you Netgalley for the arc of this book!


Wow wow wow!!! I really enjoyed most of these stories. The different genres kept me hooked as well as the creepiness. Amazing. I’ll definitely be looking forward to more from these authors.

I would like to thank NetGalley for providing me with an ARC copy of "Scissor Sisters," a captivating anthology curated by April Yates and Rae Knowles. As someone who values diverse narratives and representation in literature, I eagerly dove into this collection of 21 tales.

Anthologies pose a unique challenge when it comes to assigning a star rating, as the quality and impact of individual stories can vary greatly. However, after careful consideration, "Scissor Sisters" receives an overall rating of 3.5 stars from me. While some stories resonated with me more deeply than others, each one left an indelible mark on my heart.

This anthology is the kind of book I wish I had access to earlier in life. It's a celebration of complexity and diversity, showcasing a myriad of sapphic characters who defy stereotypes and expectations. Each character is crafted with depth and nuance.

What struck me most about "Scissor Sisters" is the remarkable diversity of voices and perspectives represented within its stories. Each author brings their own unique style and storytelling prowess to the table.

We need more narratives that celebrate the complexity and diversity of sapphic experiences, and "Scissor Sisters" is a step in the right direction. It's a bold and unapologetic celebration of villainy, queerness, and the power of storytelling.

The way this book gives you everything you need for a perfect horror even though it’s short stories it’s great. The broad range this book gives is amazing the erotic details brings a more engaging experience if you like stories like that too.

When I first saw the title Scissor Sisters, I obviously turned my mind to a story involving sapphics. What I did not expect was that Scissor Sisters was indeed a collection of short stories, all dealing with the macabre and the Gothic, along with horror and its own subgenres. Each of Scissor Sisters‘ stories has its own distinct source of tension oozing across its pages.

In total, Scissor Sisters has twenty-two unique short stories, each penned by a different author. My favourites of this collection were “You Oughta Be in Pictures” by Anastasia Dziekan and “Teratoma, Cacodaemon, Erinya” by Avra Margariti. A close second would be “Modern Art Curse, Mixed Media” by Hailey Piper purely for the reason that Piper utilizes the second voice in order to craft a compelling and unique story. Truly, each story offers something unique to the anthology, but these three stories are my absolute favourites out of all of them. Their voices were truly unique and outstanding in an anthology already filled with incredible authors.

My one criticism for this anthology is the placement of its Content/Trigger Warnings. The book opens with a statement that reads “Content Warnings can be found at the back of the book,” which utterly defeats the purpose of content warnings. Content and trigger warnings ought to be at the beginning of piece so the reader may be forewarned of the story’s subject matter and determine whether or not they are able to read that story in that moment.

All in all, I will sing Scissor Sisters’ praises and recommend this to any sapphic who loves horror for it is a truly unique piece in a world full of horror that does its best to depict queerness as monstrosity.

Conclusion

A recommend read for fans of dark fiction, paranormal romance, body horror and queer horror. A sapphic horror anthology well worth reading and a great new addition to queer fiction and the horror and dark fiction genres.

Review

Scissor Sisters was a particularly diverse dark fiction and horror anthology. Although united by a common theme of sapphic horror vengeful or defiant lovers, there was a good selection of interpretations in the stories.

Those stories that really stood out among this anthology were “Gladys Glows at Night” by Hatteras Mange, “Modern Art Curse, Mixed Media” by Hailey Piper, “Conversations with Roe” by Alex Luceli Jimenez”, “You Oughta Be in Pictures” by Anastasia Dziekan, “Our Lady of Devouring Violence” by Cheyanne Brabo and “This Flesh Grows Fonder” by T.O. King.

Among this anthology are lovers defiant of societal norms, scorned and angry, vengeful or embracing a darkness. The range of settings spans historical Victorian eras, scandalous 1920s, modern eras and realms in between realities. A strongly written anthology that holds the reflection of sapphic horror to the audience in an unflinching and deeply honest portal. Although not all stories carried the same weight and impact, the essence of the theme was represented throughout.

This is a sapphic villains anthology, with a number of short stories. They’re horror-related and I’m a bit squeamish so some of them were hard to get through. Also there was way too much cannibalism for my taste. 🥴 But overall I enjoyed it! You Oughta Be in Pictures and Modern Art Curse, Mixed Media were the standouts to me, the first one especially.

Thanks to NetGalley and Brigids Gate Press for the digital copy, all opinions are my own.

This is a sizzling, gorgeous and fantastic collection of short stories. They are all art pieces in their own, creating worlds and visions on paper with only a few pages each. Every story is around 15/20 pages long, which make them bite size to read. They are a bit heavier on the themes, so its a bit harder to read a lot of them in one go, but the writing is so poetic, and the stories themselves are amazing.

Some stories are better than others but overall it does a good job in exploring the genre of horror and sapphic intimacy!

This anthology was sadistic prowess… A collection of stories ranging from absolute nightmare material, to what-ifs, to almost “I’m right there with ya, get em!”. I’ve never seen a collection of such dark material that felt so superior and proud of its almost haunting skill with a quill. I’m really glad to have been given an ARC in exchange for review. At times my stomach would drop from the tales and at others I wanted to celebrate its revelry of the female capabilities. The complete mishmash of varied storylines left me completely spellbound at where each tale would take me!

All I knew about this anthology going in is that it promised sapphic villains, which was plenty good enough to grab my interest. However, it was so much more than that. Not only did it deliver vengeful rage, but also a gentle caress against the face of evil. Some of the stories within this collection are sumptuous morsels that satiate your appetite for both true love and lust and others for morbid sadism.

There are 21 short stories in all (22 if you include the Achillean lagniappe) 13 of which I absolutely loved and devoured enthusiastically. I enjoyed all of them, but those 13 piqued my interest enough to want to seek out other works by their respective authors. This anthology consists of a variety of horror to introduce the reader to the multi-faceted macabre world of sapphic violence - vengeful spirits, mysterious entities, eco-horror, Victorian gothic horror, vampires, and more. The duality of human nature is explored in this anthology with nearly every story having a being hellbent on utter decimation of society's rules and the reader's own perception of evil. You will sometimes find yourself wondering who the real villainess is.

There are 8 spicy stories out of 21, and maybe a few with a hint of spice, but nothing explicit. These are as follows, in case spice isn't quite your cup of tea (although honestly, in this collection, it works phenomenally):
- To Wilt a Flower
- Torbalan's Gift
- Her Tongue, a Slippery Slope
- The Flesh Grows Fonder
- Gingerbread Red
- Buckskin for Linen
- Enamored
- The Call of the Sea (achillean, not sapphic)

Some of my favorites from this collection:

🌟 Gladys Glows at Night 🌟
"He's calling out to every angel in heaven, but only I hear him."

🎬 You Oughta Be in Pictures 🎬
"You want me dead. You want me really for real dead. That's what this is. That's what you're trying to do to me. And I love you, so I'm going to let you."

🙏 Teratoma, Cacodaemon, Erinya 🙏
"The news was correct about one thing. The demon once-perched on her shoulder was indeed a guilt-consuming being. Only, it was not Anastasia's shame the Erinya was created to devour, but the shame of the nation."

📿 Her Tongue, a Slippery Slope 📿
"If Hell has nine circles, her fingers are the first...Her oil slick eyes are the second...the third circle, her palm...her breasts...the fourth and fifth respectively...the sixth...her nose breathing me in deep...the seventh circle belongs to her velveteen lips...the eighth her sharp teeth nipping at my ear. But her tongue, my God, her tongue is hell's center."

⚡ Buckskin for Linen ⚡
"The sun remained hidden at our backs and the rain had not let up since we became one, our howls of ecstasy and laughter drawing thunder and spears of lightning, the wind of our gasping breath bearing down on St. Joan of Arc so that she creaked and moaned, constantly bending shape."

🩸 Oubliette 🩸
"I used to think you loved me more than anything else in the world."
"I do, though I'm not the best at showing it."
"Maybe that's the problem. None of this would have happened if you had loved me a little less."

💭 Conversations with Roe 💭
"My head is loud with the feeling of missing you. I can't say I expected that missing you would be so loud, or that I would miss you at all. I've never killed anyone and missed them."

💀 Ungrateful Dead Things 💀
"With a couple hard yanks, the coffin lid pops. She lifts the lid. Inside lays a young woman, dressed in a white satin gown, her pale face resting in a small, permanent smile. Victoria caresses her cold cheek with a gentle finger. 'Hello, my love,' she whispers."

🏠 The Turner House Heritage Tour 🏠
"Everything needs to eat, Claire. Even the house. But not you. It should never be you. And it won't be, as long as you bring it what it needs."

All of the stories had wonderful elements of all-consuming love and loss, while still adding on the creepy aspect. All of the stories were so obviously different, while giving on the same kind of vibes for each one. The stories were horrifically gory and luminous, showing great light on how romance isn’t always pretty.

3.75 stars

**Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.**
Publication: Jan 23, 2024

Pros
+ sapphic vibes in every story
+ moods: dark, violent, possessive, obsessive, bloodthirsty, weird
+ Would have read full novels on my 4.5-star stories. “Teratoma” is EVERYTHING I’d love in a book. “Ungrateful Dead Things” is the Frankenstein retelling of my dreams.
+ 4-4.5 stars
4.5 “Teratoma, Cacodaemon, Erinya” by Aira Margariti - grotesque body horror & rage
4.5 “Ungrateful Dead Things” by Alyssa Lennander - Frankenstein retelling
4.5 “The Turner House Heritage Tour” by Caitlin Marceau - hungry house & betrayal
4.5 “Family Planning” by Luc Diamant - manipulation or capitulation
4.5 “Her Tongue, a Slippery Slope” by Evelyn Freeling - wicked nun & possession
4.25 “Buckskin for Linen” by Mae Murray - colonialism & reclamation
4.25 “Oubliette” by L.R. Stuart - confinement & obsession
4 “You Oughta Be in Pictures” by Anastasia Dziekan - snuff films & reanimation
4 “Modern Art Curse, Mixed Media” by Hailey Piper - modern art & a murderer
4 “Conversations with Roe” by Alex Luceli Jimenez - serial killer & domesticity
4 “Gingerbread Red” by Chloe Spencer - cannibalism & witchy things
4 “Straight Flush” by Anya Leigh Josephs - gambling & deviltry
4 “Enamoured” by Shelley Lavigne - preservation & bodily autonomy

Neutral
/ 3-3.75 stars
3.75 “A Mirror Has Two Faces” by Lindz McLeod - stuck in time & enticement
3.5 “Gladys Glows at Night” by Hatteras Mange - radium painters & revenge
3.5 “Torbalan's Gift” by Grace R. Reynolds - transformation & freedom
3.5 “The Call of the Sea” by Eric Raglin - body horror transformation (only m/m story)
3 “The Lady of the House on Legs” by Ariel Marken Jack - cowardice & sacrifice
3 “To Wilt a Flower” by Maerwynn Blackwood - deadly obsession & flora
3 “Pilgrim of Worlds” by M.S. Dean - crossroads & guidance

Cons
-under 3 stars
2.5 “Our Lady of Devouring Violence” by Cheyanne Brabo - oration & revenge
2 “The Flesh Grows Fonder” by T.O. King - gardening & seduction (oil, slick, cliche, spelling mistakes)
-The last story, in a section of its own, veers into m/m instead of f/f. The editors explain their reasoning, but it felt awkward to me. The entire collection is f/f so why stick m/m in there randomly?

Overall, I was super excited to read this book - I mean women villains? C'mon! That's right up my alley! But I honestly was kind of underwhelmed by the stories and didn't like many of the "villains" portrayed in the stories. Some of them didn't give me villain vibes and portrayed some pretty cliche queer tropes that I was disappointed with.

This is an anthology that tackles a very wide range of topics through a broad range voices and stories: Dark histories, of radium and watch-making, injustice, vengeance, haunting, pain and suffering for art, the darkness behind those who are seemingly put-together, pristine, but calculating and clinical. What happens when the dead is brought back to life.

There are stories that subvert expectations and turn tropes upside down, that depict physical manifestation of trauma as a person, toxic relationships, love as consumption. There are tales that criticize traditional societal expectations of women, breaking down concept of the nuclear family as ideal and standard, emphasizing the violence of men, the sacrifice of mothers for the sustenance of their children.

A few of the stories center around art and the act of creating art as a risk in and of itself, of art and obsession. These tales reimagine fairy tales mixed with bleak realities, undressed, explore what it means to be broken, the meaning of sin and lust—the way it consumes, liberates, is weaponized, becomes salvation; the allure and violence of desire.

Overall, SCISSOR SISTERS is beautiful, dark, erotic, and chilling.

Favourites:
— "Gladys Glows at Night" by Hatteras Mange
— "You Oughta be in Pictures" by Anastasia Dziekan
— "Modern Art Currse, Mixed Media" by Hailey Piper
— "Buckskin for Linen" by Mae Murray
— "The Turner House Heritage Tour" by Caitlin Marceau

This anthology was really fun! I noticed it is listed under horror on many websites but I will say, some of the short stories definitely err towards more fantasy like titles. I really enjoyed many of these short stories!

It pains me to say it, but this book really didn’t fulfill its promise. It was supposed to be sapphic villains and breaking with hurtful gay stereotypes – I was shocked how many of the stories then had the sapphic ladies in their usual roles of victims and sometimes avengers without any bite. There was plenty of bury your gays and that was hurtful when I specifically picked this book up to get something else, especially as it comes from lgbtq writers. I really don’t know what happened here. There was some quality, like in Buckskin for Linen by Mae Murray, an excellent story on the horrors of residential schools and the crimes on the First Nations, but mostly it was strangely the same old things they promised to subvert. Very disappointed.

This book was devastating, beautiful, and horrific wrapped up in a pretty little bow.

Every single story had its own horrifying moments, and even its own breath taking moments.

I can’t exactly pick a favorite because I loved each and every single one in their own way. I loved how every story seemed to have a beautiful flow, but they were all so different and unique.

I think after reading Merciless Waters months ago and now Scissor Sisters, I’ve found a new love for sapphic horror.

Many of these stories sent chills down my spine, some gave me goosebumps, quite a few had some gore in them (which I loved), and some left knots in my stomach.

I highly recommend this anthology, especially to anyone who loves beautifully horrific but often devastating sapphic love stories.

Overall I find it hard to rate anthologies as my rating will never be reflective of all the stories. Scissor sisters ranged from DNF to 3.5* with an overwhelming amount of the stories being below 2.5*. I went into this book expecting women as villains instead I got mediocre avengers, victims, and for some reason body horror? Honestly this book would’ve served me better as a DNF, alas, here we are, left with nothing but disappointment.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC to review!!

3.5 stars! Rounded up

Ooooo I am so happy I went for this. The first few stories I LOVED! Out of all of them I'd have to say is You Oughta Be In Pictures by Anastasia Dziekan! out of 5 stars per story I gave that one a 5 I would read a longer story based on that

And my second was actually the first story Gladys Glows at Night by Hatteras Mange.

All the other stories I really liked but these two really stuck out for me. You have everything thrown in here along with some characters/stories you'll know which did take me by surprise and was really intrigued what was done with them.

My interest in each story shortly after a good few. Around 45%??? Mark i started to not be so deep within the stories anymore as I was at the start but genuinely enjoyed this collection and happy to find new authors!

I received an ARC of this title from Netgalley. These are my honest thoughts.

Scissor Sisters is a horror anthology about villainous lesbians. I found it under the horror category on Netgalley, and that's the genre I see it listed as elsewhere.

I love anthologies. Depending on if you're a half full or half empty person, they either provide you with new opportunities to fall in love regularly or they provide you with stories that sometimes might not be to your tastes, or perhaps the good stories end too soon.

To that, I say, "Yes."

Scissor Sisters is full of really good stories, and if you're a fan of the premise, there will be stories that please you. There are also stories, however, that needed work, or that fall apart if you think too hard. And there are stories that really needed to be expanded to work. There was only one story that made me want to gouge my eyes out.

While it's subjective, I'd also label some of the stories as more fantasy than horror. I like fantasy, I just like to choose when I want to read something.

The anthology starts out very strong for me. Gladys Glows at Night, by Hatteras Mange was the nearly perfect entry in. If you've read Radium Girls (non-fiction) and thought that there still needed to be more justice, lots more justice, this is a satisfying story.

You Oughta Be in Pictures, by Anastasia Dziekan was also a strong story to have in the beginning. Gory, and lovely, and deep, and tragic. It left me sad and uncomfortable, and so it should.

Teratoma, Cacodaemon, Erinya, by Avra Margariti was about our inner furies. And it was kinda gross. And touching. Torbalan's Gift, by Grace R. Reynolds was about freedom and anger.

Buckskin for Linen, by Mae Murray was haunting, and while I didn't mean the pun, it's appropriate. It's a tale reminding us of the horrors -- ugh, there I do again -- of residential schools and denying people their families, culture, and heritage. Like the aforementioned Gladys Glows at Night, it's satisfying to read about girls and women meting out justice. And then of course sadness that this justice hasn't been attained in the real world. That the stories are also sapphic makes them all the more powerful.

Some of the stories channel fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel, or classic horror like Frankenstein, or just plain classics like Great Expectations, with -- for me -- mixed results.

I want to give a mention to the "odd man out." According to the note at the back, the pub wants to give the reader a little something more -- lagniappe -- at the end of their books, so they added a queer (but not sapphic) story called The Call of the Sea, by Eric Raglin, which was delightful.

There's a list of content warnings in the back of the book, which I appreciate. With so many stories the list of CWs will be extensive. I also found them validating because one story is listed as having pseudo-incest and when I read this story, and that bothered me, I didn't know how I'd deal with it in a review. Was I reading too much into it? Would people TELL me I was reading too much into it? No, it's listed right there.

While I loved the stories I mentioned -- for the most part -- and enjoyed others like Enamored (Shelley Lavigne ) and Oubliette (L.R. Stuart) there were a few stories I felt were misplaced in a horror anthology (subjective, I know.) Or that needed to be novella length, like a story that had an amazing beginning and ending, but there was nothing in the middle, so it all fell flat. And there was one of two that felt more vibes than stories, and as if the author couldn't really say what was going on either. One was just spot on and amazing until an ending that got it's shock value from directly contradicting itself.

I do recommend Scissor Sisters, and I think I found some new authors, which I think anthologies are great at doing, but I really felt those exceptions to the quality.